New York Times Interview With Suspects’ Father
Here is a transcript of a telephone interview with Anzor Tsarnaev, the father of the suspects in the Boston Marathon bombings, conducted Friday by Ellen Barry and Andrew Roth of The New York Times’s Moscow bureau.
Q.
Anything strange when you last spoke to your sons?
A.
Nothing strange, nothing at all. Everything is normal, everything is well, nothing new. Everything was thought up there…. Something is wrong.
They have been framed. I am watching TV and cannot believe it.
What are they talking about, Watertown? He didn’t live there…. How could he live there? This is where the lie begins — why are they saying this crap?
Dzhokhar has not been in Russia since 2001. Ta
merlan did come. He came to renew his passport. He stayed here and left, but did not want to go. He wanted to stay here because it was hard for him to work there.
Q.
Did he want to stay in Russia?
A.
Yes, he wanted to stay. He looked around, what the life is here, and he wanted to stay. He said I speak English now, I can work as a translator and start some business here and go to China. He had this kind of plans.
Q.
How long did he stay with you?
A.
Yes, he was here for six months. He had to wait for a new passport to be issued.
Q.
Was he in Makhachkala?
A.
Yes, he was in Makhachkala. Makhachkala, he was never out my sight. He used to sleep till lunchtime, then we visited relatives. We went to Chechnya to visit relatives. He only communicated with me and his cousins. There was nobody (else). People know. I would ask him, did you come here to sleep or what?
Q.
Did he go to Turkey?
A.
What Turkey? He has never been to Turkey.
These are all lies. He must have a passport…. He did not go anywhere.
Q.
Did he want to be an American citizen?
A.
He wanted to, of course. Why not?
Q.
But it didn’t work out, right?
A.
Because with his girlfriend, there was a scandal. He hit her lightly. He was locked up for half an hour. There was jealousy there. He paid $250, that was it, he went home. Because of that —
in America you can’t touch a woman, they wouldn’t give him citizenship.
A.
Because of that they didn’t give him citizenship?
Q.
He had gone through the interview, that was it. But they said, he said, they will check the federal authorities, when they check me they will give it. He would have been granted it, he passed the interview. Now we have a new system where they check young people.
Because he is a Muslim, I think, and a Chechen, too.
Q.
Was he disappointed?
A.
No, he said, ‘Dad, I don’t have to go anywhere!’ He works, his wife works, he has a child, they will give it to him! He didn’t want to come (here). He had plans of his own. How could he leave everything and go?
Q.
Was he offended by the fact that they did not give him a chance?
A.
No! No! Why would he be offended? He could come and go, arrive and leave as he wished.
Q.
Did Dzhokhar want to be a citizen?
A.
He is already a citizen of America. He is an American citizen.
Q.
So he already had his citizenship?
A.
He was coming for the holidays. He told me to do a visa. I was making a visa.
Q.
Did they love America?
A.
Of course a person loves it.
Q.
Why did you not go the States?
A.
I wanted to but I got sick. I was very sick.
I thought I would die, so I thought I would better be buried here. They checked me and said I was healthy as an ox, but I was losing weight. I weighed only 50 kilos. I lost about 40 kilograms, and I had strong pains inside. I had a pancreatic problem and a hematoma in my head. I needed a surgery.
Q.
Did your kids suffer from the war?
A.
No, my children did not see the war. They grew up in Kyrgyzstan.
Q.
They never saw the war?
A.
Yes, we left, ran away from the war. We did not need it, you see?
Q.
Where are you from in Chechnya?
A.
We never lived in Chechnya.
Q.
So you were Chechens living in Dagestan?
A.
Once I arrived, I’ve been living here for a year. I wanted to leave, but I was waiting for my son to come for vacation so that we could go back together.
Q.
Your brothers in the States, they say something very different about your sons.
A.
Well, we quarreled long time ago…. We were not on speaking terms.
Q.
They sound like they believe your sons did this.
A.
What can they say if they did not see them for five or six years?
They are just blabbing what they know nothing about. How can they speak about them if they did not see them for a long time? If they kill him now….
Q.
How many members of your family ended up in America?
A.
Four children and parents.
Q.
And your brothers?
A.
My brother sent me an invitation … but we were not planning to stay. But the time was such, the circumstances, persecution.
You must know, there was a hunt for Chechens as for wolves in the woods.
Q.
Did your children feel like Russians or Americans?
A.
Well, children, they get adjusted. Russia was like a fantasy for them. If a child has not grown up here, how can he think or dream about Russia?
Q.
Did you or your relatives work for law enforcement bodies before the war?
A.
Yes, they did. They worked for the prosecutor’s office.
Q.
In Chechnya?
A.
Yes, they were lawyers, all of them.
Q.
What is your family’s attitude to Kadyrov (the president of Chechnya)?
A.
Very good attitude. My sister was an outstanding lawyer of Kyrgyzstan, she moved there.
She is in Chechnya now because everything has straightened out. The life has gotten better, as it should be. Nobody wants a war.
A.
What did the investigators want to ask you about?
A.
The investigators didn’t talk much. They were not concerned about anything. They asked what and how, just like you.
Q.
Did you hear anything from the Russian leaders, Kadyrov?
A.
I can’t think about anything like that.
Seeing my child on television — he has never been to any Watertown, it is nonsense. It is nonsense. My child lives in Cambridge, first of all.
Q.
What is his character?
A.
He has the character of the best person who could exist. Anyone who sees him falls in love with him.
Dzhokhar, he is a gift from Allah, not just because he is my son — he is like an angel, this child. The Americans know him better than I do. They taught him. He was in the newspapers everywhere: he was excellent, good, kind. He worked all the time.
In his extra moments, he worked so that things would not be difficult for us, his parents. He didn’t keep a penny for himself. This kind of child. You understand.
Q.
Tamerlan was also calm like that?
A.
He was also a kind man. He was also a kind man.
Q.
I understand that your younger son took the will of Tamerlan like a law. Was that always true?
A.
Dzhokhar listened to Tamerlan, of course. He also listened to us. From childhood, it was that way. He had his own head on his shoulders. He was a very gifted person. He had a gift of kindness, calmness, fairness, you understand, goodness? For him to do what they’re saying, it doesn’t fit him at all, it is not possible. Not at all.
Q.
Did they go to mosque regularly, both of them?
A.
He used to bring him, Tamerlan would bring him to Friday prayers.
The child, he smoked. I would occasionally find cigarettes in his pockets or his room. What kind of radicalism are they talking about? I caught him with a cigarette two or three times.
Q.
There is a feeling that in recent time they came, especially Tamerlan, became more devout?
(Line goes dead)
As CNN reported, Anzor Tsarnaev made similar charges, that his sons had been framed, in an interview with Russian state television on Friday. Mr. Tsarnaev also said that he had been questioned by the Russian security services.
http://thelede.blogs.nytimes.com/20...imes#the-doctor-who-treated-tamerlan-tsarnaev
couldn't agree more.
