Paul
Goble
Staunton, November 17 – Fire bombings
of Crimean Tatar mosques, the latest case of which occurred in Kos last week, have
sparked fears that they are part of a broader effort by the Russian occupation
authorities to intimidate or once again expel the Crimean Tatars from their
homeland.
So far, three leaders have denounced
these barbaric actions and warned that they threaten to undermine ethnic
relations on the peninsula – Emirali Ablayev, the mufti of Crimea, Refat
Chubarov, the head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, and Mubeyyin Batu Altan, the
head of the Crimean Tatar Research and Information Center in New York.
In his statement, Mufti Ablayev said
that the continuing attacks on Crimean Tatar mosques and the failure of the
authorities to bring those responsible to justice was undermining inter-ethnic
harmony and leading to a new outburst of “inter-ethnic hostility” (qha.com.ua/muftii-podjogi-mechetei-privedut-k-vspishke-mejnatsionalnoi-rozni-141215.html
and qmdi.org/index.php/ru/glavnye-novosti/526-zayavlenie-muftiyata-kryma-v-svyazi-s-podzhogom-mecheti-v-s-solnechnaya-dolina).
The mufti said that the Crimean
Tatar Muslims had never responded in kind to such “provocations” and “aggression,”
but he said that if such attacks continue and if the authorities fail to do
anything, that could change.
“Attacks on monasteries, synagogues,
churches or mosques are impermissible in any civilized country,” the mufti
said, especially in a place like Crimea “where the representatives of various
nationalities and faiths” live close together. Attacks on one can lead to
disasters of various kinds.
Refat Chubarov, for his part,
denounced the fire bombing of the Crimean Tatar mosque as “the latest barbaric
act in an endless number of crimes committed by the occupation regimein the
Crimean. He pointed out that this attack like the others show that Crimean
Tatars are no longer safe in their own homeland (khpg.org/index.php?id=1416087808).
And
Mubeyyin
Batu Altan said in his appeal to the international community that “since the
second Anschluss of Crimea on February 27, 2014 (the first annexation was in
1783), the Crimean/Russian authorities seem to be determined to use all sorts
of means to pressure the Crimean Tatar people to leave their ancestral homeland
once again so Russia will come a step closer to its centuries-long political
dream, a ‘Crimean without Crimean Tatars.’”
“The Crimean Tatars simply want to
be able to resettle in their ancestral homeland, and peacefully co-exist there
with the other ethnic people as their ancestors did,” he wrote. “They want to
be able to go to their mosques and pray as their ancestors did. They want this vandalism to stop! They want their mosques to be left alone!
Stop destroying the Crimean Tatar mosques!”
(Musbeyyin Batu Altan kindly
supplied a copy of his appeal to the author. Anyone who would like to receive
it may email me at paul.goble@gmail.com.)
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