Members of the Supreme Council of the WAC met in Istanbul and summed up the results of the working year of the Congress, and also identified the most priority areas of work until the end of 2019.
Said Bargandzhia
The members of the Supreme Council of the World Abaza Congress held a working meeting in Istanbul, at which the main results of the WAC activities for the year were discussed: the large-scale action “Soul Warmth”, plans to celebrate the Day of the National Flag of Abkhazia in 2019 and the participation of representatives of the Abkhaz-Abaza Diaspora in Turkey in the annual sports Games of the Abaza people.
Summing up the “Soul Warmth” charity event, which consisted in providing warm clothes for socially vulnerable families from Abkhazia and KChR and was held with the direct participation of the Abkhaz-Abaza Diaspora in Turkey, member of the Supreme Council of the WAC Vedat Meker announced the final figures of the action. In just a few stages from the autumn of 2018 to March 2019, more than 6,000 items of winter clothing were collected and handed over to adults and children from low-income families: jackets, sweaters, blankets, shoes and other warm clothes.
“Thanks to the support of the Chairman of the Supreme Council of the WAC Mussa Ekzekov, a member of the Supreme Council of the WAC Beslan Agrba, individual patrons of art from the Abkhaz Diaspora in Turkey, it became possible to implement such a large-scale charity event. And thanks to the active work of the WAC team, it was successfully completed. I am sure that such actions will become a good tradition,” said Meker.
Part of the meeting was devoted to the Day of the National Flag of Abkhazia in Turkey. This year, the holiday will be organized by the WAC jointly with the Abkhazfed (Federation of Abkhaz Cultural Centers in the Republic of Turkey - ed.) and ANO “Alashara”. Members of the Supreme Council of the WAC expressed the hope that such cooperation would allow it to be held at a high level.
“I think it will be a more organized and more luxurious holiday [than before]. We are sure that there will be a lot of surprises, a lot of interesting and informative, things” said Meker.
He also said that Ercan Bashnukh, a member of the Supreme Council of the WAC, will deal with the organization of the Day of the National Flag of Abkhazia in Turkey.
Continuing the working meeting, members of the Supreme Council of the Congress raised the issue of the participation of representatives of the Abkhaz-Abaza Diaspora of Turkey in the traditional Games of the Abaza people in Karachay-Cherkessia in 2019. Akhmet Khapat, a member of the Supreme Council of the WAC, noted that representatives of the Turkish Diaspora will take part in the Games for the first time, and preparatory issues are being resolved for this. Khapat added that participation in games is very important, since this event is “an excellent platform for meeting” of Abkhaz and Abaza from different countries of the world.
“These sports games unite our compatriots who have been living in a foreign land for more than a century and a half. Young people get acquainted, exchange contacts, and most importantly, begin to make friends. An important task for all of us is to increase the number of participants in these games and create conditions under which they could spend as much time as possible together,” said Akhmet Khapat.
The meeting also discussed the most effective ways to attract new members of the WAC.
“We decided to prepare a presentation in order to more closely acquaint representatives of the Abkhaz-Abaza Diaspora in Turkey with the ideas and objectives of the Congress. First [we will hold a presentation] in those areas where Abkhaz cultural centers are already operating. Also, local branches of the WAC will be created there,” said Khapat.
He added that the most important source of attracting new members to the Congress is the WAC web information portal (www.abaza.org).
Meetings of members of the Supreme Council of the WAC and members of the Congress are held regularly. So, earlier, on September 29, 2018, a round table was held in Sukhum, where interim results of the WAC were also summed up.
to login or register.