In the heart of Dayton, Ohio, three rivers come together to form the Great Miami River. That’s the image that 62-year-old Sarvar Ispahi, an Ahiska Turk who moved here with his family in 2005, conjures to illustrate the sense of community that has developed in Dayton, this unexpected home for immigrants in the middle of the country. “If you’re neighbors, you come to know all people. You can make one culture,” says Ispahi, his broken English aided by his son Fergano. “If you are together, this is good. If you are separate, this is not good. But this is a good community.”
Ispahi, his wife and their children are among the several thousand Ahiska Turks who have settled in Dayton after escaping persecution in Russia. The Ahiskans have a long history of oppression, which Ispahi vividly recounts on a blistery summer day in the cool comfort of his New York Pizzeria on East Fifth Street, wearing a shirt that reads: “Dayton, Ohio: My Kind of Town.” In 1944, more than 90,000 Ahiska Turks were deported from Georgia into the Soviet satellites of Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan, where Ispahi was born. When the Soviet Union collapsed in 1991, his family moved to Russia, where they were granted safe harbor but no citizenship.
To read the original article: Immigrant-Friendly Cities Want What Arizona Doesn’t
