In Abkhazia, immigrants from Syria receive citizenship, and six of them get jobs

Immigrants from Syria in Abkhazia received Abkhazian passports. Six of them have been employed. According to the returnees, the adaptation process is successful, and they are happy to learn Abkhazian language. Three children will go to school in September, and other three to kindergarten. This was stated by Zurab Adleiba, Chairman of the State Committee for Repatriation.

Five Abkhazians descendants of Mukhajirs returned to Abkhazia after deterioration of the situation in Syria. On May 5, 27 persons returned from Syria to Abkhazia for permanent residence.

At present, 27 persons (12 families), who returned to Abkhazia in May, temporarily reside in the "Aytar" Hotel in Sukhumi, where they undergo the adaptation. In total, 32 immigrants from Syria reside in Abkhazia.

According to returnee Basil Amarshan, the adaptation process is quite successful. "We are all the time approached by representatives of different institutions of Abkhazia and provide assistance to us. At the same time, we also want to contribute to the development of Abkhazia and to become its sound citizens," he said.

According to the returnee Basil Marshan, in contrast to Turkey, the Abkhaz language hardly survived in Syria, since Syrian Abkhazians intermarried with representatives of other nations of the Caucasus. "However, we will be able to learn our native language, we will be able to survive in any conditions; our ancestors survived in difficult conditions in the foreign country, and we are in our homeland, and we will be even more able to survive and become sound citizens," he said.

Immigrants reported that they had time to visit some villages of Eastern and Western Abkhazia, and they participated in national holidays and the events held to honour memory of victims of the Russian-Caucasian war of the late 19^th century. At that time, thousands of Abkhazians left their homeland and found refuge in Turkey and different countries of Middle East. Descendants of Abkhazian Mukhajirs (immigrants) live in 50 countries. The largest Abkhazian Diaspora resides on Turkey.