Russia continues to persecute Muslim peoples who do not want to be loyal to it. It recognizes political parties and organizations as terrorist and imprisons its representatives. This is exactly the situation with the Crimean Tatars in Russia-occupied Crimea.
Crimean Tatars are subjected to numerous serious human rights violations, persecution, discrimination and stigmatization by the Russian occupation authorities. An additional burden is the culture of impunity for such violations that prevails on the peninsula. Crimean Tatars have been subjected to numerous human rights violations and unjustly expelled from their ancestral homeland many times throughout their turbulent history. They have suffered enough.
Today, Crimean Tatars face searches, harassment, blackmail, pressure and illegal detention by the occupying "authorities". Since Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, thousands of Crimean Tatars have been forced to leave their homes. And for the past 9 years, the occupation authorities have been pursuing a repressive policy against representatives of this people. This includes intimidation, violations of civil, political and cultural rights.
Russia pursues an aggressive policy of Russification and colonization of Crimea, militarizes education, conducts illegal mobilization into the Russian army, and infringes on the right to practice their religion of uncontrolled Muslim communities.
On August 24, 2023, a new wave of mass searches took place in the homes of Crimean Tatars in the Bakhchisaray district of Crimea, after which six activists of the Crimean Solidarity public movement were detained: Remzi Nimetulayev, Ruslan Asanov, Seydamet Mustafayev, Ametan Umerov and Eldar Yakubov. Among the detainees is the brother of two Crimean political prisoners from Bakhchisarai, arrested in March 2020, Abdulmezhit Seytumerov. All of them were sentenced to stay in pre-trial detention until at least the end of October. Russian authorities suspect them of alleged involvement in the international political Islamic organization Hizb ut-Tahrir.
Representatives of the occupation military commissariats also handed out summonses to Crimean Tatars who were detained in court in Simferopol on August 25. The activists came to the so-called court to attend the hearing in the case of six Crimean Tatars detained in Bakhchisarai.
Earlier, on the eve of the Day of the Crimean Tatar Flag on June 26, 2023, Russian police in the Belogorsk district of Crimea stopped a convoy of cars flying Crimean Tatar flags and detained three Crimean Tatars. Rustem Kurnosov, Enver Asanov and Ebabil Ibrahimov were heading to the foot of the White Rock to climb with national symbols. The security forces drew up reports against 73-year-old Rustem Kurnosov and 65-year-old Enver Useinov, who has a group 3 disability and diabetes. Subsequently, the occupation Belogorsk District Court fined them 20 thousand rubles each for allegedly "organizing or holding a public event without notifying the authorities."
Today, 117 representatives of the Crimean Tatar people are held in Russian prisons. They are accused of involvement in Islamic organizations or propaganda of the activities of organizations that Russia considers terrorist or extremist. 84 are still imprisoned for terms ranging from 8 to 20 years. One of the Crimean Tatars imprisoned in 2019, Dzhemil Gafarov, died in prison on February 10, 2023.
On September 08, 2023, the European Union imposed sanctions against individuals involved in the repression of Crimean Tatars. The list includes: Deputy Russian Prosecutor Elena Podolnaya, Russian Federal Security Service officer Denis Korovin, judge of the Russian "Simferopol District Court" Dilyaver Berberov, FSB investigator Vitaly Vlasov, judge of the Russian-controlled "Supreme Court of Crimea" Viktor Krapko, and Russian prosecutor Anastasia Supryaga. They are involved in the persecution of the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and civilian journalist Nariman Dzhelal, and participated in the "politically motivated court hearings and charges" against the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Akhtem Chiygoz.
Despite years of terror against the Crimean people, Moscow has failed to suppress their resistance on the territory of the temporarily occupied peninsula. Therefore, in the best traditions of encavists, the Russians are intensifying repressions against this people. All Crimean Tatars should enjoy freedom of assembly and expression without fear of reprisals. They should also be able to practice their faith in public or in private, receive education in the Crimean Tatar language, and preserve their cultural heritage.
Source: 24Brussels.online
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