CRIMEE; LES CRAINTES DES TATARS
In: Politique internationale: pi, Heft 146, S. 1-10
ISSN: 0221-2781
Mustafa Dzhemilev was one of the most famous dissidents of the Soviet era. His fight was for the right of his people, the Crimean Tatars, to return and live in the peninsula from which they had been massively expelled to Central Asia by Stalin in 1944, under the pretext that some of them had collaborated with the Nazi occupiers. His obstinate militancy got him years in the gulag. His efforts finally paid off in the late 1980s, however, when some 250,000 Tatars returned to Crimea, led by Mr. Dzhemilev. He became Chairman of the Mejlis (Parliament) of the Crimean Tatar People and tirelessly defended their cultural and political rights during the subsequent 20 years when the peninsula belonged to Ukraine. In February 2014 the Russian invasion forced him to flee his native land. In this exclusive interview, the Tatar leader, now in his 70s, is as pugnacious as ever, virulently denouncing the Kremlin's policy and swearing that sooner or later Crimea will again be Ukrainian. Adapted from the source document.