By Tetiana KOROBOVA, The Day
The Crimean News Agency reports that Simferopol hosted a news conference
with representatives of the Crimean Tatar National Movement on February
9. The Tatar spokesmen announced that a campaign had been launched to collect
signatures under a statement requesting that the International Tribunal
investigate the genocide and ethnocide committed against the Crimean Tatars
as the peninsula's Moslem populace from May 1944 to the present.
CTNM wants the defendant's stand to be taken by Ukraine as a country
conducting this genocidal and ethnocidal policy against the Crimean Tatars,
unlawfully possessing and enjoying that people's national territory, along
with the Russian Federation, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus,
Turkmenistan, Azerbaijan, Georgia, Armenia, Moldova, Lithuania, and Estonia
as legal successors to the USSR. The statement was sent to the United Nations,
Council of Europe, Hague International Tribunal, Organization of Islamic
Conferences, League of Arab States, and the CIS.
The Day's Tetiana KOROBOVA asked Mustafa Dzhemiliov, head
of the Tatar Mejlis and member of Ukrainian Parliament, for background
information and commentary on the latest developments.
T. K.: Every democracy implies the presence of different parties
and volunteer organizations taking varying, even polarized stands in certain
matters. The Crimean Tatars are no exception from the rule, are they?
M. D.: CTNM is one of three small political organizations sired
by the KGB as a counterbalance to the genuine Crimean Tatar national movement.
Under the Soviets their key point was that to solve any Crimean Tatar problem
one had to apply to the Leninist Communist Party and Moscow government,
and God forbid any human rights campaigning! At the period their principal
efforts were aimed at collecting signatures to petitions and declarations
kept in the "truly Soviet patriotic style" (i.e., thoroughly servile),
exposing us as characters "discrediting the Crimean Tatars in the eyes
of the Soviet people, thus preventing them [Crimean Tatars] from returning
to their native land."
CTNM people have always sought power, but they are far from popular
with the people, so the authorities use them while keeping them at a distance.
The Mejlis is their number one enemy today and there are people at CTNM
who ran for Mejlis but never made it, whereupon this elected body turned
into their worst enemy. We had a national quota of 14 seats in the Crimean
Parliament and none of the CTNM passed muster, collecting 3-4% of votes.
After that they started shouting about falsification and that the quotas
set were wrong.
In fact, it is hard to trace any logic in their actions and statements,
but many like their consistent active anti-Mejlis stand. By many I mean
the Communists, Russian chauvinists, and strangely enough, Presidential
Representative to the Crimea Kyseliov who rarely misses an opportunity
to quote from their anti-Mejlis statements. The CTNM is especially popular
with Leonid Hrach. This started when today's Speaker was an extremely active
Communist Party functionary.
True, there is logic and calculation in the CTNM's latest endeavors.
They are well aware that the Crimean Constitution, passed by Verkhovna
Rada and signed by the President caused quite some chagrin on the peninsula,
primarily because official Kyiv is so obviously calm in watching our rights
so grossly violated. Not a single Crimean problem has been solved in practice,
so CTNM decided to act on the crest of the wave and came out with this
statement, counting on more votes in the next elections.
However, I will not assess this document. Things like this happen. Here
in Ukraine you have forces opposing independence. Just because of this
we don't say that Ukrainians have taken leave of their senses, and I hope
no one will say the same about the Crimean Tatars just because they have
this extravagant CTNM group.
Many of the organizations to which they sent their statement know them
for what they really are and if they have any questions they will call
the Mejlis. They always do.







