Rivalry for Crimean coast provoked interethnic conflict

The so-called “interethnic conflict between the local Cossacks and Crimean Tatars” over a plot of land in the village of Morske, near Sudak, has abated a little. (The reader knows that a similar conflict broke out in this village in 2001, when a Christian cross was allegedly brought down.) The authorities have moved in a large police force which keeps the warring sides apart and guards the Morske village hall and the post- office. The streets are constantly patrolled by armed servicemen. However, as the cause of the conflict has not been removed, it is time to draw the first conclusions.

Let me remind the readers the essence and the sequence of events and dot some i’s. Firstly, what may be called a face-off in Morske had been coming to a head for several years on end, not just two or three days, as most TV channels, newspapers and Internet publications reported. The outbreak of confrontation in 2001 over the establishment of a cross on a village hill allowed some to coin the new word “cross-felling.” Although the Orthodox church was finally put up, the events of the year before last may have just been a prelude to some far-reaching processes which have not yet perhaps reached their climax...

The current aggravation of the situation began not last week, as many claim, but as long ago as last September. On September 16, a 20- strong group of the Crimean Tatars led by Fevzy Dzhirikov squatted on almost a hectare of sea coast. They pitched some tents and a shed, put in a house trailer, organized a round-the-clock watch, and then set up 20 makeshift houses. According to Morske Mayor Leonid Krysov, they filed a petition requesting authorization to build mini-health- centers and houses. The Crimean Tatars claimed they “opted for this reckless step due to the absence of land for housing construction after we learned that the village mayor, in compliance with a local council decision, had ceded this territory to the Moscow-based Tsentrkniga company allegedly for the construction of a recreation center. Although a mockup of the latter was publicly exhibited at the village council, no bidding was open for the construction.” The village council claims that out of the 16 squatters only four have not yet solved their land problem. Besides, the council has made available 394 land plots, including 298 for the Crimean Tatars. Therefore, it is the question of not housing but of something else...

At the same time, when the conflict was being discussed, it turned out that there had been a tobacco plantation at this place next to the Almazny health camp before 2000. After stock-taking, this land was assigned to the village council, which immediately attracted those willing to take it under a long-term lease. This, as Crimean parliament speaker Boris Deych put it, “piece of a milch cow” caught the eye of the Moscow-based Tsentrkniga commercial firm which the village council had authorized two years before to draw up a feasibility report for building the Summer 21st Century community center at this place. Even after the preliminary design was prepared and geological survey was done, the village council was not in a hurry to finally dispose of the land plot: it was not documentarily handed over either to the Moscow firm or anybody else perhaps because the “hosts” and “guests” had not yet come to terms. Village council chairman L. Krysov says the land plot still belongs to the council pending the land transfer agreement.

Even then, last September, when tents were pitched on what once was a tobacco field, the village council said it was an unlawful situation and urged the Crimean parliament and government “to take measures for clearing the illegally seized area,” again stressed the necessity of building a health center at this section of the coast, and instructed Tsentrkniga to temporarily fence off the land guarded day and night by the Crimean Tatars.

Even at that time, a conference attended by high-placed Crimean officials proposed various ways of breaking the Morske deadlock. The Crimean Tatars justified their action by the fact that this land had once belonged to their ancestors, while those who stood to gain from the construction of a health center tried to cash in on the situation. The Crimean leadership seemed to manage to put the dialogue into a constructive channel. All the sides emphasized they highly valued the much-sought-after peninsular stability and would do their best to defuse the conflict.

It turned out, though, that what also contributed to the conflict over the plot of land were numerous mistakes by the village council and its chairman Krysov who, according to Mr. Deych, irresponsibly disposed of the land. In particular, those who tried to resolve the conflict unearthed a secret deal of the local authorities which likewise “disposed” of the area next to the Solnechny Kamen health center. The latter had been leased out for 48 (!) years, but the new owners in turn decided... to sell the rented area. They even placed a bidding invitation in the Internet.

This advert was accidentally seen by an old acquaintance of Crimean parliament speaker B. Deych’s, now living in Slovenia, who took interest in the lucrative offer and in what was really going on in the vicinity of Sudak. It turned out that the village council had also leased out, but still kept intact, a five-hectare peach orchard...

Even then Mr. Deych said that, “by force of his irresponsibility and incompetence, village council chairman Krysov created a face-off between certain groups of this village’s population. He was well aware of the interest of different people in this. Before taking this step, he should have held a meeting of territorial communities and authoritative people and only then made a decision. Such plots of land should not be dished out just at one’s will. Krysov must face the law. On the other hand, squatting in the Crimea must be put an end to. There is and can be no other supremacy than that of the law...”

The Crimean government also shares this viewpoint, considering that “the local council has all fouled up.”

“The conflict provoked here results from the non-professionalism and opaqueness of the local authorities and their inability to take into account the interethnic factor,” Crimean Chairman of the Council of Ministers Serhiy Kunitsyn said then. “We should not allow passions to run high due to bureaucratic heartlessness, inefficiency or evil design. All must obey the law in force. So if the land had been seized by the Russians or Ukrainians, we would have reacted in the same way. I therefore suggest a zero option: a village council session cancels all the previously- made decisions about this plot of land, so that neither the prosecution service nor the other law-enforcement bodies handle this problem tomorrow. The builders themselves must dismantle what they built in that area and remove the building materials. Neither Krysov nor the village council will be allowed to build anything pending the final decision on this land plot. A coordination commission will be set up, comprising representatives of the local authorities, the public, the majlis, the Verkhovna Rada and the Council of Ministers of the Crimea, and the law-enforcement bodies. It will study the situation in detail and impose a moratorium on any kind of construction on this territory until a coordinated decision is made. This commission will do a full analysis and inventory of the Morske land area as well as check the validity of all lease contracts. It will suggest the rational ways of utilizing them to the utmost benefit of, above all, those who live here.” The village council was then instructed to hold an extraordinary session and cancel some of its earlier resolutions, including the one authorizing to begin the construction of a health center in 2003.

The extraordinary session was held, but, as Mr. Krysov said, it did not revoke the resolutions passed by the previous-convocation council because, “if they are wrong, they can only be canceled — under Item 10, Article 49, the Law of Ukraine “On Local Self- Government — through a court action.”

Why is this happening? Because the village mayor still believes the village council has a legitimate right to make such decisions. “I am inspected every year by the land-management department and the prosecution service, and they have had no complaints about these decisions,” Mr. Krysov says. He is still convinced they must build nothing but the health center on “the land of discord,” “because a general meeting of local residents decided that a common- access facility, not individual housing, should be built there.” Besides, the Moscow-based firm, which has spent a pretty penny on the project report, can well take a legal action. But the point precisely is that the Crimean Tatars were not in fact going to build residential houses at that seashore segment: they just staked it out for the future commercial construction...

What is more, the authorities have made no anti-squatting decisions since then. The next day, instead of coming to a halt, the construction only brisked up. At the same time, in September 2002, the Crimean chief prosecutor Oleksandr Dobrorez said his office had made an unambiguous conclusion: “Squatting is subject to criminal prosecution, so there should be no unlawful acts like this.” Yet, defendants just failed to show up for the Sudak local court session which was hearing the case of Fevzy Dzhirikov and others accused of unauthorized seizure of land...

It will be also recalled that at the same time the Sudak city executive committee looked into similar conflict situations that came up in the city itself. The session was attended by representatives of the law-enforcement bodies, local self-government, and the public. Local residents are nursing a hope that this will at last put an end to the struggle for land ownership in this seaside resort, where tents have occasionally been pitched at what used to be a helicopter pad on Fereyna Hill and other places. A Sudak city council extraordinary session has passed the resolution “On Unauthorized Seizure of Land in the Region” which called this practice a dangerous tendency, as well as urged the Crimean parliament and the government “to work out a viable mechanism of liberating the seized lands and preventing such facts in the future.” At the same time, Sudak’s residents held a public rally which resolved that “land is our common possession, so it must work for the good of the whole region and all the residents, and be made available on a legal basis only...”

Presumably, the situation must have radically changed since then, but... nothing has changed on the Morske coast. Tsentrkniga is still eager to build an entertainment center, while the Crimean Tatars refuse to dismantle the houses they put up...

Then, in January 2003, for two days in a row, the Crimean Tatars and “local Cossacks” (last time no one said there were Cossacks in Morske) would pick “unprovoked” fights in a bar, which essentially boiled down to... the dispute over the same coast area. About two hundred (figures vary between 150 and 400)Crimean Tatars took part in a rally in front of the village council hall. Still more people rallied for a “Slav” assembly some distance away. Some demanded that the village council crack down on the others, while Mr. Krysov got this time, among other things, a slap in the face from the mother of a Crimean Tatar beaten up and hospitalized shortly before. The Crimean Tatar People’s Majlis insists that land be made available for commercial activities in the Crimea with due account of the Crimean Tatars’ interests and with the consent of local majlises. They also demanded that L. Krysov be dismissed and the Cossack organization disbanded, threatening to organize an association of askers (Muslim militia — Ed.) in response.

This time, Morske saw not only all the Crimean top bosses but also a police force to keep the warring sides apart...

On January 16, the village again saw the establishment of a coordination commission that comprised representatives of the two conflicting sides, senior law- enforcement and security officers, prosecutors, and the local administration bodies. All the commission members signed a seven-item protocol of intent. The Crimean Tatar squatters pledged to obey the court order to tear down one structure they had put up. Thereafter, a village council session will consider, within five days, the request of the Crimean Tatar residents to be given a plot of land for building a community center and a mini-health- camp. In their turn, the Crimean Tatars will not obstruct the allotment of another coastal segment to the local Slav population for the construction of their own recreational facilities. This done, the squatters are to dismantle the remaining 10 structures in the seized area within ten days. On the other hand, the law-enforcement bodies will conduct an investigation and prosecute the ringleaders and active participants of public disturbances in the village. Item 7 of the protocol says that the two sides are dropping their respective demands to evict village council chairman L. Krysov and local majlis leader F. Dzhirikov.

Commenting on the situation, Mr. Kunitsyn emphasized that the root cause of the Morske conflict is in the commercial management of land, not in the housing construction. “Land in the Crimea, especially the coast line, is becoming the object of commercialization and profit-making, so lack of transparency in the allotment of land provokes conflicts,” Mr. Kunitsyn said. “The past few years have seen an increased number of ‘feudal lords’ in local councils, who have forgotten that the state have delegated them not only the rights but also responsibility for the decisions they make. Such executives must be reminded that rights are inseparably linked with duties and responsibility,” the premier pointed out.

Now it is time to draw conclusions from these developments.

First, the Morske conflict is not one between “the local Cossacks and the Crimean Tatars,” as it is widely portrayed, but one between the village council and the village’s population irrespective of the ethnicity. It is not accidental that the conflict broke out again in Morske: the authorities resorted to the same tactic in the times of “cross-felling” and now. The authorities (above all, the village council and its chair Leonid Krysov as well as some higher echelons which have proved unable to restore law and order for several years on end, although they never stop talking about this!) have been addressing this problem without due account of what the grassroots, the taxpayers, various groups of villagers, will say to this — they have been primarily proceeding from their personal or corporate interests. The newly—concluded agreement says that Morske villagers do not seek land for housing construction: they want the village council to allot them, as well as the above-mentioned Moscow firm, some land for “recreational facilities” of their own — first to the Crimean Tatars and then to the Slavs.

On the other hand, the authorities, reluctant to make mutually- beneficial decisions and still failing to fulfill the promises they had given to the previous “customers,” are only sending up a trial balloon, i.e., express an intent to solve these problems. For example, although the village council declared two years ago (!) that the disputed land should belong to the Moscow firm, it has not yet officially and documentarily allotted it to the latter. The reason is perhaps in the fear of punishment for the likely failure to solve the problem strictly under the law and satisfy the appetites of their own and of their “guests.” In particular, L. Krysov — widely regarded as the root cause of all the conflicts, including the cross-felling and the squatting, — behaves in Morske as if he were the eternal citizen, while the Crimean Tatars and the Slavs were just temporary residents whose interests he can ignore in favor of the far-from-the-Crimea entities. The chairman has assumed a dangerous tactic: he speaks aloud about a future decision and then takes up a wait-and-see attitude. Meanwhile, the opposed entities begin to squabble with one another and threaten to stir up interethnic strife. This causes discontent of the WHOLE, both Muslim and Slavic, population, but the authorities describe the ensuing complication as an interethnic conflict just to avoid being held responsible. A dangerous game indeed, I should say...

For it is common knowledge that as soon as a conflict — be it economic, political or cultural — assumes an interethnic shape, it may last for decades.

Should passions run high again, even a police force will be perhaps unable to hold the situation under control...