Crimean Tatars' Protests
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Date: Sun, 9 May 1999 11:50:18 +0300 (EET DST)
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Subject: Crimean Tatars' Protests
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Sabirzyan Badretdinov <[email protected]>
Crimean Tatar Protests
Ukraine: Crimean Tatars Begin Protest March
By Bruce Pannier
Crimean Tatars began a protest march today on the anniversary of their
expulsion from the Crimean peninsula during World War Two in an effort
to bring attention to their contemporary complaints.
Prague, 6 May 1999 (RFE/RL) -- The story is a familiar one in Eastern
Europe.
A distraught women tells how she and her family were expelled from
their home in the middle of the night and left with nothing:
"At 3:00 am, while our children were fast asleep, soldiers burst in
and ordered us to get our things together and leave our home in five
minutes. We weren't allowed to take any food or possessions with us."
A Kosovo refugee?
No, these lines are from Roy Medvedev's "Let History Judge" about the
Tatar expulsion from the Crimean peninsula more than 50 years ago.
As ethnic cleansing continues apace in the Balkans, Crimean Tatars
today began a highly visible demonstration intended to highlight their
plight after being cleansed from their homeland in the days of World
War Two.
Crimean Tatars are taking part in a national march on the peninsula
and plan to converge on the city of Simferopol on May 18. The march is
intended to draw attention to the poor living conditions for Tatars
who have returned to the Crimea, now part of Ukraine, and to remind
the world of a time when Tatars were uprooted from their homeland
solely based on their ethnicity.
The modern story of the Crimean Tatars begins during World War Two,
when the peninsula was occupied by German troops. After the Germans
retreated, Moscow began to suspect the Tatar population of wavering
loyalty. In a three-day operation, all the Crimean Tatars were packed
into trains and shipped eastward to the Urals, Kazakhstan and Central
Asia. Tens of thousands never made it to their destination alive.
The areas the Tatars were shipped to were primitive and had few signs
of Soviet modernization. The existing populations were often hostile
to the newcomers. Tatars died by the thousands of disease and
starvation. Amir Asan Karayev, who was just three years old at the
time, remembers the deportations and life in Uzbekistan after the
Tatars arrived.
"Oh, I remember that well because after I came to the camp we lived by
the railroad and there were these bloated bodies, Crimean Tatars.
There was a cart-driver ... my father forced him to take the bodies to
the cemetery. We were busy with this all week. There was a lot of
death. My aunt had seven children, six of them died, only a girl
survived."
Some say as many as half the Crimean Tatars died during the
deportations and the first year after arriving at their new homes.
Those who survived were kept in resettlement areas by the Soviet
internal passport system, which prohibited moving without permission.
Crimean Tatars were given the possibility to return to their native
homeland in 1987. Since then about 270,000 have done so. But on the
peninsula where they once comprised a majority, they now make up only
12 percent of the population.
In such a political atmosphere, the Crimean Tatars say they are
ignored and discriminated against. They say a new Crimean
constitution, adopted at the end of last year, fails to guarantee them
a certain number of seats in the Crimean government as a previous
constitution did.
This, they say, effectively excludes them from government as many of
the returning Tatars do not have Ukrainian citizenship and thus cannot
vote or run in elections.
The adoption of the new constitution seems to have sparked a new round
of violence against Tatars. This year alone, several mosques have been
burned and graveyards and a monument to the Tatar expulsion have been
vandalized.
Those are only the most visible signs of trouble. Ordinary Tatars say
life is difficult at the most basic level: finding housing and jobs,
obtaining education, or listening to radio or television in their
native language.
Some Tatars have said Crimea should leave Ukraine and join Russia - a
sentiment that leaves them exposed to criticism by non-Tatar
politicians.
The speaker of Crimea's parliament, Leonid Grach, publicly accuses
members of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly of engaging in what he
calls "national radicalism." The Tatar assembly is a consultative body
which is not officially recognized by authorities.
The deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly, Julvern
Abljamitov, though, rejects any claim that he or other assembly
members are calling for radical solutions. He told RFE/RL his group is
looking for answers to basic problems:
"First, I will say that the speaker of parliament is a practiced,
prominent specialist in the manipulation of terminology. There is no
national radicalism among Crimean Tatars, and moreover, neither the
Crimean Tatars nor the Kuriltai (National Assembly) are the part of
the population with a radical approach to the problems of nationalism.
We are demanding laws which are helpful to our people, and a solution
to the problems here in the Crimea. If this is not done it is not our
problem, it should be that of the speaker."
Abljamitov says if the authorities do not pay attention to demands of
the Tatars they will continue their protests. He says there's even a
plan to demonstrate in front of the council of ministers if necessary.
That's what Crimean Tatars who are on the march today want the world
to see. They arrive in Simferopol in twelve days, marching in eight
separate columns. Once there they plan to assemble on Lenin Square at
noon to hold a protest meeting.
(Ferit Agi of the Tatar-Bahskir Service contributed to this feature)
06-05-99
-------------------
On May 7, a large group of Bakhchisaray residents met in front of the
Municipality Building to protest the increasing repression and
discrimination against Crimean Tatars. Holding banners, Ukrainian
flags, and Crimean Tatar flags with the national emblem (tamga), they
demanded representation of Crimean Tatars in the Crimean Parliament
and state offices. They blamed the deteriorating condition of Crimean
Tatars on the continuing communist rule in Crimea and the lack of
concern for the indigenous population on the part of the Ukrainian
President and Parliament. The group then marched through the streets
of Bakhchisaray to the Palace of the Khans (Han Saray), shouting
"Crimea, our Homeland," "No to Communism," "Allah is great," and
"Crimea! Homeland! Mejlis!" After a short meeting in the courtyard of
the Palace of the Khans, they declared their intention to meet again
on the 16th of May and begin the march on Akmechit (Simferopol). The
protest meeting was organized by the local Mejlis (Assembly) in
Bakhchisaray.
The following is the text of the Resolution passed by meeting
participants:
Resolution of the Crimean Tatar Protest Meeting
Bakhchisaray, Crimea
7 May 1999
We, the Crimean Tatars, residing in the Bakhchisaray region, have
gathered here to declare that our civic and political rights have so
far not been restored. The restoration of the rights of Crimean
Tatars, indigenous people of Crimea, is a necessary condition for
safeguarding the integrity, preservation, and development of our
nation in Ukraine. It has been ten years since we began to return and
resettle in our homeland, but our position in Crimean society remains
extremely powerless and humble. All the appeals of the Mejlis of the
Crimean Tatar People sent to the President, Parliament, and Cabinet of
Ministers of Ukraine have been ignored. After the Crimean Tatars were
deprived of representation in the Crimean Parliament, they [the
Russian majority] adopted a new Constitution of the Autonomous
Republic of Crimea. This is leading to ethnic dictatorship of the
post-war settlers in our motherland, and the discrimination against
our people has become even more pronounced. They are trying to restore
the criminal communist regime in Crimea. We, Bakhchisaray residents,
are appealing to the President, the Government, and the Verhovna Rada
of Ukraine with the following demands:
I. NATION-WIDE
* To restore the Crimean Tatar national autonomy in Crimea within the
independent democratic Ukraine
* To adopt a special legislation "On the status of the Crimean Tatar
people in Ukraine"
* To recognize legally the status of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar
People as the only highest plenipotentiary body of the Crimean Tatars
* To establish the Muslim holidays, Ramadan Bayram and Kurban Bayram,
as state holidays in Crimea
* To restore the historical place names of Crimea, which were changed
after the deportation of Crimean Tatars
II. REGIONAL
* To establish an effective representation of Crimean Tatars in the
executive and legislative branches of government
* To stop discrimination against Crimean Tatars in professional
positions within the government and to provide guaranteed
representation of Crimean Tatars in legislative and executive branches
* When preparing state, district, and local budgets, to include a
line item for the program for return and resettlement of Crimean
Tatars
* To stop the obstacles to the establishment and development of
national education [for Crimean Tatars]
* To allocate plots from the reserve state lands to establish
agricultural businesses
* To return, according to the legislation of Ukraine, the religious
buildings to appropriate religious organizations.
--
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