Paul
Goble
Staunton, September 16 – In the wake of
the Russian-organized elections, the Russian occupation authorities raided the
offices of the Crimean Tatar Milli Mejlis and those of the Crimean Tatar
newspaper, “Avdet,” the latest indication that Moscow plans to suppress any and
all independent Crimean Tatar activity on the Ukrainian peninsula.
This latest manifestation of lawlessness
– which was in part carried out by masked men rather than police in regular
uniform – represents, Crimean Tatar activist Kurtseit Abdullayev says, “a
direct attack on the Crimean Tatar people,” because “the Mejlis is [their] only
representative organ” (http://ua.krymr.com/content/article/26586784.html).
He suggested
that the raids, which apparently sought to find banned Islamic literature and
which led to the confiscation of some computers, had been launched because the
Milli Mejlis and its leaders Refat Chubarov and Mustafa Cemilev had
successfully called for a boycott of last weekend’s vote.
Fewer than half
of eligible voters took part – people could vote if they showed a Russian
passport or residence document – and a far smaller share of Crimean Tatars
did. Yesterday, Catherine Ashton, EU
foreign affairs chief, said “the European Union does not recognize the legal
basis or the legitimacy of these elections” (grani.ru/Politics/Russia/m.233035.html).
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