Today\u2019s guest
\nis Timur Khalilov.\u00a0 He is a student at Kuban State University and a recipient
\nof a grant from the Roma Educational Fund.\u00a0 In general, he\u00a0represents
\na new generation of young Roma who have successfully integrated into
\nmodern society.\u00a0<\/p>\n
– Timur,
\ntell us a bit about your family.\u00a0 Who are your parents and how were you
\nbrought up?<\/p>\n
I was born
\nin a smallish town called Temriuk which is in the west of the Krasnodar
\nTerritory.\u00a0It is a region rich in sun, sea, fruit and fish.\u00a0 I, of course,
\nhave loved all these things since childhood.<\/p>\n
There are four
\nchildren in our family and I am the youngest.\u00a0 From a very early age
\nmy parents cultivated in me the ideas and values of humanism.\u00a0 All the
\nKhalilov children know how important respect for the human is, of the
\nnecessity of hearing and listening to different opinions.\u00a0 From an early
\nage my mother and father taught me to love books and as such I read
\nall kinds of literature with great pleasure.\u00a0 The members of our family
\nare the embodiment of the so-called “healthy living code”:
\nwe all exercise and don\u2019t have harmful habits.<\/p>\n
My mother,
\nAza Smailovna is a kind spirited person with an open heart.\u00a0\u00a0I am indebted
\nto her for my interests (I love to study, read, take photos, travel
\nand listen to music).\u00a0 There was a period of my childhood when there
\njust weren\u2019t enough books for me! Really, there actually weren\u2019t any!
\nMy mother was able to bring us books from Tashkent (Uzbekistan), Moscow
\nand Khabarovsk.\u00a0 We read and continue to read with great pleasure.<\/p>\n
The words of
\nmy mother are always with me: ” Timur, you have to become a human,
\nand, in addition to this, try not to lose your conscience”.\u00a0\u00a0 These
\nwords have now become my motto for life.<\/p>\n
My father,
\nAlexander Nikolaevich is a truly wise man. He always helps me with everything.
\nOur family is patriarchal, and therefore the father\u2019s opinion is always
\nthe authority.\u00a0He choreographs and produces dance shows of various genres
\nand styles.\u00a0 In his youth my father had the honour of\u00a0performing on the
\nsame stage as the masters of dance: Vasil\u2019ev, Grigorovich, and\u00a0Liepa.
\nMy grandfather
\nand grandmother are, sadly, not with us any more. I do not remember
\nmy father\u2019s father –\u00a0he died before I was born.\u00a0He\u00a0lived through all of
\nthe wars.\u00a0 After 1945 he worked as a blacksmith in various businesses
\nin Termiuk.\u00a0I only have\u00a0vague memories about my grandmother on my father\u2019s
\nside.\u00a0All I know is that she was an excellent healer.<\/p>\n
My grandfather
\non my\u00a0mother\u2019s side was also at the front,\u00a0and\u00a0was taken prisoner in a
\nbattle. Luckily for him as a Roma, he was able to escape from captivity
\ntogether with two Jews.\u00a0In the USSR my grandfather (Hero of the USSR)
\nwas named an enemy of the people and was oppressed. He was later rehabilitated.
\nI understand that the war period\u00a0was an awful time for the nation, but
\nwhy did the state system of the time have to kill and cripple the futures
\nof millions of people? I\u2019m not able to find a clear and rational answer
\nto this. Modern Russian society resists admitting the truth about Stalinism
\nwith all its strength.\u00a0This means that in one way or another society
\naccepts, like it did before, the lie on which the Stalin dictatorship
\nrested.<\/p>\n
My maternal
\ngrandmother was the embodiment of kindness and tenderness; I remember
\nher well.\u00a0 Not long ago my mother and I were looking through the family
\nalbum and I came to the conclusion that under the yoke of one of the
\ncruelest tyrants of the past century people nevertheless\u00a0continued to
\nlive, love and enjoy themselves.\u00a0But, obviously, everyday life under
\nIosif Vissarionovich was far from humane.<\/p>\n
-To which
\nof the Roma ethnic groups do you belong?<\/p>\n
My ancestors
\ncame to Kuban from the Crimea.\u00a0 We belong to the Crimean group of Roma,\u00a0spread
\namong this group are some Tartar families.\u00a0 Many Roma follow the Muslim
\nfaith, but in our family we are all Orthodox Christians.<\/p>\n
-Timur,
\nlet\u2019s talk about your first days at school.\u00a0 What difficulties did you
\ncome across? How did you form relationships with friends and teachers?<\/p>\n
I studied at
\nschool No. 3 in the town of Temriuk from first form to eleventh form.
\nI did not attend kindergarten. I was quite unprepared for starting school;
\nthe other children could already read in syllables, or at least knew
\nthe letters of the alphabet.\u00a0 All I was able to do was count – and even
\nthen only in money and sweets.\u00a0After the first few days I realised things
\ncould not go on this way and I diligently began to educate myself.\u00a0The
\nwhole family helped me with this.\u00a0True, my older brother was always sceptical
\non the subject of my education: he thought I would be the “disgrace
\nof the Khalilov family”.\u00a0 Fortunately, he was mistaken.\u00a0 I finished
\nschool with a gold medal and was presented with the governor\u2019s prize,\u00a0which
\nis awarded to the best school leaver in the Krasnodar Territory. In
\nthe eleventh form I won the All-Russia Olympiad in Humanities which
\nallowed me to enter any socio-humanity university faculty in Russia
\nwithout taking the entrance examinations. My parents didn\u2019t want me
\nto go too far from them and I\u00a0therefore study in Kaban State University
\nin the Faculty of Administration and Psychology, specialising in “Political
\nScience and Political Administration”. Incidentally, I don\u2019t regret
\nmy choice of educational establishment at all.<\/p>\n
In school people
\nbehaved in a very friendly manner towards me.\u00a0From a very early age I
\nwas distinguished\u00a0by my sociable nature.\u00a0To this day I cannot keep quiet
\nor be alone.\u00a0The teachers behaved towards me like they would do towards
\nany other pupil, although they understood that Russian was not my mother
\ntongue.\u00a0They sometimes even tenderly called me “foreigner”,
\nwhich was true because I, on\u00a0arrival at\u00a0school, didn\u2019t know many Russian
\nwords.\u00a0For example, the teacher showed me a card on which was drawn a
\nmouse and asked me\u00a0what I see.\u00a0I, of course, without thinking answered
\nin\u00a0Romani – “kermuso”.\u00a0My first teacher understood that I needed
\na bit of work – he was able to understand me, a fact which is very important
\nbecause confidence gives rise to confidence.<\/p>\n
-How did
\nthe thought of pursuing higher education come into your head? Did your
\nparents support you?<\/p>\n
Everyone in
\nmy family has a higher education.\u00a0My parents didn\u2019t even entertain the
\npossibility that I would be an exception to the pattern.\u00a0The need for
\na higher education came from within myself however.\u00a0I am grateful to
\nmy relatives and close friends that our desires and\u00a0abilities coincided.<\/p>\n
-How\u00a0do Roma
\nof your own age react to your decision to\u00a0enter higher education?\u00a0 How
\ntypical of young Roma is it to go down this route?<\/p>\n
I didn\u2019t come
\nacross any negative attitudes. On the contrary, everyone congratulated
\nme and supported me in my efforts.\u00a0It is this kind of attitude which
\nacts as a stimulus for\u00a0further development.\u00a0Nowadays, an increasing number
\nof young people understand the significance of an education.\u00a0Such a tendency
\ncannot be but a good thing.<\/p>\n
-What are
\nyour academic and professional interests? What conferences have you
\ntaken part in? What grants and prizes have you been awarded?<\/p>\n
In school had
\nalready become attracted to politics as a vocation and not a profession.
\nI\u00a0believe that\u00a0politics, as a vocation, can be done in a moral and ethical
\nway.\u00a0But politics as a profession\u00a0– you are nothing\u00a0more than\u00a0a component\u00a0of
\nthe political system; it is\u00a0lacking in spiritualism.\u00a0I therefore chose
\nfor myself the profession of political scientist which involves analysis,
\nexpertise, consultation\u00a0about political questions affecting society etc.\u00a0I
\nwill\u00a0endeavor\u00a0to recommend\u00a0influential people to take only those decisions
\nwhich coincide with a system of generally accepted moral principles.<\/p>\n
I\u00a0work with
\nthe whole spectrum of political issues:\u00a0The power and civil society interaction
\nproblematic, public policy making, party building, ethical political
\nscience, and the media environment of the modern\u00a0political system.<\/p>\n
During my time
\nat university\u00a0I managed to take part in 57 conferences, congresses, summer
\nschools, and educational courses in\u00a0 Krasnodar, Moscow, St. Petersburg,
\nVyborg, Perm, Voronezh, Samara, Rostov-Na-Don, Anapa, Gelendzhik, Stavropol,
\nKiev, and Odessa amongst others.\u00a0 In the course of my research activities
\nmore than\u00a0twenty of my articles were published on a range of political
\nissues – two of which were written in English.<\/p>\n
I will list
\nthose scholarships and prizes which I received this academic year. Otherwise
\nit will take me too long too remember. I was awarded a\u00a0Roma Educational
\nFund scholarship,\u00a0the Vladimir Potanin charitable fund scholarship, a
\nscholarship from the Russian Government, one from the Krasnodarkii Krai
\nAdministration, and an enhanced\u00a0scholarship from Kuban State University.\u00a0This
\nyear,\u00a0the Youth Department of the Russian Association of Political Science
\nrecognised my research\u00a0as the best in the\u00a0category of “Public Policy”.
\nFor this work\u00a0I was awarded the A. Yu. Mel\u2019vil prize.\u00a0 Also, on the recommendation
\nof the dean of the Faculty of Administration and Psychology, I was awarded
\nthe Krasnodar Territory\u00a0Board of Education and Science prize.<\/p>\n
-Timur,
\nwhere do you currently work?<\/p>\n
I work in the
\nKrasnodar Roma National-Cultural Autonomous Authority. Together with
\nthe leaders of the organisation we\u00a0organise\u00a0meaningful programs for the
\nRoma\u00a0in our region.<\/p>\n
-Tell me\u00a0something
\nabout the social programs for Roma.<\/p>\n
Krasnodar Territory
\nis one of the most developed regions of Russia, but the Roma ethnic
\nminority is not a very\u00a0modern community.\u00a0However, at the present time\u00a0our
\nRoma organisation\u00a0directs systematic and\u00a0focused activity to change the
\nsituation for the better.\u00a0 In the Krasnodar Territory there are programs
\nfor the social protection of Roma. We were able to\u00a0gain some improvements
\nin the area of human rights\u00a0for the Roma in Kuban, to guarantee consultation
\nwith representatives of the Roma ethnic minority on a whole range of
\nissues, and to raise the level of civil activity.\u00a0 We cooperate with
\nthe Southern Academic Centre RAS, the Kuban State University and the
\nSouthern Federal University.<\/p>\n
Our current
\nsocial projects are as follows:\u00a0the “Co-operation” program
\n(training\u00a0members of the Roma ethnic minority of Krasnodar Territory\u00a0to
\nbe\u00a0social moderators for Civil Society Institutes in the region), which
\nis carried out under the support of The Consulate of the Kingdom of
\nthe Netherlands; the project “New Perspective” (repairing
\neffective systems of charitable activity\u00a0by members of Krasnodars Territory\u2019s\u00a0business
\nelite and national Diasporas), which is supported by the Russian Public
\nChamber.<\/p>\n
-What are
\nyour plans for the future?<\/p>\n
To start with
\nI want to\u00a0complete my Diploma of\u00a0higher education, and then I\u00a0want to\u00a0put\u00a0my
\nknowledge, skills and abilities into practice.\u00a0I have not really thought
\ntoo seriously about finding employment.\u00a0 I know one thing though:\u00a0you
\ncan develop yourself in any sector.\u00a0The most important thing\u00a0being that\u00a0“through
\nall of it your conscience does not disappear”.