Posted on 02/25/2006 7:10:24 PM PST by Imnotalib
KRASNODAR, Russia, July 24, (IslamOnline.net) - The United States has agreed to grant citizenship to 7,000 Ahiska Muslims who will be settled in Pennsylvania, reported a Russian newspaper on Friday, July 23.
The first 11-strong batch of the Ahiska Muslims, living in the Russian province of Krasnodar, left for Geneva on Thursday, July 22, before flying to Philadelphia, reported Novie Izvestia.
It added that the Muslims would be housed near the grand mosque in Philadelphia.
The paper recalled that Krasnodar governor Alexander Tkachev was notified of the American decision on February 15.
Izvestia said the Russian government does not treat Ahiska Muslims as citizens and has not therefore given them passports or IDs.
An official in Krasnodar administration had told Interfax on Tuesday, July 20, that of the 11,999 Ahiska Muslims living in the region, 4,943 have received Russian citizenship and 744 have embarked on Russian naturalization procedures.
He added that more than 5,000 others have expressed a desire to emigrate to the United States.
Earlier, Chingiz Neiman-zade, chairman of Vatan, a Meskheti Turks association based in Georgia, said the United States had offered to accept the Ahiska Muslims living in Krasnodar as immigrants.
"On February 16, the International Migration Organization began an information program in Krasnodar to explain the terms for the resettlement of the Ahiska Muslims in the U.S.," he told Chicago Tribune on Thursday, July 22.
"The immigrants will be provided with housing and furniture, they will be helped to learn the English language and to complete formalities needed for residence in the US, which is especially important, and have been promised life-long welfare allowances for pensioners and the disabled."
Happiness
Ahiska Muslims were happy with the American offer.
"This decision marks a great change in our life", said Tepeshon Swanidze, leader of the Ahiska Muslim community in Russia.
"We thank the US administration for its humanitarian decision", he added.
Ahiska Muslims , originally hailing from Anatolia, were exiled from their homeland after Russia seized the region of Ahiska following its 1828-1829 war with the Ottoman Empire.
Many Ahiska Muslims were forced to seek refugee in Erzurum in eastern Turkey after being persecuted by the Russian Cesar for supporting the Ottoman Empire.
Facing a similar fate under the notorious Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, Ahiska Muslims fled to Uzbekistan in 1944.
One year later, they went to Azerbaijan where they currently reside.
Turkish and Azeri parliamentarians had recently appealed for an international intervention to pressure the Georgian government into allowing the return of Ahiska Muslims.
Ahiska became part of Georgia in 1918.
You must have really looked hard.
http://www.rferl.org/featuresarticle/2004/04/227e652d-0515-4449-beb1-4c861a659136.html
"but it's absolutely typical of the State Department."
That it is.
We tried that before. It was called the Carter Administration.
Another link...
http://www.churchworldservice.org/service/Fall05/hlturks.html
It's hard to look when you have your nose up in the air
My folks are CITIZENS of the United States of America. They have paid taxes all their lives, and they NEVER received housing and furniture or life-long welfare allowances. They can hardly afford health insurance. This totally fries me. This govt. is sucking the life blood out of it's good people.
Oh yes, and be sure to position them right next to their favorite Wahabbi mosque so they can really learn to bite the hand that feeds them.
I feel sick.
Don't we have a bunch of Christians in South East Asia still in refugee camps that helped us during Vietnam that we haven't granted citizenship yet to?
I have no problem granting political asylum to genuine dissidents-who aren't Islamic terrorists, or former members of the Ton-ton-Macoute-or to refugees like the "Lost Boys," from Sudan, or Cuban/Vietnamese/Laotian exiles.
Christians who are persecuted, and those who are threatened by the iron fist of Communism deserve a fair hearing, at the very least.
But why on earth are we importing people who will not only be a tax on our resources, but who have values that are completely incompatible with those that most Americans share?
It doesn't make any sense.
Thanks D1.
Nobody asked me....anybody ask you?
Jorge Akbar!
Of COURSE people want this to be true...So they can feel self-righteous and important in their outrage.
Psychology is complicated and people consciously or subconsciously root for a lot of things that they'd deny if asked directly...because they enjoy being outraged, because they derive such immense pleasure from being able to say "I told you so"...etc.
WillIe Green, Paul Craig Roberts, Pat Buchanan, and Lou Dobbs, I'm sure, deep down, are rooting for the worst Economic Depression in the history of the US.
Jesse Jackson probably wakes up every morning hoping some white rednecks dragged a black guy to death behind their pickup truck the night before.
In late 1999 and early 2000 a great many people were hoping for Y2K Apocalypse.
A great many people are pretty clearly hoping for a Muslim terrorist attack by terrorists that crossed the border from Mexico.
There's no other rational explanation why people like yourself blindly and uncritically believe a story from two years ago with the most ridiculously unreliable sourcing outside of the Weekly World News.
WTF?
When Europe expels their Muslims, I bet they will be granted refuge here.
http://www.amerasianusa.org/
http://www.usabound.org/clark_amerasians_denied_philippine_passport.htm
http://www.oggham.com/cambodia/archives/birth_families/000746.html
Hey. Just curious. How did you come across that and why did you post it at this time?
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.