Crimean Tatars Fight To Protect Themselves Against Russian Repressions

What You Need To Know:

✅ The Crimean peninsula  was annexed by the Russian Federation in March 2014. 
✅ Since its annexation, the peninsula has experienced a number human rights violations, including; 117 arrests, 3 enforced disappearances, 32 criminal cases and 50 raids (Source: CrimeaSOS). 
✅ ‘Crimea Solidarity’ is a self-organised community support group for the families of the those Crimean Tatars imprisoned or missing.

Dilyaver Memetov, one of the coordinators of the organisation, ‘Crimean Solidarity’ and son of one of the the men currently imprisoned, commented that: ‘Considering the current legal situation or, frankly speaking, the lack thereof, because we don’t have rights as such, we understand that we can’t legally protect our rights’.

Many of those currently imprisoned have left behind spouses and families. Nadzhiye Adzhy-Mamutova, describes their shared experience: ‘I can say on behalf of all the wives, that first they carry out a search, and the next day the court hearings are held, and then false accusations are made by prosecutors, investigators and judges’.

Lawyer, Abdureshyd Dzheparov talks about the changes and consequences experienced by the ‘Crimean Solidarity’ group: ‘Our group is expanding. It has expanded thanks to the government which has been arresting people. 22 people are in a pretrial detention facility, 3 of them have already been sent to prison. They will serve their sentences in that camp for five years’.

Hromadske’s Nataliya Gumenyuk travelled to Simferopol to talk to Crimean Tatars affected by the human rights violations.