Profesörü George Hewitt

Abhazya Dışişleri Bakanı Sayın Sergey Samba'ya vize vermeyen ABD'nin yanı sıra Avrupa ülkelerinde de Abhaz vatandaşların vize almalarında sorunlar yaşanmakta. Yine bu sorunlardan bir tanesi geçtiğimiz gün İngiltere’de yaşandı. Abhazya’nın İngiltere fahri konsolosu, dilbilimci George Hewitt’in bu konu ile ilgili “Circassian Academia” ya gönderdiği metnin orijinal hali ve Türkçe çevirisini, yine Sayın Hewitt’in Moskova'daki İngiliz Konsolosluğu’nun özellikle Abhaz etnik kökenlilerine yönelik yanlış (kötü) uygulaması ile ilgili Devlet Bakanı Lord Triesman'a gönderdiği şikayet dilekçesinin orijinal metnini yazının devamında bulabilirsiniz... 

Değerli katılımcılar,

Aşağıdaki mektup, bu sabah Londra’ya Devlet Bakanı Lord Triesman'a yollanan mektubun aynısıdır. Metin kendisini ifade etmektedir. İngiltere 'de Paskalya'yı geçirmek üzere davet ettiğim iki Abhaz hanımın Moskova'daki Birleşik Krallık Konsolluğu’nda karşılaştığı hatalı uygulamanın ülkenizde mümkün olduğunca duyurulmasını rica ederim. İngiliz görevlilerinin bu davranışlarının Abhazlar’la sınırlı olmadığını (www.expat.ru) adresinden görmek mümkündür.

Kanıtlayamasam da yanlış uygulamanın bu iki hanımın Abhaz etnik kimliği ile bağlantılı olduğunu düşünmekteyim. Olayın diğer bir yönü de benim adımın karalanmasıdır.
Çünkü vize talebinin red gerekçesi hanımların vize süresi bitiminde geri dönmeye niyetlerinin olmaması şeklindedir. Gerekçe ile onlara sponsor olan bana Kafkasyalıları illegal olarak İngiltere’ye getirme (sızdırma), çamuru atılmak istenmektedir ki bunu tamamen reddetmekteyim.

Umarım bu bilgi basında, diğer medyada ( özellikle Türkiye ve Rusya’da) ve pek çok dilde yaygın bir şekilde duyurulabilir. İngiliz görevlilerinin, masumca bu toprağı ziyaret etmek isteyen yabancılara ve onları davet edenlere bu şekilde davranma haklarının olduğunu düşünmeleri bir skandaldır. .Bu durumda, bu hatalı uygulamanın sona ermesini istiyorsanız lütfen olayın ülkenizde basında tartışılmasına önayak olunuz.

Yardımlarınız için teşekkür ederim.
George Hewitt

Çeviri : Ergun Özgür

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Circassian Academia gönderilen metnin orijinali

Dear All,

The letter below is almost identical to one lodged this morning with Minister of State Lord Triesman in London. The text speaks for itself. The appalling treatment by the UK consular authorities in Moscow of two Abkhazians who were invited by myself to spend Easter in England must be publicised as widely as possible. Whilst such behaviour on the part of the British officials seems not to be limited to Abkhazians (see www.expat.ru for further examples), I cannot but feel that the ladies' Abkhazian ethnicity has a role to play here. In addition to that aspect of the case, there is the slur on my own good name, insofar as the official refusal to grant visas comes down to a stated belief that the ladies have no intention of leaving the UK at the end of their visit, which suggests that I, as their sponsor, am engaged in infiltrating Caucasian nationals into the UK illegally, a slur which I repudiate totally.

I wish this business to become as widely known as possible by articles in the press and other news-media in as many countries (notably Russia and Turkey) and in as many languages as possible.

It is a scandal that officials of the British Government should feel they have the right to behave in this way, whether towards foreigners innocently invited to visit these shores or towards those who issue the invitations.

And so, if you are interested in doing what you can to ensure that this mistreatment ceases, please try to get the case discussed in the media in your countries.

Thank you in advance for your help.
George Hewitt

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Devlet Bakanı Lord Triesman'a gönderilen mektup

COMPLAINT re Consulate at the UK's Moscow Embassy

It never occurred to me that, with so many years of experience dealing with Soviet officialdom, it would take frustration with British consular officials in Moscow (and, perhaps, London) that would compel me to write this letter of complaint. But such have been the circumstances in which I and my family found ourselves over Easter that I have no option.

In 1976 I married an Abkhazian while spending the academic year in Tbilisi. I had nothing but the kindest of advice and help from the Moscow consular officials, headed by Colin Salmon, at that time and in the days when my wife was finally able to join me in England at the start of 1977. During the last 30 years two of my wife's brothers and her two sisters have visited us without any problems whatsoever; one sister, in fact, has been here twice: her eldest brother Vladimir visited us in Hull in the early 1980s; in 1988 her brother Evgeny and younger sister Zamira visited at the time of our move from Hull to Doncaster; and finally Zamira came with the oldest sibling Zoia in 1991. Since the war inflicted on Abkhazia by Georgia (Aug 1992 to Sept 1993), we have not issued any invitations to family-members — in the aftermath of the war no-one had thoughts of anything but to rebuild their lives, and then the international community decided not to recognise the passports possessed by most Abkhazians (sister-in-law Zamira in fact lost her passport during the war, and, in answer to my counselling her to acquire a Georgian passport from the Georgian consulate in Sochi, I was told in no uncertain terms that she would rather lose the right to travel outside her native Abkhazia than accept a passport from a state that had killed three of her cousins); only over the last 2-3 years, since Russia started issuing its own passports to Abkhazians applying for them, has it become possible for us to consider inviting relatives again. However, we have, since 1995, visited Abkhazia either biennially or annually. This Easter, while I was free from duties at London University and both our daughters would be free at home to entertain their cousins, we planned to bring two nieces from Abkhazia to spend a month with us in Doncaster to help repay some of the kind hospitality we have enjoyed at their and their families' hands over the years. The nieces (Saida Vladimirovna Khiba, and Diana Evgenevna Khiba) are in their early 30s and mid-20s respectively, daughters to the two brothers mentioned above who each spent a month in the UK; they are travelling on the Russian passports they have only recently been able to obtain, passports which are entirely valid and issued in accordance with Russian law, and I am aware of a number of other visitors to these shores from Abkhazia who travel with similar documents.

In order that everything should be in place for their trip to proceed smoothly, I sent letters of invitation at the beginning of January 2007, letters which were copied at the time by fax direct to the Moscow consulate so that the staff there would be aware well in advance of our plans and so that it would come as no surprise when the girls presented themselves to apply for their entry-visas. I made it clear that the cost of the trip, including their time in the UK, would be borne by myself, and so the level of their income should have been of no interest to anybody — I issued the invitation, though not their blood-relative, as my wife, Zaira, is a housewife with no income sufficient to be able to claim that she could herself cover such expenses. The nieces duly arrived in Moscow and presented themselves at the agency near the Embassy where such applications have to be lodged on Thursday 15 March. They were told that they needed to provide evidence of my income and savings. Whilst this might be seen as something of an insult in itself (after all, how many applicants turn up at the agency with invitations from professors at London University who are also Fellows of the British Academy?), that very evening I scanned and e-mailed to them copies of my last salary-slip and my last bank-statement. I might add that I had earlier tried to phone to the consulate's number given on their website to ascertain exactly how I could satisfy this requirement only to find myself listening to an automated response that gave me no option of talking to a human being and cut me off when the totally unhelpful information there recorded had been imparted. It so happened that that selfsame day I had received a communication from the FCO on another matter, and included within it was the e-mail address of a member of the Moscow consular staff, Neil Abbott, and so I thought I would ensure that the information required was in the hands of the consulate as quickly as possible by sending to him also by e-mail copies of the said scans; I wish to point out that no acknowledgement was ever sent to me, nor was anything else drawn to my attention by this individual (or anybody else) to indicate that there might be a problem to be faced by the nieces, and so I assumed that all would proceed efficiently and in good time. The nieces duly presented their documents on Friday 16 March and were told to expect their visas within 3-4 days.

Two weeks [sic] later on Thursday 29 March the consulate's website was still giving them no indication that their visas were ready. Fearing that the consulate might be acting in a deliberately obstructive way in line with the generally anti-Abkhazian policy pursued by various UK administrations and the FCO since Georgia's aggression of 1992, I thought I would alert some contacts in the House of Lords who have taken a more sympathetic stance over the years to various oppressed peoples in the Caucasus and so tried to get in touch with Lord Avebury, Lord Rea, Lord Ahmed and Lord Hylton to see if, through the channels available to them, they could expedite matters. Lords Rea and Hylton were already away from London for the Easter recess, and I had no reply from Lord Ahmed, but Lord Avebury kindly offered to do what he could. On Friday 30 March I discovered the direct-number of the visa-officer and rang at 2 pm (Moscow time) — a lady answered. I gave the passport-details of the nieces and asked what was happening. She told me that all she could say was that the application was still being processed. I went on to mention that I'd been in touch with her colleague Abbott and with yourself. She cut me off by saying: 'I am aware of that. People like you are always trying to put pressure on us when we are only doing our jobs.' This was not said in an objectionable tone of voice, but the choice of words does perhaps reveal a certain attitude. The fact of the matter is that, if, after two weeks of 'processing' the application, the consular staff were still unable to come to a decision, then something must be seriously wrong with their procedures.

However, the lady's next question and comment came as a bolt from the blue. She asked when we were expecting our visitors (as though my invitation-letter, in the consulate's hands since January, did not make this clear), to which I replied that they couldn't come until they had their visas. 'But when do you expect them?' she reiterated. 'As soon as they get their visas, as we want them here over Easter,' I replied. 'In that case, why have they applied to travel only from 2nd May?' she countered... We immediately rang the girls and discovered that they had interpreted the request for the 'Data priezda' ('Date of Arrival' (priezd)) as implying 'coming BACK to Moscow', which was, of course, the start of May! Had they let us see the application before submitting it, we'd have picked this blatant error up at once, but what was to be done? [I have to say that, when I fill in my yearly application for a Russian visa, I am asked to state date of entry to, AND date of exit from, Russia. Would it not be an idea to consider rewording this part of our application-form to avoid repetition of such a misreading?]. Perhaps the consular officials will argue that, since they were going by the girls' application-form rather than my invitation-letter, they assumed there was no hurry and had taken no action to process the application. If that IS their argument, I would suggest that the only way to deal with applications is strictly in the order in which they are lodged. That way everyone will know in roughly the same amount of time, if they have been successful or not with their application, and, if not, appropriate appeals can be made in good time. I would not have considered approaching anybody such as yourself to offer a helping hand, if I had considered that our nieces' applications were being treated properly and with the respect they deserved. As nothing had happened for two weeks, I felt I had no choice but to try to hurry things along. And, in any case, it should have been clear from my invitation-letter and my e-mail to consular official Abbott that the girls were expected for Easter.

The nieces rang the consulate to see if they could change the date and were told to come in on the Monday morning, as nothing could be decided over the phone. That Friday evening at 5.40 pm I rang the Caucasus Desk at the FCO, explained the situation and asked if it would be possible for them simply to change the date. I was told that it probably would NOT be possible to do this. I communicated all this to Lord Avebury, and he copied me in to an e-mail you sent to Lord Triesman and others requesting to do what they could to ensure that this unfortunate slip be ignored and that visas be issued straightaway for immediate travel. On the morning of Monday 2 April the nieces presented themselves at the consulate to be told that they could NOT change the date of their travel. What principle of national security (or of anything else) could possibly be served by such rank pettiness?

Nevertheless that very day, after over 2 weeks of apparent inaction, phonecalls were made from the consulate to the younger sister of Saida Khiba (Fatima) and to her employer. Fatima and the head of Saida's school were asked about the girls' work, intentions, relatives in the UK (including me, and daughters Amra and Gunda) and the political situation in Abkhazia (as though this had anything to do with a private invitation to spend one month with aunt, uncle and cousins). Fatima asked if the visas would be granted and was told that they would. It seemed to us that the consulate had roused itself into action that day probably more as a result of your intervention than in any spirit of correctly carrying out their duties. But, would it not have been more sensible to quiz me, as the prospective host, in order to determine if the invitation was for proper or nefarious purposes?

On Wednesday 4 April in the afternoon the consular website indicated that our nieces' passports were ready for collection from the agency. Naively we all assumed that this meant that the visas had been granted. However, we counselled caution and that no tickets should be booked until the visas were safely in the nieces' hands. The following day the girls presented themselves first thing at the agency, only to find that UK holidays were being observed and that it would reopen no earlier than Tuesday 10 April. Though our relatives had not booked their flight, they met someone else that morning at the agency who, having seen, like them, that their passport was available for collection the previous day, had indeed made such a booking for the Easter weekend. This callous disregard by the consulate and/or its agency for innocent citizens unprepared for the vagaries of dealing with UK officialdom (in general but especially around holiday-periods) is something else that needs to be examined. It should be stated quite explicitly on the website where the progress (or otherwise) of one's application can be monitored that availability of passports does NOT automatically mean that visa-applications have been approved.

So, the Easter weekend came and went with our nieces still confined to barracks in Moscow. First thing on Tuesday 10 April they retrieved their passports, minus their visas but with an instruction to present themselves for interview along with ALL the documentation that they had originally submitted, including the copies of my passport, salary- and bank-statements. As they assumed that the interviews would be conducted that day and as they did not have with them the copies of my documents, they went to an internet-cafe and made duplicates. Then they waited around until the consulate itself opened its doors, namely 2 pm (Moscow time), when they were told to come back on Friday 13 April, i.e. exactly one month after they submitted their application in the first place! Standing in queues, non-Brits tend to speak to one another. Last Monday they met someone from the Caucasus who was applying that very day to come to England, like them, for the first time. On Tuesday this week they met that person again. That person received the requested visa (without any interview) and flew to London the following day. What possible justification can there be for granting that application in 3-4 working-days (i.e. excluding the days closed for Easter), whilst keeping two girls waiting for an entire month? Is the consulate prepared to recompense these ladies for the expenses they have incurred and to offer compensation for the unnecessary inconvenience imposed on all concerned (potential hosts and guests alike) in the way described above? Each day air-fares rise as summer approaches, and the cost of flights from Moscow has gone up about 50% during this wasted month — is any compensation going to be offered for to cover any eventual flight they are enabled to catch?

On Friday 13 April the nieces arrived at the time scheduled for their interview, namely 9.30 am (Moscow time). The interview was duly conducted. They were then asked to wait for a reply. They were kept waiting for the ENTIRE day, only to discover at the close of the consulate's working day that their application had been refused. A number of reasons were given, the first being that it had been over 20 years since any members of their immediate families had been invited to the UK from Abkhazia! As related above, Saida’s father came in the early 80s, whilst Diana’s father was here in 1988 (19 years ago). So what? It is up to my wife and myself whom we choose from OUR family, and in the Caucasus the notion ‘immediate family’ has little relevance, for in circumstances of the extended family-pattern existing there even cousins are colloquially referred to as ‘brothers/sisters’. Also, I have already explained why it was not possible in intervening years for such visits to be made, as consulates such as our own would not have accepted Abkhazian travel-documents. This is something of which a properly informed and functioning consulate should have been fully aware. It is suggested that the nieces, and I by implication, are involved in a plan to get them into this country so that they can remain here for a better life. If it had been this family's intention to bring Abkhazians to this country for a better life, we would have done it in the immediate aftermath of the war, when the country was in a desperate strait and when old travel-documents were still be accepted by the international community. We did not do this. Anyone familiar with year-on-year progress made in Abkhazia to develop an admittedly strained economy in the conditions of blockade to which the country, with full UK support, has been subjected would know that life now is much more bearable and pleasant than 10-12 years ago. The nieces are perfectly happy with their lot and have no intention of abandoning their homeland (nor, I suspect, would they want to live in such an unwelcoming country as the one whose consular officials have treated them in this unconscionable way). The person who conducted the interview was misinformed when he verbally told Saida that he was under the impression that the average monthly wage in Abkhazia is a mere 120 roubles; you will note that, despite this, he argues that her low wage of 1,100 roubles per month is not sufficiently attractive for her to consider returning home. In Diana’s refusal letter a query is raised about her personal circumstances. This seem again betrays ignorance of Abkhazian lifestyles, for unmarried girls/women in Abkhazia are expected to live with their parents/families.

How many people can be expected to travel 30 hours by train to Moscow to wait around for a month for the British authorities to make their minds up about issuing visas and then to be dismissed with such a ludicrous explanation? Is this a deliberate policy decided somewhere in Whitehall to discourage certain classes of applicants from considering applying to visit these shores? — evidently a number of individuals emerged from the consulate at the same time in tears. Is it a deliberate policy to single out and treat with such disdain Abkhazians travelling on Russian passports in order to make them more compliant about accepting Georgian domination, which would better suit the policy-makers in London and Washington (though hardly serve the interests of the Abkhazians themselves, who are in a better position to decide their own fate than those who would like to impose one on them from afar)? Is it a deliberate policy to remind this particular critic of British foreign policy in Transcaucasia that this is the treatment his relatives can expect if they dare to seek to come to this country? Or is it just a mixture of plain incompetence and sheer bloody-mindedness? Whatever the reason, I think all interested generally in the way people we invite to this country can expect to be treated by our consular officials or more especially in Caucasian affairs deserve to know. If this level of professionalism and service is how our representatives choose to present this country to potential visitors from Russia, they should be thoroughly ashamed of themselves. And if this behaviour is a result of official policy, then we, the citizens of this country, should be ashamed that this is how we as a nation are represented and presented to the world via our embassies, whose ethical standards have sunk so low. I might have expected such cheap bureaucratic nit-picking from Soviet officialdom; I expect better from Gt. Britain's civil servants, whose salaries are paid out of the taxes of the citizens they are supposed to serve. Is anyone able to justify the decision made in this case on clearly incorrect data? And what reaction can I expect in future, should I wish to issue any further invitations to relatives in Abkhazia?

Yours sincerely,
George Hewitt
Professor Caucasian Languages
Fellow of the British Academy
Honorary Fellow of the Abkhazian Academy of Sciences
Honorary Fellow of the Circassian International Academy of Sciences

Best wishes, George Hewitt FBA
(Prof. of Caucasian Languages)