VOA标准英语2013--Syrian Refugees Go ‘Home’ to Former Russian Riviera

 

Syrian Refugees Go ‘Home’ to Former Russian Riviera

Syria’s civil war has created more than one million refugees. Many live in border camps in Turkey, Jordan or Lebanon.

But a lucky few are finding shelter on the Black Sea coast, in Abkhazia, a breakaway territory of Georgia. This sunny strip of beaches and forests once was called “Russia’s Riviera.”

They are Syrian Abkhaz, coming home 150 years after the Russian czar deported¹ their Muslim ancestors to the Ottoman Empire, the forerunner² of modern Turkey.

Elbrus Abhaza was a French teacher in Damascus. It’s my origins - Abkhazia,” he said of his ancestral homeland, which he first saw when he arrived from Syria in January. “We have roots, roots in Abkhazia.”

Before Syria’s civil war, Abkhazia fought its own civil war.

Administered during Soviet³ years as an autonomous⁴ region of Georgia, Abkhazia won de facto independence in 1993 by expelling Georgian troops and ending Georgian control. A Russian military presence, first established in the 1990s, was greatly expanded after Russia defeated Georgia in a short war in 2008.

Twenty years ago, Walid Wadjukh fought in Abkhazia’s secessionist war, serving as a volunteer from the Abkhaz diaspora. Six month ago, when Syria’s war came to his Damascus suburb, this flower seller and father of three moved his family to his ancestral homeland.

“The best place is where you can live peacefully,” he said, talking in his temporary apartment, accompanied by his wife Noor, and his 10-year old son, Gyakhra. “Here we live peacefully. And they help us as well. People here help us, and they don’t bother us.”

With Abkhazia now peaceful, the Syrian refugees moved into blue-and-white housing vacated four years ago when a U.N. cease-fire observer mission ended work here.

Abkhazian government official Viacheslav Chirikba said 200 Syrian Abkhaz already have arrived. Another 150 are to come by the end of April.

“We want to help our brothers who are in need and in danger now in Syria, and to assist them in any way possible which we can provide them,” said Chirikba, foreign minister of a region recognized as independent by only two major countries, Russia and Venezuela. All other major countries say Abkhazia is still part of Georgia.

Although few of the refugees speak Russian or Abkhaz, Chirikba said they are needed as Abkhazia slowly rebuilds from its own war.

“Many of them have very useful professions - electricians - we have a need of them,” he said. “So many of them already start working, which is very good.”

At Sukhumi’s hilltop campus of Abkhaz State University, Beslan Baratelia says Abkhazia has a long-standing program to encourage ethnic⁵ Abkhaz to come home from Turkey.

“Repatriation⁶ has already been happening in Abkhazia for around 20 years,” said Baratelia, who is dean of economics. “A repatriation fund was created in Abkhazia that focuses on helping⁷ those who have returned to their historical motherland to adapt.”

Many houses are empty here. After separatist forces won control of Abkhazia in 1993, half of the population - 200,000 ethnic Georgians - were forced to flee.

In Tbilisi, Georgia, demonstrators say that if Abkhazia wants to boost its population, it should let Georgians return to their houses.

But Izida Chania, editor of Nujnaya Gazeta, said the population policy is ethnic, not just economic.

“We are trying to increase the quantity of ethnic Abkhaz living in Abkhazia,” she said, in her office located across Freedom Square from a burned out high-rise that was the final headquarters for Georgian soldiers here 20 years ago. "For us it's really important to understand exactly what kind of people are moving here, what kind of relationship they have with Abkhazia."

So Abkhazia rebuilds its population, drawing ethnic Abkhaz refugees from 1,000 kilometers away - and shunning⁸ ethnic Georgian refugees from 100 kilometers away. 

1 deported   

v.将…驱逐出境( deport的过去式和过去分词 )；举止

参考例句：

• They stripped me of my citizenship and deported me. 他们剥夺我的公民资格，将我驱逐出境。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The convicts were deported to a deserted island. 罪犯们被流放到一个荒岛。 来自《简明英汉词典》

2 forerunner   

n.前身，先驱（者），预兆，祖先

参考例句：

• She is a forerunner of the modern women's movement.她是现代妇女运动的先驱。
• Penicillin was the forerunner of modern antibiotics.青霉素是现代抗生素的先导。

3 Soviet   

adj.苏联的，苏维埃的；n.苏维埃

参考例句：

• Zhukov was a marshal of the former Soviet Union.朱可夫是前苏联的一位元帅。
• Germany began to attack the Soviet Union in 1941.德国在1941年开始进攻苏联。

4 autonomous   

adj.自治的；独立的

参考例句：

• They proudly declared themselves part of a new autonomous province.他们自豪地宣布成为新自治省的一部分。
• This is a matter that comes within the jurisdiction of the autonomous region.这件事是属于自治区权限以内的事务。

5 ethnic   

adj.人种的，种族的，异教徒的

参考例句：

• This music would sound more ethnic if you played it in steel drums.如果你用钢鼓演奏，这首乐曲将更具民族特色。
• The plan is likely only to aggravate ethnic frictions.这一方案很有可能只会加剧种族冲突。

6 repatriation   

n.遣送回国，归国

参考例句：

• The Volrep programme is the preferred means of repatriation. 政府认为自愿遣返计划的遣返方法较为可取。 来自互联网
• Arrange the cargo claiming and maritime affairs,crews repatriation,medical treatment,traveling so on. （六）洽办货物理赔，船舶海事处理，办理船员遣返，就医，旅游等。 来自互联网

7 helping   

n.食物的一份&adj.帮助人的，辅助的

参考例句：

• The poor children regularly pony up for a second helping of my hamburger. 那些可怜的孩子们总是要求我把我的汉堡包再给他们一份。
• By doing this, they may at times be helping to restore competition. 这样一来, 他在某些时候,有助于竞争的加强。

8 shunning   

v.避开，回避，避免( shun的现在分词 )

参考例句：

• My flight was more a shunning of external and internal dangers. 我的出走是要避开各种外在的和内在的威胁。 来自辞典例句
• That book Yeh-yeh gave me-"On Filial Piety and the Shunning of Lewdness"-was still on the table. 我坐下来，祖父给我的那本《刘芷唐先生教孝戒淫浅训》还在桌子上。 来自汉英文学 - 家（1-26） - 家（1-26）