UPDATE: ALARMING DEVELOPMENTS FOR CRIMEAN TATARS
According to our sources, in the illegally annexed Crimean Peninsula, the indigenous Crimean Tatar population is currently enduring a new wave of targeted repression by Russian security forces.
As reported by sources on the ground, Russian riot police conducted mass armed searches of Crimean Tatar homes on 10 and 11 February 2016, in the course whereof they arrested four human rights activists for their purported involvement in a “terrorist organization”. The recent events are another clear proof of Russia’s misuse of legislation to prosecute, intimidate and harass those who oppose the illegal occupation of Crimea, denounce human rights violations or just hold somewhat dissident views.
Who are the Crimean Tatars?
The Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people of the Crimean Peninsula. With Islam being their principal religion, Crimean Tatars are now a minority group on the peninsula and make up only 12 percent of its population, notably due to repeated forced expulsion and persecution during the Soviet era, which culminated with a mass deportation in 1944.
After the fall of the Soviet Union, thousands of Crimean Tatar families returned to their ancestral homeland, which had become part of an independent Ukraine. However, because of prejudicial and exclusionary government policies, the returnees faced many administrative problems and re-integration into society was made difficult for them. On top of that, their access to education – in particular in their native language – was severely limited.
While the Crimean Tatars’ living conditions had been anything but good before the Russian annexation of the Crimean Peninsula, their situation has deteriorated significantly after March 2014. Being a fervent supporter of the integrity of Ukraine and having boycotted the so-called referendum in March 2014, the Crimean Tatar community has been subjected to targeted abuse, persecution and silencing by Russian security forces and local occupation ‘authorities’. Just as in the most recent case of arbitrary arrests, the occupation forces usually use the fight against ‘terrorism’ and ‘extremism’ to justify grave violations of human rights, to restrict their civil liberties, and to curtail the Tatar community’s freedom of expression.
Recommendations:
* UNPO strongly condemns the recent mass searches of Crimean Tatar homes by Russian security forces, as well as the illegal detention of human rights activists without proper grounds that would warrant these encroachments.
* UNPO calls upon the Russian government and occupation ‘authorities’ to end all human rights violations perpetrated against the Crimean Tatar population, and in particular the politically-motivated persecution of human rights activists and other dissidents under the pretext of fighting ‘extremism’.
* UNPO urges the European Parliament to take all necessary actions to help end human rights violations perpetrated against the Crimean Tatar community; to address these issues with the Russian government.
For more information on the issue, have a look at UNPO's timeline of recent events in Crimea.
