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Speech of Chairman of Mejlis M. Jemilev at 1st Session of 6th Qurultay of Crimean Tatar People, October 26, 2013
26 October 2013
Speech of Chairman of Mejlis M. Jemilev at 1st Session of 6th Qurultay of
Crimean Tatar People, October 26, 2013, Simferopol
(Translation from Crimean Tatar language)
Dear delegates of the 6th Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People, Dear guests!
I would like to congratulate warmly all the delegates of the new Qurultay and I hope that during this five-year term you were elected as the delegates of our supreme representative body you will do your best to represent the interests of our people gracefully. However, the level of our national unity and the scale of steps aimed at the solution of the problems of our people during the following 5 years, the extent of the defense of the national and civil rights of our nationals will depend in many respects on the activity of the delegates of the newly elected Qurultay and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People that will be elected today by these delegates of the Qurultay.
More than 22 years passed since we revived our national self-governance system. Many people that were among the originators of its revival and part of the members of the first composition of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People that was elected in 1991 passed away, the rest became old. The children that were born at that period become the young people today and are able to make their own responsible decisions. The members of 322 local and regional mejlises in Crimea numbering 2129 people and majority of 248 newly elected delegates of the Qurultay are those who were little children at that period. I hope that the new generation of the nation’s leaders will be committed to the principles and ideals of their fathers and grand fathers.
Comparing the present situation our people lives today with the first years of the beginning of their mass return to their historical Homeland we could see the great difference. The considerable part of our people has returned to their native land. There are no tent towns, no actions of protest and hunger strikes for the elementary right to receive propiska (registration). We have managed to open few schools in our native language. We have built several dozens of mosques with support of the Muslim countries and with our own forces. We have some national periodicals, one information agency, and few hours of national broadcasts on the state TV per week. There are musical ensembles, drama theatre and so on. A certain number of the Crimean Tatars work in the representative and executive bodies of the autonomy.
There is a thin layer of the successful entrepreneurs that not only solve the financial problems of their family and relatives, but also try to provide assistance both to the local bodies of the national self-governance and their common nationals in need. And the most important thing is that despite sometimes a very strained and conflict situations and open hostile, discriminatory and provocative actions of certain forces belonging both to the authorities and chauvinistic groups and special services of certain countries, numerous acts of vandalism against the Crimean Tatar religious buildings, cemeteries and mosques, despite the wild anti-Crimean Tatar propaganda in Russian Mass Media, we could avoid the bloody conflicts and preserve peace in the peninsular.
One could submit that the history doesn’t know another such example when the movement of such large number of people took place without the bloody conflicts. The main merit here belongs to the National Movement that since the very first days of its foundation adhered to the democratic and humanitarian principles of our great educator Ismail Gasprinsky – non-violence principles.
There is a very long and exhausting fight ahead.
Around 100 thousand our nationals keep on living outside Crimea in exile, mainly in the Central Asia. Many of them will not be able to return in the nearest future without the assistance from aside, providing employment and living. Many of 300 new Crimean Tatar settlements in Crimea are in depressing condition. Many of them have no water supply; some of them have no even the permanent power supply. Almost all of them have no hard roads which turning into an impassable bog during the bad weather. The Crimean Tatars have the highest level of unemployment in Crimea. In average the living standards of the Crimean Tatars are much lower compared to the average level in Ukraine and Crimea, not to speak of the average European standards.
The lack of schools with education in native language causes the most concern. Around 90 % of our children have to attend the Russian schools and are almost deprived of their constitutional right to obtain the education in their native language. Many of them can not learn their native language at home as well, because their parents belong to the generation that grew in the places of exile with no national schools. Thus, the people faced the threat of complete loss of its native language and consequently the loss of their national identity and distinctiveness. Let me remind you that for many years the Crimean Tatar language enters the UNESCO list of endangered languages. That is why as far as the priority tasks of the new Qurultay, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and local mejlises concern, they have to focus on the restoration of the system of education in the native language. However, the restoration of this system in the full extent requires that every school where the Crimean Tatar pupils study must have the Crimean Tatar classes and the schools were the Crimean Tatars represent the majority have to be transferred into the schools with education in Crimean Tatar language. It is legal and fair. In case there is no justice any non-violent actions of protest are rightful and should be organized by the local mejlises.
The solution of these problems needs first of all the adequate financing, but the allocated finances are scanty and decrease from year to year. This year they were almost reduced to a zero.
This year the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine spread the statement concerning the actions of protest of the Crimean Tatar disporas timed to the anniversary of the deportation that were held before the embassies of Ukraine in some European countries against the discriminatory and chauvinistic policy of the authorities against the Crimean Tatars, it said about the huge assistance that was allegedly provided by the state to the returning Crimean Tatars. In particular, it mentioned 1,2 billions UAH that have been allotted for the resettlement.
The common man could think that it is a very huge sum. Some ill-wishers, including some hired ones among our nationals feeding by the propaganda against the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People admit that these funds would be enough for 100% return and resettlement of the whole Crimean Tatar people. In defiance of the common sense they accuse the Mejlis in silling-out and inefficient use of these funds, though the Mejlis in no way had to do with these funds. It is a common knowledge that the state officials allocated these funds and they were appointed and controlled by the authorities themselves.
The authorities themselves took the opportunity of the lack of any control from our side and used these funds in the most shameful way for purposes that were very far from the needs of the deportees especially in the first years when the most funds were provided. In addition, around 25% of these funds returned back to the state in the form of various taxes. Despite the fact that the Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Germans comprise only 1,4 % of all the formerly deported persons that returned to Crimea they received up to 20% of funds allocated. It means that in average one Armenian was allocated 15 times more funds than one Crimean Tatar. It also was the part of the subtle and provocative plan whose goal was to set us against each other.
However, even if all these funds were used for solving the problems of FDPs fairly it would mean that in average for the last 23 years the state spent in average 2250 UAH per one deportee, that is 97 UAH per year or 8 UAH per month. It is ten times less that the state took from the working FDPs in the form of taxes. I would like to ask those irresponsible talkers reasoning about the allocation of the huge funds and allegedly their improper use by the Mejlis, though, I repeat, it is Kyiv that exclusively deals with allocation, approval of the plans and control of their usage: “Could we return the whole people and resettle it in its Homeland spending 8 UAH or $1 per one person a month?”
That is why the task of the new Qurultay should be not only to demand the cardinal increase of the state reimbursement expenses for the return of our nationals that still live in the places of exile and their resettlement in their native land, but also to seek for the required funds outside the state programs. With this goal we have to activate the work of the World Congress of the Crimean Tatars.
We face quite many problems in our religious live as well. The untraditional for our people sects that came from outside of Crimea, including the extremist and totalitarian ones, rejecting the nationalities and preaching some crazy ideas of founding some world Islamic caliphate, calling the democratic values the infidels’ inventions, promoting the split among our people, discrediting Islam, creating interethnic and interreligious tension. At the same time they are very useful for the opponents of the restoration of the rights of our people, because almost all of them are opponents of the Qurultay that was elected by our people, they undermine the unity of our people, they call not to take part in any elections and consequently not to elect the people’s representatives to the state bodies of the autonomy. At the same time their empty and laud statements are used by the Mass Media hostile to our people to create the negative image of the Crimean Tatars, fearing the common man with “Tatar threat”. It was also noted that quite large number of the followers of these sects are the informers of the bodies dealing with collecting or inventing the negative information against the representatives of the bodies of the self-governance of the Crimean Tatars at the same time.
The neutralization of the activity of the sectarians among our people needs adoption of the active measures by the local and regional mejlises along with the Spiritual Board of the Muslims of Crimea on cleansing all Crimean mosques of these prophets up to the expulsion of those who violate the norms set by the Muftiat. We also have to make the authorities to transfer all mosques and other religious buildings into the executive competence of the united Spiritual Board. The regional and local mejlises, the delegates of the Qurultay have to meet with their electors regularly in order to discuss the main problems of their nationals and draw their attention to the destroying actions of these sectarians for our people. The special attention should be paid to the defense of our youth from the influence of their primitive ideology.
Almost all new Crimean Tatar settlements have lands allotted for the construction of the mosques, but their construction can not be started due to the lack of funds. I’m sure that the necessary number of mosques could be built in Crimea in the shortest terms if the Mejlis and the Spiritual Board will show their due activity in order to draw attention of the bodies of the Islamic countries concerned to this problem. At this we need to adhere strictly to the principle that the mosques in Crimea are to be built after the agreement with the Spiritual Board of Muslims of Crimea and transferred to its competence after the completion of their construction.
It is quite evident that the effective, comprehensive and conflict-free solution of many problems needs the adoption of the corresponding laws regulating the political and legal issues of the restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people. Our many-years efforts aimed at the adoption of the Law on the restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people and other ethnic groups that were deported by the Soviet regime still have no success. Though, in June 2012 it was adopted in the first reading and the President of Ukraine in his annual address to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine firmly stated about the necessity to adopt it, but there are fears that it could be adopted with such amendments that would emasculate its main essence. The authorities of the autonomy are especially active in this respect. If all the amendments proposed by the leadership of the Crimea would be taken into consideration and adopted there will be no need to adopt this law at all, because after the adoption of these amendments the law will turn into an empty declaration on the equity of the deportees with other ethnic groups of Ukraine, in other words, what could be read in the Constitution. However, even without all that this is a very compromise draft law. The OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities admits that it is mostly corresponds to the European standards. In case the most essential items would be emasculated from it the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People will have to appeal this law and draw the attention of the leading international institutions in order to restore its prior content.
The Crimean Tatars face the great difficulties in the process of the restoration of their rights due to several reasons. First, the contradicting development of Ukraine during the whole period since the proclamation of the independence. On one side the democratic values are declared, but the governance is performed mainly by the authoritarian measures. The state has no consecutive policy based on the European standards and fundamental democratic principles on protection of the human rights of the national minorities, indigenous people and human rights in the whole. Consequently, there is no systematic approach to the restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatars as one of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine that returned to its homeland after the deportation, genocide and the decades of their forcible keeping in the places of exile. The political forces changing each other in the supreme leadership of the country are inclined to consider the Crimean Tatars not as the integral people whose legal rights should be restored as soon as possible in the interests of the very state, but as some group of people in terms of their utility or pertinence for strengthening their power.
It is especially evident on the eve, during or after the regular parliamentary, presidential or local elections in other words almost permanently. Considering that the overwhelming majority of the Crimean Tatars traditionally support the national – democratic forces of Ukraine in compliance with the recommendations of its Qurultay they found themselves in difficult situation when the opposite political forces come to power.
Another difficulty the Crimean Tatars face in the process of the restoration of their rights is explained by the peculiarities of the Crimean peninsular the majority of the population of which constitute mainly people from the inner regions of the neighbor state and their descendants that were moved to Crimea after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars and few other ethnic groups. The Crimean peninsular in Ukraine turned to be the region that is the most committed to the stereotypes against the deported ethnic groups imposed by the many-years propaganda. Suffice it to recall that according to the survey published in spring 2013, around 84 % of Crimean population still consider Stalin – the most terrible criminal of the 20th century – the great state figure and justify all the crimes that he committed, including, of course, the deportation and genocide of the Crimean Tatar people. By the way, today the supreme executive body of the autonomy is headed by the person who openly justifies Stalin’s crimes against the Crimean Tatar people in Mass Media and calls them the traitors to their country. According to his opinion, the Crimean Tatars used to live very well in exile and returned to Crimea only because they were forcibly drawn here threatening by their leaders.
During 23 years after proclamation of Ukraine’s independence there was no such impudent chauvinistic and discriminatory policy against the Crimean Tatars in Crimea. Such frank adventurist policy aimed at splitting our people has never conducted, as well as such arbitrary “cleansing” of the Crimean Tatars in the state bodies on the grounds that they were recommended by the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People or just respect their representative body, though, it is evident that they understand it very well that the dismissal of citizens under the national or political grounds is the crime, under the article of the Criminal Code of Ukraine. However, they behave themselves the way as if they would hold the power and their positions forever and as if they wouldn’t have to take responsibility for their actions.
Of course, they deny the ethnic cleansings and claim that the Mejlis’ statements are pure fiction. They even have enough impudence to tell the international institutions that allegedly the Crimean Tatars are represented in the executive bodies in numbers that exceed their ratio in the Crimean population. However, when the VR Committee of Ukraine on Human Rights addressed the Crimean authorities with an official inquiry to provide the information on the number of the officers of the government of the autonomy and list of the names of the Crimean Tatars working in these bodies it received the following answer: “… The Council of Ministers of ARC has no official statistic data on the deported Crimean Tatars and persons belonging to other nationalities that returned for permanent residence to Ukraine and work in the bodies of the executive power of ARC and local self-governance…”
It was the abstract from the letter of the Vice Chairman of the Council of Ministers of ACR Ms Udovina to the Head of the VR Committee of Ukraine Mr Patskan of September 13, 2013. The same letter Mr Patskan received from the Vice Chairman of the VR ARC Mr Ioffe.
It means that when the authorities claim that there are quite many Crimean Tatars in the bodies of the Crimean authority they know the nationality of all the officers, but when they were required to provide their number and names they responded that they do not have the information about the nationality of their employees.
During the meeting with the EU Commissioner Mr Stefan Fule the Head of the Council of Ministers of the autonomy stated that all the problems of the Crimean Tatars were solved, they enjoy the full equity, received land and even more than the Russians, that they live as well and sometimes even better then others and that is why there is no reasons to speak about any special measures for them. So, one couldn’t count on any assistance from the Crimean authorities in the solution of the Crimean Tatars’ problems.
That is why along with seeking the ways of fair dialogue with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People has to appeal to the international community and international institutions even more than during the Soviet period of the fight for the return to their homeland. It is also one of the reasons why we are the strong supporters of the ratification of the Association Agreement between the EU and Ukraine, because in this case there will be the opportunity for the constant and impartial monitoring of the situation with the restoration of the legal rights of the Crimean Tatar people both from EU side and other international organizations. We expressed this point of view three days ago in Vilnius at the meeting with the present EU Prime Minister of Lithuania Mr Algirdas Butkevicius and received his full support.
For more than three years the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People has been conducting the active and hard work aimed at drawing attention of the international institutions to our problem in order that they provided assistance in its solution to Ukraine. One could submit that we achieved some particular results in this area. The OSCE, EU and UN bodies supported our proposal on conducting the International forum. The independent expert groups of the international organizations conducted the detailed researches of the main aspects of the Crimean Tatars’ problems and corresponding recommendations on the ways of their solution were developed.
However, to put it mildly the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine and Crimean authorities didn’t like much the conclusions of the independent expert groups of the OSCE and UN bodies first of all because they stated clearly that the Ukrainian authorities need to recognize officially the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and conduct the dialogue on the solution of the Crimean Tatars’ problems mainly with the representative body of the people.
During the meeting between the representatives of the Crimean Tatars and the EU Commissioner for Enlargement and European Neighbourhood Policy Mr Stefan Fule held on September 19 this year in the premises of the Council of Ministers of Crimea the EU Commissioner proposed to hold the International Forum in Crimea on the eve of the 70th anniversary of the deportation and genocide of the Crimean Tatar people. Now we are waiting for its support and adoption by the President of Ukraine.
The task of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People of the next convocation in this issue is to apply all the efforts in order to conduct this forum in the territory of Ukraine, to prepare thoroughly to this forum and to execute all the recommendations that will be developed at this forum.
The last thing I would like to tell in my speech as the first Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People elected by our people after 74-years interval caused by the occupation of our homeland by the Bolshevik regime.
Today the new composition of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, new Chairman of the Mejlis and new composition of the Revision Commission of the Qurultay will be elected by means of the secret ballot. Of course, the people that will be elected today will not be convenient to everyone, including me, but the elections will be fair, democratic and reflect the will of the majority of the delegates of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People elected in a democratic way and consequently – the will of the whole Crimean Tatar people. That is why it is very important that irrespective of our personal likes or dislikes to the elected officers of our national self-governance system we would execute strictly the decisions adopted at the Qurultay and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People thus promoting the strengthening of the unity of our people. It is called the national discipline. If we could keep this discipline at high level no plans developed by any special services or other governmental structures could split our people.
Of course, being the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and in fact the first elected person of the nation is a great honor, but it is a great responsibility as well. More than 22 years I had this honor. I am very grateful for this to my people, the delegates of the Qurultay of all four previous convocations that vote for me in the overwhelming majority. I am also grateful to those who criticized sharply on their Mejlis, because it is promoted to the improvement of its activity. I also thank those our nationals, our public and political organizations, the veterans of our National movement who invaded the Mass Media with the appeals demanding me not to leave my position. However, I think that I took this position more than enough and I would like to serve in the future to the supreme representative body of our nation to the best of my ability being outside it.
I wish success to all the delegates of the Qurultay in their activity and I hope very much that the next five years of their work will bring the real break in the restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people.
