Mustafa DZHEMILIOV: "I expect no one will say the Crimean Tatars  have taken leave of their senses"

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.