The integration of Crimean Tatars into Ukrainian society should take place without national egoism

OVERCOMING THE DUALISM OF POWER

Back on their home turf, the Crimean Tatars have discovered a clear dualism in the Crimean system of power: the system of the Majlis, officially known as the Council of Representatives of the Crimean Tatar People under the President of Ukraine, as opposed to the official authorities — councils at all levels and the Crimean government. Under the Soviets, the two systems opposed each other: the former put forth demands, while the latter resisted them and reluctantly satisfied those that reflected things essential to the people. While such a situation was only natural in the first half of the 1990s and in 1998-2003, when power in the Crimea belonged to the Communists, who were responsible for the Tatars’ deportation, now the fact that the repatriates and the Crimean authorities have found themselves on opposite sides of the barricades seems abnormal. After all, the Crimean Tatars are well-represented, accounting for 14% of all Crimean lawmakers and between 5 and 8% of all officials in the executive bodies, while in some districts they account for one-quarter to one-third of all officials. Second, the country has already allocated over UAH 750 million of taxpayers’ money for the development of the Tatar people and countless settlement and repatriation programs. Yet, as the process of integration continues, the challenges faced by the authorities and Crimean Tatars become more and more complex, and ever greater partnership efforts are needed to meet these challenges. In the years 1989-2003, nearly 250,000 repatriates returned to the Crimea. But the process of repatriation continues, with between 2,000 and 2,500 Tatars returning to the Crimea for permanent residence annually. In 1991-2003 over 30,000 Tatars moved into new homes built with budget money. Another 120,000 Crimean Tatars have fully or mostly completed construction of their own houses. Yet, currently over 6,000 families are yet to receive housing. Another 20,000 families cannot complete construction for lack of money. In sum, roughly 100,000 repatriates are yet to receive housing. To solve this problem, 1.2 million square meters of housing space is needed, of which 300,000 square meters are to be built with the taxpayers’ money.

“To move forward, we must forsake the division into ‘us’ and ‘them,’ and work hand-in-hand from now on,” Crimean Premier Serhiy Kunitsyn said addressing the March 19 meeting of the Crimean government and Majlis representatives, who discussed land issues and preparations for the commemoration of the sixtieth anniversary of the deportation. Convinced that the dualism of power should be eliminated, he proposed creating village councils in areas densely populated by repatriates. Of the 300 Crimean Tatar villages over 70 are big communities of between 100 and 500 families, which have their own hierarchy. However, these villages, which are home to over 100,000, still have no status or official powers. Moreover, they are plagued by the most pressing problems such as bad roads and few hospitals, kindergartens, or stores. Each village needs an authority to oversee all this, Kunitsyn believes. Aside from local authorities, these settlements need housing and communal services, police precincts, and other services to ensure a normal life for these communities.

Addressing the meeting, Crimean Parliament Speaker Borys Deich said that further integration of the Crimean Tatars into Ukrainian society should be free from “new illusions or old myths,” the latter being the allegations that the authorities continue to resists the development of the Tatar people. Among the new illusions he named the impatience of individual participants of the Tatar national movement, who are national maximalists and seek the soonest possible realization of the Crimean Tatars’ dream of their national statehood.

THE MAINSPRING OF INTEGRATION

“Our financial resources are very limited when it comes to solving the problems of the repatriates,” Speaker Borys Deich told the meeting. Allocations should be increased for the purchase of dwellings, construction of housing for the repatriates, their health care, education, and gas supplies. The Crimea has appealed to the president to speed the financing of a state program to this effect. As much as thirty million hryvnias is needed in the first half of 2004. In addition, the week before last the Crimean parliament approved the 2004 development program, which envisions the expenditure of fifteen million hryvnias, of which 10.2 million will go to housing construction and 4.8 million to social and cultural programs.

The 2004 program will make it possible to provide housing to another 150 persons, restore cultural and architectural monuments such as the Juma-Jama Mosque in Kerch, Zindzhrylym Medrese Complex in Bakhchysarai, Juma-Jami in Yevpatoriya, Tekiye Dervishei Monastery in Yevpatoriya, and the Yusup Mosque in Bakhchysarai district.

Allocation of land plots necessitates consistency and mutual understanding, Kunitsyn believes. Moreover, it requires joint effort. For example, families have not been able to move into an apartment house for eighteen families in Sudak, because many of those who wish to receive apartments “already own a house or a land plot.” As Borys Deich put it, such issues should be solved fairly with the cooperation of local authorities and the Majlis. “I’m certain that if we approach this problem in a legitimate and reasonable way, ethnic maximalist sentiment will begin to disappear along with hostility and attempts to solve these problems by means of force and threats,” he added.

A positive example of cooperation of the Majlis and the authorities was their first roundtable discussion. Incidentally, another protest rally was scheduled for the following Sunday in Yalta, but was cancelled as the two sides came to terms. Instead of organizing a protest rally, the Tatars celebrated the coming of spring. “The Crimean Tatars are ready for a dialog with the Yalta authorities. And if we reach an agreement, there will be no tents or protest rallies,” said Majlis Chairman Mustafa Dzhemiliov. According to him, the resumption of the protest rally in front of the Yalta Town Hall on March 21 was approved by the regional Majlis, since “the week before [the authorities] had agreed to give the Crimean Tatars an adequate land plot instead of the one near the Aqua Park. The proposed option suited us, but it transpired that this land had been already given to somebody else,” Dzhemiliov told journalists. Yalta Mayor Serhiy Braiko said in turn that “the Crimean Tatars have no grounds for such actions.” He further said that last year Crimean Tatars received 1,120 land plots on the territory of Greater Yalta and tenants moved into the first section of an apartment house for 200 families. The Yalta Town Hall allocated UAH 300,000 for the settlement of repatriates in Yalta this year along with six hectares of land for the construction of one more apartment house.

The dry statistics appear more than optimistic. According to Vasyl Sokolyk, deputy chairman of the Republic Committee for Land Resources, repatriates have received over 12,500 land plots in Greater Yalta, Feodosiya, and Alushta. But in reality everything looks less optimistic, with over a third of all land plots still unoccupied. On the other hand, the autonomous republic’s government does not maintain a general register of these people and thus cannot determine who has already received a land plot and claims a second or third one, which is not unusual. Claims for land plots are sometimes written in the same handwriting and come in batches. Currently, there are a million land holders in the Crimea, but there is no database on them. Thus, deputies of the Yalta Town Hall, followed by the deputies of the Yevpatoriya City Hall, after two years of giving away land within the town limits, made the first attempt to regulate this process by voting to suspend issues of land for housing construction until a master plan is completed. According to State Land Committee Chairman Andriy Danylenko, this master plan will be a “plan of making the territory to of a zone of recreation, Ukraine’s international resort. The Southern Coast of the Crimea should become as attractive as possible and generate revenue for the budgets of the autonomy and the country.” On the other hand, Danylenko claims that the law On Local Self-government urgently needs to be amended, since more often than not it is the village councils that violate the law and procedures for issuing land. The autonomous government passed only ninety resolutions on land issues as compared to some 30,000 resolutions passed by village councils. The amended law should make violations impossible and authorize higher councils to monitor the legitimacy of the relevant resolutions by village councils, Danylenko is convinced.