Translated material
OURS IN EUROPE
Tina
BRUSSELS
If you want to meet Chechens, come to Belgium! Or rather, to Antwerp. You can start right from the most beautiful train station in the country - Central Antwerp. All Chechens living in Europe necessarily have relatives or acquaintances in this city, so at the station you will certainly see them among those greeting and seeing off... If you spend a few hours here, you can meet some acquaintances whom you have not seen for fifteen years.
At this station there is no need to fear that a policeman will come up and ask you to follow him because you have a face. On the contrary, you can ask him for any information, and he smiles so welcomingly that you even want to continue asking him about something else. When our people got used to the fact that the Caucasian nationality of their faces does not bother anyone, they wholeheartedly fell in love with the representatives of the authorities. Many now have police friends who are very touched by such unusual friendliness. The Belgians do not like their law enforcement officers; they believe that they are wasting their taxes in vain.
Not far from the center there is a “Turkish district” where you can buy meat, fruits and vegetables inexpensively. It is very possible that you will meet your relatives or at least fellow villagers here too. No matter what the Chechens buy, they always compare the products with those from Grozny and click their tongues sadly: they say, they have to eat all this, so tasteless, bland...
Here you can find out all the news: who got married, who had a son, who got a call from home, who came to see who. Chechens especially love to discuss political news. They always start with a “Kazakh exile” joke: “When do they promise to send us home?” Then they are interested in what they say about us in the European Parliament, PACE, and Strasbourg. Will they finally tell Putin that it’s time to stop the war, or will they remain silent again? Then the conversation usually turns to sad topics: about dead or missing relatives, about eternal “cleansing operations,” about longing for a non-existent home...
You can always borrow from someone the latest issue of your favorite newspaper, “The Chechen Times,” which European Chechens are very proud of.
Today they will all cook zhizhig-galnash in their homes and invite each other to visit. And those invited, of course, will come, eat and say that such a delicious dinner has not happened for a long time!
The most beautiful Chechen women also live in Antwerp. Or rather, there are more of them in Antwerp than in other cities.
Opposite the station is the World Trade Center, where the Millionaires' Club is located. There you can meet Rosa, an elegant blonde who speaks several languages. No, she is not a millionaire yet; she currently works as a manager at this establishment.
Comet is a cardiologist and a beauty. In two years, she learned Flemish and English, confirmed her medical diploma and studied at the University of Leuven, which is one of the four best in Europe. Now he works in a large hospital, treating Belgians.
Raisa and Madina also study at the University in Antwerp. They are lawyers and study international law here. No judge can resist such beauties, all cases will be winning!
When there is a wedding in Antwerp, young people from France, Holland, Spain, Italy, Germany and England come here. Over the course of a few months, everyone calls everyone and begins to wait for this event, it seems even more impatient than the bride and groom. After all, at a wedding you can finally see a guy you know on the Internet, and parents can choose a bride for their son.
Among the young people there are many students from the Sorbonne, Cambridge and other prestigious universities in Europe. Many young people, having mastered European languages perfectly, work in government agencies. Girls mostly study languages, but design professions are also very popular among them. So the day is not far when we will have our own “Coco Chanel” and “Nina Richie”!
There is another very Chechen city in Belgium - Verviers. It is located on the French side, that is, in Wallonia, near the border with Germany. This city is even called Chechen-aul. In its center is a picturesque public garden with a fountain, surrounded by beautiful benches, very similar to those in Grozny. This place was chosen by the former residents of Grozny. Every evening groups by age gather here: grandparents, mothers with children, young people and, of course, children floundering in the water. It’s tempting to wander around the fountain and listen to the speech that is so dear to one’s heart! Why not Grozny!
In Belgium, and throughout Europe, it is very difficult for a foreigner to rent housing. So, in Verviers, house owners are most willing to rent out apartments to Chechens - they will only live for a year (probably they are looking for something similar to their home...), but during this time they will make repairs for the rest of their lives. As a result, the price of housing rises, and the ad already says: “After a luxury renovation.”
Brussels is an expensive and noisy city. Among the Chechens, it is primarily associated with the Commissariat for Refugees, which is located right there, near the Nord Station, where all refugees arrive. I will not claim that this is the main attraction of the Belgian capital, I can only say that Chechens prefer to avoid this building, where the fate of anyone applying for refugee status can be decided either positively or negatively. It’s better not to hang around there, besides, the whole building, they say, is crammed with cameras; they’ll suddenly ask: why are you walking around here? Would you like to take one more interview (every refugee must take two interviews, where he explains the reasons why he left his country)?
In the same Brussels there are offices of almost all international organizations: the European Parliament, the European Commission, NATO and the headquarters of the Chechen diaspora - the Association of Belgian Chechens.
For people who left their homeland, the Association is like a mother. Here you can get advice on refugee rights, familiarize yourself with the Geneva Convention and the Dublin Treaty. They will help you hire a lawyer and talk to him. Many Chechens are denied asylum, citing insufficient evidence that the applicant came specifically from Chechnya. So, the Association has the legal right to confirm ethnic nationality.
Those who work for the Association do so free of charge, and for some expenses the diaspora raises money by making small contributions.
In general, the community lives a full life. There are already two schools where the Chechen language is studied, there is a children's dance ensemble, and there are plans to create a musical and dramatic theater.
Recently it was announced the creation of a youth movement under the Association “Towards Peace through Understanding the World!”, the goal of which is the consolidation of all young Chechens in Europe. The main program is education, culture, sports. Members of the All-Belgian Student Organization have already expressed a desire to work with the guys. They proposed holding a joint demonstration on February 23, the day of mourning for the Chechens.
If you want to quickly and well learn French, Flemish, English, Spanish, Italian, Portuguese or Arabic, go and enroll in a language institute in Ucle (Brussels area). It will only cost you 10 euros per year. It seems that half of the students there are already Chechens. And not only young people. Parents study together with their children, to the displeasure of the latter, but this does not bother the former at all. Often, parents do better on exams and scold their lazy children in French.
Brussels is a big city, and the Chechens live in it very scattered. You can wander around the Big Square all day, past the ancient residences of monarchs and cardinals, through the Royal Park, through the Botanist Garden, where unique trees and shrubs from all over the planet are collected, but not meet a single Chechen. And not because Chechens don’t like to walk there, there are just a lot of such places in the city, and although there are also a lot of Chechens, unfortunately, there are not enough of them for these parks and squares.
To be sure to meet them, it is best to go to the Clemenceau market on Sunday afternoon. You will buy a lot of fruits and vegetables for a purely symbolic price (you can buy a box of kiwis, oranges, peaches, etc. for 1 euro) and you will see almost all the Brussels Chechens. "Clemenceau" is absolutely a miracle. You can buy everything there - a TV, a refrigerator, glasses, phones of the latest brand, clothes from the most branded stores with cut off labels (the goods are not stolen: after sales, some boutiques donate the remains to charitable organizations, whose employees sometimes keep something for themselves for sale), paintings by old masters (you might stumble upon a real treasure if you're a connoisseur). And all this is inexpensive, and even the sellers themselves will bring your purchases to your home.
In general, the bazaar is open for three days, but the most picturesque day is Sunday. Sellers, mostly Moroccans, beckoning customers, shout as if they are being stabbed: “Only one euro! Just one euro, madam! Something from above for you!” It's very difficult to go through without buying. For some reason, it seems that if you don’t buy it now, you’ll never do it.
There are other cities in Belgium where Chechens have settled compactly. One of them is Arlon. It is located on the very border with the Principality of Luxembourg. Mostly Akkin people settled there. There is plenty of work in this area, and Akkin residents work around the clock. There are also a lot of Chechens in Ostend; they are probably attracted by the sea, the beach, and the resorts. True, the sea is North, and the weather is not very beachy. Maybe you can soak up the sun for one or two weeks, but the water is still cold. In fact, Chechens live everywhere in Belgium, in all provinces and cities. The total number of ours in Europe is about 25-30 thousand, and 5 thousand of them live in small Belgium, which is twice the size of Chechnya. Naturally, there are no problems with communication, everyone knows each other and often goes to visit, fortunately, travel expenses are minimal. Every Chechen has a 50 percent discount on rail travel and an annual intercity bus pass, which costs 25 euros.
In addition to Chechens, there are also Belgians in Belgium. They mostly prefer to live in small towns and villages. By the way, the smaller the city, the richer it is. And in the villages, in general, rich people live, having built beautiful villas for themselves. You can't buy an average house in the village for less than a million euros. That's it, collective farmers! And if some lucky person is lucky enough to rent a house in such a village, the residents of the whole world will arrange for him, giving him everything: from a teaspoon to a car, if only the visitor will allow them to do charity work! They take special care of their children and take them and their children all over Europe. And on holiday to Spain, and to Disneyland in Paris!
The Belgians who are in contact with the Chechens treat our tragedy with great sympathy. Together with the Chechen community, they hold meetings, conferences, and organize exhibitions on Chechnya, where the general public is invited. And no one treats Chechens as consumers who have come to live at their expense. They understand that only dramatic events forced people to leave their land, and as soon as the war ends, many will return home.
House! Native home! All meetings of Chechens in Europe end with a wish for each other to meet at home next time. They would not exchange their burned, looted, blown up by vandals House for any of the delights of Europe, palaces, gardens! They will return and raise it on the same foundation that each one built with love and forever.
And nearby there will be restaurants “Antwerp”, “Brussels”, “Paris”, “Marseille”, “Amsterdam”, “Barcelona”, “Milan” and many others, like postcards from good Europe, which once sheltered the Chechens...
See you in Grozny!