Euromaidan Press spoke with Tamila Tasheva, Crimean Tatar activist and one of the founders of the volunteer initiative Crimea SOS. She told us about the consequences of the possible Russian ban of the Mejlis, and about the current repression in Crimea against anyone who is pro-Ukraine and all Crimean Tatars, Russia's attitude towards local Crimean Tatar culture and about the history of the relationship between the Ukrainian state and the Crimean Tatars.
Tamila's NGO Crimea SOS was founded after the first Russian soldiers came to the peninsula at the end of February 2014. Now the organization is dealing with new problems caused by the occupation. Many activists, as well as for Tamila, are worrying about personal issues related to Crimea as well as public issues.
Because of the deportation, Tamila's family was living in Uzbekistan. By the time she was 5, her family was in good financial shape. At that time Crimean Tatars were allowed to return to their Fatherland. Both Tamila's father and mother were born in Uzbekistan and had never been to Crimea. Nevertheless, the family decided to move. This step was a sign of respect towards her great grandmother. Tamila recollects her first impression of her homeland:
“For me it the return was not so sweet. I was 5 years old. In Uzbekistan we lived in a large two-story house. My father earned good money. Then we come to Crimea and everything was empty. I used to look at big houses. In Simferopol I saw only the lonely street. There was no development and we had a two-room temporary house made only from bricks. There was no glass in the windows. Then my father put fabric over the windows. My father and my brother were living in one room, and my mother, my sister, and I slept in the other room on a big bed. My grandmother also lived with us in the same room. I thought: What type of homeland is this!? We have moved from a place where we had everything to this one. Then my grandmother gradually started to tell me. When I was 7 years old, my grandmother and I went to her native village, to her house, where she was deported from. That's when she started to tell me about our history."
At this point in the interview tears appeared on Tamil's face:“They (her parents) have deliberately chosen to live in their homeland. Our father went there a little earlier, to build a temporary shelter. The majority of Crimean Tatars were living in temporary structures like that. And yet, many people still live in them. From the very beginning we started to build a two-story house. Just before the beginning of the occupation my parents had already completed and fully furnished the house - and then these events have started. For many Crimean Tatars moving back home was associated with continuous construction work. Because of lack of funds everybody had been building their homes off-and-on for a long time. Many Crimean Tatars faced the same situation in 2014. They had to leave Crimea, but they had just finished building their house. I know that some sold their home with tears on their faces and were forced to move here (onto the mainland) because it is virtually impossible to stay there. However, my parents are saying 'we did not come to Crimea and suffer just to leave it all and go away; this is our home, we will not go.' So my parents are in Crimea.”
“For me it is a life’s mission - to do everything to try to go back there. Because I cannot go to Crimea, I cannot see my parents. For me, it is such a personal tragedy. I have lived in Kyiv for a long time (for 8 years at the moment of the beginning of the occupation.) I was not there at the beginning of the occupation of Crimea, but I'm still confident that we will fix it.”
In Crimea, they [the occupation “authorities”] are trying to create the myth that Crimean Tatars are extremists and that they are undermining the peace. One of the main myths that works with majority of the population is “But we do not have war.” Like, if Russia did not come to Crimea, they they would not have be defended and they would be the same situation like there is in the east [of Ukraine.] There would be a war. So now a lot of people live by this myth: “Ok, we will suffer, but at least we do not have war.” Therefore, the Crimean Tatars are presented as the people who can disrupt this peace. Gradually people who were good neighbors, under the influence of this propaganda, perceive Crimean Tatars as enemies. Now there is a trend of displacement of Crimean Tatars from the peninsula. Russia is actively replacing the population. One person leaves (not only Crimean Tatars), and another one comes in. Thus Russia is creating a comfort zone, where there will not be objectionable people. Activists and journalists have to leave the territory of Crimea. They are replaced with a migrant population from other parts of Russia. What is it like to be pro-Ukrainian or a Crimean Tatar in Crimea now?There's no a single Internet service provider that is not controlled by the FSB, so all information flows are read.
People fight on as they are able. Some continue to read fairy tales and poetry books to their children in their native language — Ukrainian or Crimean Tatar. There is no visibility of a resistance because Crimea is an area of total control. All social media is controlled there. They don’t only monitor the (Russian) social network Vkontakte, which is read by the FSB, pages in Facebook are also constantly monitored. It often happens that someone says that he would love to repost some info, but he can not, because then FSB will come and call them for interrogation. People say that they are afraid to put “likes” under online posts. There's no a single Internet service provider that is not controlled by the FSB, so all information flows are read. Skype and Viber too - when you start to talk to people about political topics, Skype often stops working or is interrupted by a loud noise. People often go to the mainland to, as they say, “breathe the spirit of freedom.” There are still activists who from time to time show themselves in public, but there are not numerous demonstrations. Premises are taken away from Crimean Tatar organizations. There are dozens of people who have already been arrested. There are more than twenty lawsuits against Crimean Tatars activists. Some have already been arrested. Even though there are no military operations in Crimea, I call it an undeclared war when people disappear, people are killed, and everyone who dissents is persecuted. What does Ukrainian side do to release these people? From our side the General Prosecutor's office initiated criminal cases. Of course, as they do not have access to Crimea, they can not effectively conduct an investigation. However, they have to initiate criminal cases, because it is the territory of Ukraine. Talking about criminal cases, there is a big problem with lawyers. Therefore, we always say to our international partners that it would be very good if they allocated some funding. Maybe even through Russian human rights organizations, or through the organizations that are working here on the mainland, so that funds could be transferred to lawyers who could protect these people. However, the investigations on the territory of Crimea on these cases, of course, are not properly conducted. It is more like a tribunal, because attorneys can not work properly with their clients. Court proceedings in Crimea are usually closed and journalists or even the closest relatives are not allowed to go there. Crimea SOS initiated the creation of an interactive map on the violation of human rights in Crimea. Can you tell us a bit about it? Now, we have more than 230 human rights violations on the map, but that is only documented cases, those which we can speak about, or those that we found in media and which have evidence. In other cases, and we are aware of dozens of such cases, people ask us to not report about it. For example, journalists often do not speak about the searches of their homes. We create this map in partnership with a number of other human rights organizations. Torture, kidnapping and court investigations are on the map. It is an effective tool to show all these violations from a single source.There is no visibility of a resistance because Crimea is an area of total control. All social media is controlled there.
