Head of Dagestan Sergei Melikov
The first group of refugees from the Gaza Strip recently arrived in Dagestan.
On Tuesday, November 28, the head of the republic, Sergei Melikov, met with them.
Immediately afterwards we spoke to him on Radio Komsomolskaya Pravda.
… – Sergey Alimovich, your press secretary, Aida, said that you are right now at a meeting with Palestinian refugees. Why did you decide to contact them only on the third day? We let them cool a little, right?
– Certainly.
We simply gave people a chance to adjust in a calm environment for the first two days.
– How many people are there in total?
– On Sunday there were 75, then more arrived – now there are only 147 people.
– How many children?
– Almost half of the 54 children are schoolchildren, and those who have finished school, but, practically, are still children.
– A – citizenship?
– These are Russian citizens and those who have citizenship of both Palestine and the Russian Federation.
In general, these are families that were formed at a time when men studied at Russian universities. The peculiarity is that there is a large number of medical, medical and quite qualified workers.
And they have mixed families, that is, at one time our women became their wives, they went to Palestine and today, by the will of fate, they ended up here, in their homeland in the Russian Federation, here in Dagestan.
– How was your meeting?
– Very good.
Many of the visitors speak Russian very well, there are no restrictions on communication here, absolutely all topics were discussed…
– First impressions… You met them for the first time, how are they in their mood, how do they feel, do they need medical help?
“These are people who just a few days ago arrived from a combat zone to an absolutely peaceful environment.
They were in hell just yesterday. And today we communicate with them, in an informal and natural way.
Many, of course, have tears in their eyes, because the feelings they experienced a few days ago are, of course, impossible to convey.
And today they are here, in a comfortable recreation center on the shores of the Caspian Sea.
People receive everything: housing, food, clothing.
Today they received more humanitarian aid. These are clothes, shoes, basic necessities.
Everyone who came to us underwent a medical examination, many of them needed medical care, which was provided to them. Of course, today’s refugees are in a very difficult psychological state. Because the sensations they experienced there in the Gaza Strip are impossible to convey. And people talk about it.
On the other hand, today everyone feels quite comfortable.
They smile, they communicate willingly and the first words they say are the deepest and most genuine gratitude to our president, Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin, to the country’s leaders, to the Ministry of Emergency Situations…
That is, to those people who made the decision and guaranteed their safe stay here in Russia today.
Almost everyone talks about the President of the Russian Federation.
– How long will you have them in this recreational center?
– I will answer this question this way: we will have them as long as necessary to carry out all adaptation measures.
And then each of them will determine their own destiny. For them, of course, their dream and their faith is to return to their land, but many of them today already say that they would like to get a job and the opportunity to stay in Russia to somehow build or rebuild their lives. .
-How did the population of the republic perceive this situation, that the brothers came from the Gaza Strip?
– To say that Dagestan was waiting for them would probably be the most correct.
Because since the beginning of the conflict in the Middle East, we have repeatedly received calls and offers to provide assistance to our Palestinian brothers. This was the wish of many Dagestanis.
But although due to the intensity of hostilities we could not send humanitarian aid from Dagestan, we collected it.
Last week, thanks to our agreements with the leadership of the Ministry of Emergency Situations and personally with Minister Alexander Kurenkov, we sent two Il-76 planes with humanitarian cargo from Dagestan.
– We know that, yes. They wrote about it.
– And we even had to somehow slow down the momentum of the Dagestanis. Because they offered everything.
And then, when the decision was made to send Palestine refugees here, the phones did not stop ringing in the services that were dealing with their reception. They offered everything, again, from financial assistance to a willingness to adopt children. And proposals of this type are still received.
Well, today we are convinced that, in reality, there is no such need, all children arrived as part of families.
– Will they study?
“There are already two classrooms equipped for them. And there is everything necessary for children to learn Russian.
We also provide everything necessary for initial training: notebooks, rulers and writing utensils.
And today our teachers have already met the children. Well, I think just a couple more days and we will organize our studies properly.
– Thank you very much, Sergey Alimovich, for such a detailed story.
THE NAIS IS OFFICIAL EDITOR ON NAIS NEWS