Repression against Crimean Tatars: Democratic self-advocacy in danger – growing concerns about the minority's safety situation

There are more and more repressions against Crimean Tatars. As reported by the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) in Göttingen on Monday, the minority group's democratic representation, the Mejlis in Simferopol, is threatened to be closed down. The prosecutor of Crimea addressed the Investigation Committee of the Russian secret service FSB to open charges against the chairman of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, and other members of the panel, because of "illegal extremist activities." They had called for peaceful road blockades as a form of protest against the travel ban on Mustafa Dzhemilev, the Crimean Tatar leader.

Last Sunday, about 5,000 Crimean Tatars had followed the call and entered the buffer zone between Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula via the checkpoints Armyansk in order to meet Dzhemilev there. The Russian authorities had issued a ban against the former Soviet dissident and members of the Ukrainian Parliament, meaning that he is not allowed to enter the Russian Federation – including the Crimea – before 2019. This ban was issued after he had publicly warned about increasing discriminations against the Crimean Tatars.

During their protest, the Crimean Tatars also blocked several roads near Simferopol, Bakhchisarai, Stary Krym, Evpatoria and Oktajabrskoje. Eyewitnesses reported that local security forces had filmed the demonstrators. "Many are now afraid of consequences," said the STP's CIS-consultant, Sarah Reinke. "In the Crimean Tatar settlements, several of those who participated in the protests were already questioned this weekend."

The vast majority of the approximately 300,000 Crimean Tatars had decided to boycott the referendum on March 18, which led to Crimeas accession to Russia. "Many of them have become victims of repressions since then," warned Reinke. "…and many fear that the local pro-Russian government will try to expel from the Crimea once again." 46 percent of the Crimean Tatar people who were collectively deported to Central Asia in May 1944 had been killed.

Sarah Reinke - head of the Berlin office and STP's expert on Eastern Europe - is available for further questions: Tel. 030 428 048 91 or berlin@gfbv.de.