Paul
Goble
Staunton, March 4 – Since the
Anschluss, Russia’s occupation authorities have tried a variety of means to
shut down the Crimea Tatar Mejlis, the most important organization of the group
that has most consistently opposed Moscow’s illegal annexation of the Ukrainian
peninsula.
The authorities have banned Mejlis
leaders like Mustafa Cemil and Rufat Chubarov from returning to their homeland.
They have harassed its members, raided its headquarters, and waged a vicious
propaganda war against the organization. And they have created an alternative
pocket group, the “Kyrym,” in order to confuse people about who speaks for the
Crimean Tatars.
Now, they have come up with a new
strategy, one superficially legitimate but clearly intended to destroy the
Mejlis and thus geld the Crimean Tatar nation.
It was announced yesterday by Kyrym whose leaders said they intend to
register the Mejlis as a NGO as defined by Russian law (qha.com.ua/medjlis-hotyat-zaregistrirovat-kak-obschestvennuyu-organizatsiyu-143408.html, ru.krymr.com/content/article/26879681.html and
nazaccent.ru/content/15043-dvizhenie-kyrym-namereno-zaregistrirovat-medzhlis-v.html).
Refat Derdarov, deputy head of Kyrym
and chairman of the Bakchisarai district council, said that with such
registration, the Mejlis will work in a legal framework because a social
organization which declares itself as such and which represents the interests
of the people … must be registered” if it is to deal with the authorities.
What is needed, he continued, is for
the delegates of the Kurultay – the assembly of Crimean Tatars which chooses
the Mejlis – to “assemble and evaluate the work of the Mejlis which at present
is practically frozen. Certain members of the Mejlis today are responsible for
this and try to conduct meetings “from the mainland via Skype.”
“For us,” Derdarov said, “this is
unacceptable. We consider that a leader must be with his own people.” He added
that he was confident he had the numbers to assemble a Kurultay and thus
preserve it and the Mejlis but under new leadership. And he said he sees as the new leader Remzi
Ilyasov who is willing to work with the Russian authorities in Crimea.
It is unlikely that Kyrym does, at
least if it accurately reflects the views of most Crimean Tatars for whom the
Mejlis is not an NGO but rather the expression of their desire to organize the
life of their nation on the peninsula and within the boundaries of Ukraine. But
Kyrym clearly doesn’t care about that and like the occupiers wants to destroy
the Mejlis but registering it.
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