Below is an article by worldbulletin.net:

Refat Chubarov has been named as the new head of the Mejlis for ethnic Tatars in the Ukrainian Black Sea province of Crimea.

Refat Chubarov has been elected as the new leader of the Crimean Tatars after a narrow victory of 12 votes. He will now be the head of the Mejlis, a parliamentary board for the Tatar people of Crimea.

While Refat Chubarov received 126 votes, his rival Remzi Ilyasov received 114 votes. In total, 242 board delegates participated in the vote.

Former head of the Mejlis, Mustafa Jemilev, commented on Refat Chubarov’s election. “I am satisfied with Refat Chubarov being elected and would be happy to see him work with Remzi Ilyasov. A historical event took place in the life of the Crimean Tatars – a new head of the Mejlis has replaced the old one after 22 years,” said Jemilev.

With regard to his future activities, Jemilev noted:

“In order to serve to a cause, it is not necessary to be the head of the Mejlis. My goal is to promote the strengthening of the Mejlis-Kurultay system”.

Jemilev also said that if the new head and new composition of the Mejlis is not able to handle their duties, a new board session will be convened to re-elect the head of the Mejlis.

“If this happens, the political fate of these politicians would not be promising. Therefore, they should be careful in their expressions and relationships with colleagues”.

Refat Chubarov was born in 22 September 1957 in Uzbekistan. He still manages the World Congress of Crimean Tatars. Chubarov served as a deputy three times in Ukranian parliament.

The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group whose historical homeland is the Crimean peninsula between the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov. The official Crimean Khanate was established in 1441. Crimea fell under the Russian dominion in the late 18th century. After the Russian Revolution in 1917, the Czarist regime ruling the Crimea was succeeded by Soviet Socialist rule.

Their hardships peaked in 1944, when Stalin deported the entire Crimean Tatar population from Crimea to the Urals, Siberia and to Uzbekistan in Central Asia. The deportation began on 18 May 1944. More than 32,000 NKVD troops participated in this action.

The forced deportees were given only 30 minutes to gather personal belongings, after which they were loaded onto cattle trains and moved out of Crimea.

193,865 Crimean Tatars were deported, most of them to Kazakh and Uzbek SSR-s. At the same time, most of the Crimean Tatar men who were fighting in the ranks of the Red Army were demobilized and sent into forced labor camps in Siberia and in the Ural mountain region.