Chairman of Mejlis Mustafa Jemilev: Crimea Could Be Called Today a Reserve of Wild Chauvinism and Pro-Russian Separatism

19 September 2013

The Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, MP of Ukraine Mustafa Jemilev convinced that the solution of the Crimean Tatar problem and other ethnic minorities that were subjected to forcible deportation and genocide by the Soviet regime during the WW2 and which today have been returning to their Homeland for already quarter of a century and are trying to restore their rights is critically important for the indigenous people of Crimea. Mustafa Jemilev said this at the official meeting with the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Mr Stefan Fule held in the Council of Ministers of Crimea on September 19, 2013.

M.Jemilev does not exclude that if no efficient steps will be made then according to the analytical researches held there is a threat to the very existence of the Crimean Tatar people as a distinctive European nation with many-century-long culture.

“It is also important for Ukraine, because the failure to solve this problem will be the constant source of conflicts and interethnic tension in Crimea that is considered to be the region with the high level of risk in terms of the aggravation of interethnic conflict,”- M.Jemilev underscored.

Referring to the international practice of solving the ethnic problems the Chairman of the Mejlis noted that any issues, even the most complex ones could be solved easer and conflict free when the authorities establish the close dialogue with the legal representatives seeking restoration of the rights of their people. “The authorities cooperate closely with them and are guided in their acts by the basic European principles of Human Rights, ethnic, indigenous and national minorities’ rights. However, if the authorities restrain themselves from solving its problems instead, ignoring its legitimate representative body having their goal canceling out the national movement of this people for the restoration of their rights. The authorities prefer picking up the persons themselves and calling them the representatives of the people whose main function reduces to prizing any actions of the authorities, trying to split people with an eye to that being involved in internecine strife we couldn’t count on any progress and conflict free solution of problems,”- M.Jemilev said.

M.Jemilev stated that Crimean Tatars returning to their homeland face this very policy during the last three years.

“If according to the political experts after the collapse of the Soviet Union for many years Crimea remained the “communist reserve” of Ukraine, today one could call it the reserve of the wild chauvinism and pro-Russian separatism. This chauvinism flourishes not only in everyday life. All state bodies of the autonomy are penetrated with it up to the very top,”- Mejlis Head stated.

As an example, the Mejlis Head provided the data of the survey held in April this year testifying that over 84% of Crimean population keeps on considering the dictator Stalin a great state figure and consequently justify all crimes committed by his regime, including the ones against the Crimean Tatar people.

M.Jemilev was sure that the attention of the European institutes, human rights organizations and constant monitoring of the situation in Crimea have very significant meaning. “We hope so much that the Agreement on association between the EU and Ukraine will be signed in Vilnius in November this year, because there is no doubt that in this case our country has to be guided by the European norms of human and nationalities’ rights,”- the Mejlis Head underscored.