Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar: part 1
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Date: Wed, 2 Dec 1998 22:52:04 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar: part 1
From: MINELRES moderator <[email protected]>
Original sender: Alexander Ossipov <[email protected]>
Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar: part 1
Dear Boris,
Some people ask me what happens with the Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar
territory within the last year. I should have issued at least one more
newsletter on the ongoing earlier, and it's a real pity, that some
urgent work permanently prevents me from doing that. I bring my
apology. Here is a brief description of the current state of the
problem.
Sasha Ossipov
Alexander Ossipov,
programme manager,
The Memorial Human Rights Centre,
Maly Karetny per. 12, Moscow, 103051 Russia
tel. 7 095 370 70 83
fax 7 095 209 57 79
e-mail <[email protected]>
---------------
MESKHETIAN TURKS IN KRASNODAR TERRITORY IN 1998: NO PROGRESS, NEW
PROBLEMS
Newsletter No.3,
Alexander Ossipov,
programme manager,
The 'Memorial' Human Rights Centre,
Moscow, Russia
The case of Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar is still one of the mostly
important and painful problems (perhaps, even the mostly one) related
to discrimination against ethnic minorities in contemporary Russia. At
the moment more than 10,000 Turks are victims of direct persecutions
on ethnic ground, carried out or encouraged by the state. This figure
is not too large, but this is actually the first case in Russia since
1950s (the Stalin's period) when a certain category of population is
being directly disfranchised and having its rights denied because of
its ethnic affiliation.
I must remind that almost 50,000 Meskhetians (Meskhetian Turks) of
90,000 who fled from Uzbekistan in 1989-90 after the Fergana massacre
sought asylum in the Russian Federation, at that time one of the union
Soviet republics. Of them 13,000 came to Krasnodar Territory (krai) of
southern Russia, but the regional authorities refused to grant them
residence permits (propiska). At moment around 10,000 Turks are still
deprived of residence permits and thus of almost all the civil,
political and social rights. Meskhetians legally reside on the
territory of Russia since 1989-90 that is before the USSR
disintegration (there was a special governmental decree in 1989, which
admitted and allowed Meskhetian resettlement from Uzbekistan to
Russia), they, being former Soviet citisens, never declined Russian
citizenship, thus they gained citisenship of the Russian Federation
automatically under the federal law "On Citisenship in the Russian
Federation". Nevertheless, the administration of Krasnodar territory
as well as the federal Ministry of Internal Affairs do not consider
them to be RF citisens. The regional authorities twice (in 1992 and
1996) adopted normative acts which established special legal regime
for Meskhetian Turks and actually disfranchised them on ethnic ground.
Moreover, the Krasnodar administration does its best by different
means to 'squeeze' out of the region and confirms in an overt way the
strategy of preserving 'ethnic homogeneity' of the population.
A year ago, when the regional authorities started to inflate tension
and openly declared their willingness to evict Turks from the krai,
when ultra-nationalist groups permanently demonstrated readiness to
commit violent actions and federal officials supported position of the
Krasnodar administration, we considered the situation critical and
applied for international support. Fortunately, our worse expectations
did not come into being, nevertheless, the situation is still far from
turning to the best. Now it is possible to make some preliminary
conclusions about the ongoing within the last year. Briefly, the main
'achievements' of this period are following.
A) Federal ministries in a more or less direct way approved policies
of the Krasnodar authorities.
B) Regional authorities ceased inflating tension and provoking
racially motivated violence.
C) Regional government started gradual and 'quiet' eviction of
Meskhetians to Turkey.
1. Decrease of tensions
The Krasnodar administration after mid-March ceased campaign against
Meskhetians and stopped increasing tension. The campaign of mass
checks for 'passport regime' ceased at the end of January, but random
and individual checks take place permanently. On 16 March there was a
skirmish in Akhtyrski, a settlement in Abinsk district (raion). A gang
was robbing a Turkish house, a police patrol came, one policeman and
two robbers were killed in the shooting. Two days later the Krasnodar
governor Nikolai Kondratenko announced, that this smash-and grab raid
must had been a provocation, a result of some conspiracy by some
external malicious forces who wanted to explode 'interethnic peace' in
the region. Thus, his appeal was to keep the situation as it was, to
avoid any provocation and any violent actions. By the way, the motive
of external conspiracy in the Meskhetian case exists in most of the
official publications and announcement in Krasnodar concerning Turks.
The local papers tell about a future eviction of Meskhetians
matter-of-factly so far with references to the regional
administration.
2. Reaction of the federal authorities
In 1997 The 'Memorial' Human Rights Centre together with some MP's and
well-known Russian human rights activists several times applied to the
President Yeltsin (as the guarantor of human rights in RF in
accordance with the Constitution), to the Prosecutor General and to
the Chairman of the Commission for Human Rights (attached to the
Presidency) for a full-scale solution of the problem. The President's
Administration and some ministries (Ministry of Nationalities and
Regional Policies, Ministry of Internal Affairs, Federal Migration
Service as well as the office of Prosecutor General) responded in a
way which meant direct or indirect support to the policies of the
Krasnodar administration.
Nevertheless, the Chairman of the Commission for Human Rights Prof.
Vladimir Kartashkin approved the 'Memorial's' position in general and
initiated a process of examining the problem by the President's
Administration. An informal working group on the Meskhetian Turks in
Krasnodar headed by Emil Pain, Chief of the Administration's
Analytical Centre was summoned on a request of Michael Komissar,
Deputy Head of the Administration. The group consisted of
representatives of several branches of the President's Administration,
Commission on Citisenship Affairs, Ministry of Internal Affairs (MIA),
Ministry of Nationalities and Regional Policies (MNRP), Commission for
Human Rights and the 'Memorial' Human Rights Centre. The agenda was
set by Emil Pain as 'legalisation of Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar'.
Nevertheless, the first sitting of the group on 22 January was also
the last one. The discussion did not lead to any definite conclusions
since the people from MIA and Citisenship Commission (also former MIA
staff) in general argued against granting residence permits and legal
status to Turks in Krasnodar. The group members approved Pain's
proposal to pass the issue to the special human rights commission of
the Security Council. However, this initiative ceased shortly after
reorganisation of the Security Council and had no consequences.
On 27 January and 16 February the Human Rights Chamber of the
Political Consultative Council of the Presidency (a public
consultative body) discussed the issue of national minorities
protection in Krasnodar territory. The Chamber adopted a strongly
worded resolution which condemned the regional nationalities and
migration policies and applied to the federal government for some
definite measures (the text is available and can be provided on
request). Within three months some federal ministries responded to the
Chairman of the Chamber and actually expressed reluctance to oppose
the Krasnodar authorities.
Concerning the Krasnodar Meskhetians, federal officials in general
share the approaches of the Krasnodar administration. The arguments
are as follows.
1) Meskhetians reside in Krasnodar territory illegally since the
Soviet and Russian governments in 1989 limited their place of
residence by the provinces of the central Russia (that is completely
not true, in 1989 the government only provided some logistic support
for Meskhetians' adaptation in this region);
2) Meskhetians are not Russian citizens since they lived in Russia
without residence permit (propiska) by the moment when the citizenship
law came into force (that is not true also, the Civil Code and other
federal laws determine permanent residence as actual residence and not
registration by a place of residence);
3) Meskhetians must be repatriated to Georgia, and hence they don't
need registration;
4) Meskhetian Turks as a Turkic and Moslem and potentially disloyal
group are not appropriate for Krasnodar territory, a 'strategic
region'; they provoke social tension and conflicts (concerning
conflicts - there were only several acts of aggression committed by
para-military Cossack groups while in general relations between
Meskhetians and the other population are not hostile).
3. Strategy of the human rights NGO's
At the moment five NGO's are directly involved in the case. While the
Moscow office of the 'Vatan' ('Motherland') Society of the Meskhetian
Turks concerns mostly about a future repatriation to Georgia (in 1944
Meskhetians were exiled to the Central Asia from Georgia), the
Krasnodar regional branch tries to defend Meskhetians who live in the
province by negotiating with the local authorities, issuing petitions
and complains. The Moscow-based Foundation for Repressed Peoples
disseminate information about the Meskhetian troubles. So does the
Krasnodar-based Centre for Protection of Minority Rights. The
Moscow-based 'Memorial' Human Rights Centre consider two strategies to
be potentially fruitful.
One is search for political solution, i.e. recognition by a special
decision of the federal government (President's Decree) of citisenship
and rights of Meskhetians who reside in Krasnodar territory (since
they are a pseudo-legal category in the province and have to register
permanently by specific procedures). A solution of this type is real
as it was already used 1994 for recognition of Russian citisenship of
those former Soviet national who resided in Russia without propiska
(residence permit) by 1992, but only of those who had 'returned' to
Russia. Anyway, direct or covert solidarity of the federal agencies
with the Krasnodar administration gives us not many chances in this
respect.
The second way - juridical procedures - from our point of view must be
the basic one. Hundreds of Meskhetians have already restored their
rights and had their Russian citisenship confirmed by decision of the
courts. Unfortunately, civil actions of the Meskhetians were random
and unorganised, and the 'Vatan' society did not support them anyhow
and did not encourage people to initiate lawsuits. Within the last 4
years we tried to convince the local 'Vatan' to do so and looked for
local lawyers who could support a large-scale class civil action of
the Meskhetian Turks in district courts with a perspective of raising
it to the provincial court and Supreme Court. At least such persons
were found, they agreed to do it free of charge (it is important for
political reasons). Formally they are members of the Krasnodar City
Human Rights Association, one of the mostly active human rights NGO's
within the province. Unfortunately, the local 'Vatan' makes the
necessary arrangements too slowly, while it approves the idea itself,
and external NGO's cannot do anything more without Meskhetians
themselves.
I must stress that the Krasnodar-based NGO's are working in extremely
difficult and sometimes dangerous conditions and they really need at
least moral support. Their co-ordinates:
- The Krasnodar City Human Rights Association; the chairperson is
Vladimir Kozlov. E-mail <[email protected]>, fax/tel 7 8612
62 26 39, address: 36 Rashpilevskaya, room 214, Krasnodar 350000, or
15 Aviagorodok, apt. 80, Krasnodar 350005 (Vladimir Kozlov).
- Centre for Protection of Minority Rights; executive director is
Anton Popov. E-mail <[email protected]>, tel. 7 8612 55 16 93
(pr.), no fax, address 149 Stavropolskaya st., room 254, Krasnodar
350040 (for Popov).
The 'Vatan' International Society of the Meskhetian Turks, the
Krasnodar regional branch: Chairman of the Council is Sadain Tamimov,
Internatsionalnaya St., 38, Abinsk, Krasnodarski krai 352320;
tel./fax 7 86150 5 1703 (of.); Executive Director is Server Tedorov,
ul. Lunacharskogo, 143a, st. Varenikovskaya, Krymski raion,
Krasnodarski krai 353350
(to be continued)
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