Crimean Forum of Political Prisoners of Communist Regime and Human Rights Advocates Was Founded

20 May 2012

In the evening on May 19, 2012 the working meeting of the former prisoners of the Communist regime and human rights advocates was held in Simferopol. They came to Crimea to honor the memory of the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people – the deportation May 18, 1944 and the decades of the forcible keeping in the places of exile.

The meeting was attended by ALEKSEEVA Lyudmila (Russia, Moscow), ARUTUNYAN Vardan (Armenia, Erevan), BUKOVSKY Vladimir (Great Britain, Cambridge), GORBANEVSKA Natalya (France, Paris), GRIGORENKO Andrei (USA New-York), JEMILEV Mustafa (Ukraine, Bakhchisaray), ZISELS Iosif (Ukraine, Kyiv), KALABUGIN Valeriy (Estonia, Tallinn), KOVALEV Sergei (Russia, Moscow), LAVUT Alexander (Russia, Moscow), MARINOVICH Miroslav (Ukraine, Lvov), OVSIENKO Vasiliy (Ukraine, Kyiv), PODRABINEK Alexander (Russia, Moscow), REDDAWAY Peter (USA Washington), SVERSTYUK Eugene (Ukraine, Kyiv), SEITMURATOVA Ayshe (Ukraine, Simferopol), SMIRNOV Aleksey (Russia, Moscow), HAIROV Izet (Ukraine Simferopol), HLEBOVICH Peter (Poland, Krakow), SHEVCHENKO Oles (Ukraine, Kyiv), YANKELEVICH Tatyana (USA, Boston).

During the meeting its participants discussed and supported the initiative of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people on the foundation of the CRIMEAN FORUM – the meeting of the political prisoners of the Communist regime and human rights advocates, annually called in Crimea.

As the statements adopted says the main task of Crimean Forum is ensuring the succession of the human rights advocacy movement of the former USSR in activity of the institutes of the civil society in the post Soviet countries.

The meeting also adopted the statements titled: “The Past of Russia Threatens to its Future” (the draft, proposed by the participants from Russia) and calling to the Ukrainian society to unite their efforts to protect the democracy in the country (the draft, proposed by the participants from Ukraine).

In conclusion of the meeting its participants thanked their sworn brother and team-mate on the human rights advocacy movement of the USSR, the Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Jemilev for the organization of their visit to Crimea and participation in many memorial events, held in Crimea on the eve of May 18.

Addressing his friends and team-mates Mustafa Jemilev said: “Crimean Tatars’ gratitude to every one of you is immense, because you helped it fighting for their rights to return to their Homeland – Crimea, sacrificing your own freedom in the hardest days for the Crimean Tatar people. It is a great honor for us to receive you in our native land, because there is also your contribution in the fact that we has been returning to Crimea”.