Friday, December 14, 2018

A Very Dangerous Development: Unregistered Group Attacking Tatar Language Taken Seriously


Paul Goble

            Staunton, December 14 – In what appears to be a case of Vladimir Putin’s “hybrid” war tactics applied to domestic affairs within the Russian Federation a group styling itself as the Parents’ Community of Tatarstan which is opposed to Tatar language training in schools is being taken seriously by officials even though it is completely anonymous and unregistered.

            The existence of such a group is a violation of the law at least to the extent that it expects to be taken seriously by the authorities, but it is potentially extremely useful for the Kremlin because like “’the little green men’” in Crimea, this group offers the regime plausible deniability for actions intended to go beyond what the Russian regime says it is doing.

            Only if this group is exposed as illegal and the authorities’ treatment of it as otherwise as a violation of the law is there a chance that Moscow will not use this tactic elsewhere. If it is not, what is taking place today against Tatar language instruction can be expected to occur in other non-Russian republics in the coming weeks or months.   

            On the IdelReal portal today, journalist Ramazan Alpaut describes this case, unusual now but a reflection of the general approach of the Putin regime of advancing its goals under false pretenses or at least by institutions which the Russian government can claim it has nothing to do with (idelreal.org/a/29636916.html).

            In an article entitled “The Community of Anonymous Parents: A Secret Organization Declares War on Tatar,” the journalist says that the Parents’ Community of Tatarstan does not have any of the attributes or registration that social organizations are supposed to. Nonetheless, it is “successfully flooding” the Tatarstan procuracy and the latter is doing what it wants.

            This “community,” Alpaut continues, “was formed out of the Committee of Russian-Speaking Parents of Tataria in October 2017 – that is after Putin declared that the study of non-Russian languages must be voluntary even though the study of Russian is to remain compulsory for all.

            The group then launched attacks on any study of Tatar in Tatarstan, demanding that the authorities in Kazan investigate each of its complaints.   But the Parents’ Community had no right to do that: it is not registered as an NGO, and therefore does not have the right to interact with the authorities as it has been doing.

            Moreover, all its letters and appeals to the Procuracy of the Republic of Tatarstan were anonymous. No names or contact information was given.  And when Alpaut tried to track them down, those who answered the phone refused to answer any of his questions as soon as they knew what he was trying to find out.

            Pavel Chikov, the head of the Agora Human Rights Group says that “such behavior by a public organization violates Russian law.” That law allows groups to operate “without registration,” he says, “but this does not mean that there is no charter, no leader, no administration and no internal documentation.”

            All of that is required because “any individual can have an interest in these documents. They must be accessible for society. That I, there must be some contact information.” That is required by law” and “refusal to provide this information is illegal,” Chikov says. If these conditions are not  met, he continues, the group cannot be considered a public organization.

            And that means this: “it does not have the right to appeal to any law enforcement organs with demand for checking legality or other things.” That officials in Tatarstan are ignoring these legal requirements and accepting complaints from this group suggests that Kazan fears who is behind it, yet another indication that it is a kind of “hybrid” attack on the republic.

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