Who is fanning conflict in the Crimea?

On February 4, Sudak, a small holiday resort in the southeastern Crimea, saw a massive downtown rally of Crimean Tatars near the monument to the victims of deportation. Various estimates put the number of participating repatriates from Sudak, Simferopol, and other Crimean cities at 600 to 800. They carried placards reading “Stop selling our land!,” “Stop Baiting Crimean Tatars!,” “Sudak land for Sudak residents,” “Crimean Cossacks are a political instrument.” The speakers protested the actions of Crimean Cossack communities and the violations of the deportees’ rights. This event showed that numerous contradictions in Crimean society could well provoke large-scale conflicts.

Shortly before, the Crimean parliament’s presidium had voiced its concern over the Sudak events and a pronounced tendency toward the aggravation of interethnic disputes. The presidium demanded that the Council of Crimean Tatar Representatives under the president of Ukraine take measures to defuse the crisis. At the suggestion of Vice Speaker Vasyl Kyseliov, presidium members decided to cross the phrase “there is an overall improvement of civil harmony in the Crimea” out of the draft resolution: instead, the common perception was that enmity and confrontation were on the rise. The adopted resolution says, “there is a pronounced tendency toward the emergence and aggravation of interethnic disputes.” Sudak Mayor Leonid Shremf said that city residents tended to stick together on an ethnic basis and “there is a wide gap between them.”

“This was unthinkable even before the [Second World] war,” said Deputy Yevhen Mykhailov who comes from the Sudak district. “My parents lived in peace and friendship with the Tatars.”

“This situation in Sudak district,” the presidium’s resolution says, “is conducive to the perpetuation of unhealthy ethno-psychological stereotypes and barriers in mass consciousness, leads to violations of law and order, and undermines the authorities’ efforts to observe human rights...” The Crimean Supreme Council’s Presidium resolved to hold, as early as in February, a special hearing on interethnic relations in the Crimea, with participation of the representatives of all ethnic communities.

Why is the Crimea again rife with talk about ethnic conflicts? Although the arrest of the Crimean Tatar Ismet Saliyev, who came into conflict with the ethnic Russian Vladimir Makhnakov in the village Soniachna Dolyna, just on the eve of the major Muslim holiday Eid-ul-Adha (a.k.a. Kurban Bairam) was by no means the best decision, this was not a breach of the law. Deputy chief of the Crimean police, Valery Seredenko, said the investigation of this case had reached a deadlock because Saliyev, now released on bail, and his lawyer never report to the police station together — each of them comes separately.

Simultaneously, Mr. Seredenko said that what happened in Sudak on Sunday (when a crowd of Crimean Tatars tried to free Saliyev from custody by force — Ed.) “was undoubtedly a deliberate, carefully arranged and well-orchestrated scheme.” In his opinion, some Crimean Tatar politicians will use this situation to their own benefit.

Unfortunately, the current situation in the Crimea is such that even a small misunderstanding could turn the confrontation into an acute conflict. Supreme Council Chairman Borys Deich said at the presidium meeting, “The Sudak situation has reached the critical point when it is not enough just to name things. To our deep regret, breaches of the land management law have assumed an uncontrollable nature in the region. Incidentally, unauthorized land seizure is resorted to by representatives of not only the Crimean Tatar people but also other ethnic groups. The situation is being further aggravated by the participation of residents of the Crimea’s steppe regions in these actions and by seizures of coastal land... Attempts at any strong-arm solution, plus a host of other still unsolved problems, causes widespread alarm and interethnic tension. In such a situation any incident, be it a cafe brawl or a squabble at a gymnasium, immediately assumes the character of an ethnic one, which various political forces will readily use to fan conflicts by spreading leaflets and provocative calls, staging rallies and pickets, or even besieging police stations... I must say bluntly that neither the government, nor the law enforcement bodies, nor the courts have proven to be prepared for this violent turn of events. The situation in the region has reached the critical line that separates us from a tragedy!..”

Crimean Prime Minister Serhiy Kunitsyn, Supreme Council Presidium members Volodymyr Klychnikov, Anatoly Kotserub, and Vasyl Kyseliov stressed that it was impossible to put thing in order by force alone: what is needed is continuous work by local authorities with the local people and, above all, an impartial and law-abiding attitude toward all residents, irrespective of their ethnicity. Premier Kunitsyn reminded the audience that “crime has no ethnicity” and condemned the practice of calculating the number of victims: for example, there was an incident recently when Russians killed a six-person Tatar family... Such calculations have nothing to do with the root causes of interethnic disputes. There is a widespread view that in reality many politicians, instead of promoting harmony among the Crimean residents, are trying to use the existing contradictions and shortcomings to kindle a conflict. The presidium believes that, on the one hand, Crimean Tatars’ actions are being stirred up by the Milli Majlis and local majlises. On the other hand, local administrations seem to be secretly guided by ethnic considerations when they distribute the bulk of lands and business opportunities, such as permissions for trade, construction and private cab driving, to Slavs, leaving the Crimean Tatars either nothing or very little, which puts people in a quandary.

This kind of injustice is already forcing the common people to act on their own. For example, Kostiantyn Popandopulo, mayor of the village of Partenit, was voted out of office in a local referendum. On the same day, residents of the village Chervonokamyanka gave a month-long “probation” to Hurzuf Mayor Viktor Hamal. Meanwhile, the villagers are setting up a self-government council.