| |
 Print
Russia Clamps Down on Crimean Tatar Muslims
9-24-2014
SIMFEROPOL – In a stark reminder of Stalin-era persecution, Russian authorities in Crimea have announced a decision to liquidate Tatar Muslims’ libraries and replace them with state budgetary institutions, after another crackdown on the community’s Mejlis.
Issued against all Crimean Tatar libraries, the Russian sudden decree has been extended to the Crimean Tatar library, which was founded in 1990 and contains 8,000 volumes of books and other materials.
It was named after Ismail Gasprinsky, a late nineteenth-century Crimean Tatar intellectual, educator, publisher, politician and reformist who was one of the first Muslim intellectuals in the Russian Empire.
The move comes just days after the Crimean Tatar community was evicted from their parliament building in Simferopol.
“This was a raid. They are making absurd claims about some decision they made, some court, which we know nothing about,” Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Jemilev told Qirim News Agency.
“Now it was found out that the judge of the court is absent on leave. It is frankly a robbery raid,” Jemilev added, calling the seizure of Crimea Fund building, “a robbery raid”.
“I hope people react to the situation, but they are so frightened. They cannot even come to the Mejlis building while is it being raided. [The FSB officers] take photos, may conduct searches or fine them,” he noted.
Founded in 1991, the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, has been working as the representative body for Crimean Tatars after their return from almost five decades in exile.
The building was the subject of a thorough search by Russian Special Forces agents (FSB) and armed police on September 16 in which documents, protocols, USB flash cards, Islamic literature and computers were seized.
Crimea's pro-Russian acting head Sergey Aksyonov told ITAR- TASS that the search was conducted after the authorities received “signals about banned literature” in the building.
“In this case, the special forces [FSB] were doing their job, according to instructions. There were signals about banned literature and other materials,” Aksyonov said.
Fear
After the raid, fearful Crimean Tatars had no choice but to comply with the demands of the authorities.
“We have no strength to counteract Crimean authorities. The decision of the 'court' reads that if we refuse [to leave the building], we will be evicted from there by force,” Crimean Tatar Mejlis head Refat Chubarov, who is living in exile in the Ukrainian capital Kiev, told Qirim News Agency.
“There is only one structure in Crimea which is able to unite people who disagree with Crimea's occupation. Crimean authorities want to crush the Mejlis, to destroy and deprive it of dignity and honor,” Chubarov stated.
The defiant leader added that the Crimean Tatar people were not in need of a building to continue functioning as a community.
The Tatars, who have inhabited Crimea for centuries, were deported in May 1944 by Stalin, who accused them of collaborating with the Nazis.
The entire Tatar population, more than 200,000 people, was transported in brutal conditions thousands of miles away to Uzbekistan and other locations. Many died along the way or soon after arriving.
The Soviets confiscated their homes, destroying their mosques and turning them into warehouses. One was converted into a Museum of Atheism.
It was not until perestroika in the late 1980s that most of the Tatars were allowed back, a migration that continued after Ukraine became independent with the Soviet collapse in 1991.
The 300,000-strong Muslim minority makes up less than 15% of Crimea's population of 2 million and has so far been overwhelmingly opposed to Russia's annexation of the peninsula.
The Russian move to annex Crimea followed an earlier vote in March on the peninsula’s future.
The referendum, approved by 96%, was followed by several steps from pro-Moscow Crimean parliament, issuing a law that allows Russia’s annexation of the disputed peninsula.
The hastily organized March 16 referendum was boycotted by Tatars who rejected as held at gunpoint under the gaze of Russian soldiers.
After Russian annexation of Crimea, fears of Muslim Tatars were doubled, voicing concerns over losing freedom and reviving the memories of exile and prosecution they faced in 1940s.
Footnotes:
|