Translation: Natalia Remmer "WHEN I WILL EXECUTE 65 YEARS, I WILL BE SEND FROM MY POST FOR PENSION," - OMAR SAFE GOBASH jokes, ALREADY PREPARED FOR THE LIFE STATUS OF THE EMBASSY OF THE EMIRATES TO RUSSIA.
Indeed, it is difficult to find a more successful candidate for this post: the son of a Russian woman and an emirate, the first state minister of foreign affairs of the UAE, Safe Gobash, is a living embodiment of the merger of the two cultures and knows exactly how to bring them together at the state level. His biography is actually the latest history of the young state, about which the peer of the nation speaks exclusively, in the first person.
My mother is Russian, she married my father in 1968 in the Soviet Union. They met in Leningrad, where he was educated as an engineer *.
* A reasonable question is how, in principle, Safe Said Gobash, who lived on the shores of Treaty Oman, which at that time was a de facto British colony, fell into the Soviet Union: a talented young engineer received a scholarship for advanced training from Baghdad University, where he studied in the 60s years, as part of a support program for fraternal third world countries.
I was born in June 1971 in Ras Al Khaimah, a few months before the formation of the young state, and was the second child in the family. After the common flag of all emirates was hoisted over a young country, we moved to Abu Dhabi. In 1973, my father became the first UAE Minister of State for Foreign Affairs. Before I turned 6 years old, I had no idea what it means to be a representative of a particular community. I was a simple child, went to school and enjoyed the care of my parents about me and my sister.
That all changed on October 25, 1977, when my father was shot dead by a Palestinian terrorist at the Abu Dhabi airport. As the investigation later found out - by mistake.
He aimed at the Syrian Minister Haddam. I returned home from school, where a crowd of people was waiting for me - in suits and candors. Relatives, family friends, and complete strangers all gathered in our house. When everything calmed down, life seemed to go on as before. Our mother and father’s relatives took care of us. We spent the weekend in Ras Al Khaimah with cousins and I will never forget their support and care.
And yet, the loss of his father became, without a doubt, the defining event for our future life. For two years, we were still waiting for him to return, and we did not understand what had happened. This loss taught me compassion, to feel the pain of loss, even a stranger. And this ability has remained with me forever ...
Of course, the fact that my mother is Russian played a decisive role: she gave us an idea of a different life other than Arabic.
Thanks to her, we have learned that different cultures can exist in harmony with each other. What is especially important, she opened our eyes to the "great and mighty" Russian language and the legacy of Russian classical literature - above all, Leo Tolstoy and Dostoevsky. I read Chekhov, Gorky, Akhmatova, Lermontov and Pushkin. This prompted me to create a Fund for awarding translators of Arabic literature and the International Prize for Arabic Literature.
My first visit to the Soviet Union took place in 1977 - I came to Odessa to meet my grandfather and grandmother. They arrived there from Rybinsk, where my mother came from, to meet with us. Together we watched Cossack dances, from which I was completely delighted. Then, in 1982, we came to Moscow, where I first found out about Lenin. True, we never got into the Mausoleum. I was 12 years old, I looked at Red Square and did not think about politics at all. But I definitely felt my connection with this place, although it was very different from Abu Dhabi.
OMAR SAFE GOBASH (AL MARRY)
Born in 1971 in Ras Al Khaimah.
He received a law degree from Ballyion College (Oxford) and a mathematics degree from the University of London.
He worked as an attaché in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of the UAE, represented the interests of the country at the UN headquarters in New York. He also founded one of the first art galleries in Dubai - Third Line Art Gallery.
Since 2008 - Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the UAE to Russia.
