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Presentation of Expert Research, Titled «Socio-Political Situation in Crimea on the Eve of Qurultay» in Simferopol
10 October 2013
On October 10, 2013, the CEO of the Charitable Organization “Foundation for Development of Crimea” Mr Alexei Skorik and Head of the RC “SPHERA” Mr Alexander Shulga hold the press conference in Simferopol where they presented the analytical report on the results of the expert survey, titled: “The socio-political situation in Crimea on the eve of the Qurultay”.
According to Mr Alexei Skorik, the mentioned above expert survey was made by the Research Center SPHERA on request of the CO “Foundation for Development of Crimea”.
“First of all I would like to say that as the charitable organization the Foundation for Development of Crimea conducts the first such open research that we present today to the public. I would like to say about the goals of such research. The charter of our foundation has an item on the return and promotion to the integration of the Crimean Tatars into the Ukrainian society after the deportation. The foundation also declares and promoted the development of the institutes of the national self-governance, because we think that these are the institutes of the national self-governance that guarantee that preserve the identity of the Crimean Tatar people,”- Mr Alexei Skorik said.
Telling about the concept of the research and its content, the CEO of RC “SPHERA” Mr Alexander Shulga noted that the delegates of the Qurultay, leaders of the Crimean Tatar political forces, local self-governance and public organizations, representatives of Crimean authorities, as well as the political experts, journalists, scientists and human rights activists took part in the research. “The interviews many of which lasted for 1,5 – 2 hours were made in Simferopol and Kyiv. Thus, we obtained the most complete information presenting various points of views for the same issues,”- Mr Shulga specified.
The expert survey was made up of 9 basic blocks: “the sociopolitical situation in Crimea on the eve of the Qurultay”, “mission and tasks of the new Qurultay”, “the peculiarities of the delegates of the old and new Qurultay”, “business-factor in the new Qurultay”, “the relations of the Qurultay and the Mejlis with the authorities, “the prospects of the establishment of the institute of the Chairman of the Qurultay” and “the prospects of conducting the International forum on the Crimean Tatars’ problems”.
The Head of the RC SPHERA Mr Alexander Shulga also drew attention to the fact that the opinions expressed by all the experts were anonymous. “It was made in order to make the research more objective. We tried to obtain the broadest spectrum of opinions. Thus we questioned absolutely various experts. A third of the experts were not the Crimean Tatars, but those who make sense of this area,”- Mr Shulga said.
The Vice Chairman of the Mejlis Mr Remzi Ilyasov who attended the presentation of this expert survey evaluated positively the work done, but at the same time noted that it was hard to give the objective evaluation to this research.
“There is no doubt that a broad range of issues was studied, but as far as the very activity of the Qurultay – Mejlis system concerns, I would like to ask you to analyze and come to the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People with the recommendations in order to avoid the contradicting interpretation of the opinions and expressions, containing in the survey, by the delegates of the Qurultay of the 6th convocation,”- Mr Ilyasov noted.
«To my mind it is a very good work in order to obtain the whole spectrum of thoughts and opinions, but I think that you should continue this research. All the recent reports on Ukraine prepared by the international organizations have clear recommendations and suggestions to bring the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People into the legal framework of Ukraine. That is why it missing this item in the expert survey was a mistake,”- Ms Natalya Belitser, lecturer of Pilip Orlik Institute of Democracy (Kyiv, Ukraine) expressed this opinion addressing the participants of the presentation.
In his turn, Mr Ali Hamzin, Head of the Department of Foreign Relations at the Mejlis noted that the time and activity of the new composition of the Qurultay will show how objective and efficient the research will be.
Summing up the work done, Mr Alexei Skorik and Alexander Shulga noted that the considerable part of the experts representing both new and old generation of the Crimean Tatar politicians supported the need to reform the Qurultay and the Mejlis. According to their opinion the most acceptable option could be the separation of the functions of the Qurultay and the Mejlis. The first one could be act as the supreme representative body, while the second one – as the supreme executive body.
As far as the institute of the Chairman of the Qurultay concerns, the experts’ opinions separated. Some said that such step is quite possible and Mustafa Jemilev could take this position. Thus, it could be a serious shift in reforming the Qurultay-Mejlis system. In this case Mustafa Jemilev could act as the speaker.
