Mustafa Dzhemilev: We will have our own referendum

The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine guaranteed the rights of Crimean Tatars , but too late. Hundreds of fleeing Crimea - the Ukrainian authorities cannot guarantee the safety of citizens there. The Russian ones sent Cossacks there, known for their aggressive nationalism.

From whom, how and who will be to protect the Crimean Tatars in the near future? This was asked by Mustafa Dzhemilev - human rights activist, People's Deputy of Ukraine, former many years of the chairman of the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people, who, according to his data, is a third of the population of the peninsula.

- The Prochrevsky media claim that the Crimean Tatars dreamed of becoming Russian citizens and their dream came true thanks to a referendum. Opposite messages come from Crimea. At least any of the Crimean Tatars participated in a referendum?

- We, unlike these media, conducted an analysis of the appearance and results of a referendum. Our observers were in more than 230 voting places. The result turned out to be this: no more than one percent of the Crimean Tatars participated in the referendum. And even their participation does not mean at all that they voted for joining Russia. Many of them naively believed that the voting for the second option is "you for the restoration of the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea 1992 and for the status of Crimea as part of Ukraine?" Prevent the annexation of Crimea and the invasion of foreign troops.

In many settlements of the Crimean Tatars, in particular, in Bakhchisarai, there were no sites at all - those who tried to organize them were simply driven away, stating that no one was going to participate in this referendum.

The referendum was carried out without binding to the place. One and the same person could vote in different places. We also know about voting with Russian passports. This event turned out to be a profanity, a laughing stock.

Moreover, such a soft assessment can be given if you omit the main fact: a referendum, and not only in my opinion, was originally illegal. The annexed region cannot, under the muzzles of machine guns, decide which state to join it. Imagine the Russian region, which, for example, decides to join China.

Since our people did not actually participate in the Crimean referendum, we are increasingly discussing the need to conduct a separate referendum of the indigenous population of Crimea. Those questions that were raised in the past referendum did not suit Crimean Tatars. The second option, about the return to the 1992 Constitution of Ukraine, according to many of us, also created some threat to the territorial integrity of our country (the state independence of Crimea was proclaimed; the relations of the republic with Ukraine were regulated, according to the document, by a special bilateral agreement. - Ed.).

- What questions will be in the Crimean Tatar referendum?

- So far, there are no accurate formulations. Questions will probably be formulated on the nearest Majlis. Perhaps in the foreseeable future a national congress will take place to find a way out of this situation.

- What is the reaction to the brutal murder of the Crimean Tatar, decisions of Ametov?

- It does not seem to us that the Crimean Tatars want to provoke conflict. Banana Republic - I mean the new government of Crimea - even issued a document on certain preferences of the Crimean Tatars. Allegedly, they will enter the power structures, and the tongue will sound on the streets of Crimea ... And this is a brutal murder is hardly planned by the Kremlin. But in the captured Crimea there are mummers of Cossacks, which have little to do with the Cossacks, and self -defense units, which include semi -criminal elements. Basically, they allow themselves to express themselves in the spirit of the one, for example, that the deportation of the Crimean Tatars must be repeated.

The murder made us all restrain emotions. This is hard, but necessary. Now the prosecutor’s office is disassembled.

- But what? Against the Prosecutor of Crimea Natalia Poklonskaya , appointed by Prime Minister of the Republic of Aksenov, the Prosecutor General of Ukraine brought a criminal case, considering that she illegally assigned the position , participated in the seizure of state power and violated the prosecutor's oath. Are the prosecutor's office ready to accept Crimean Tatars?

- We have little hope for an objective investigation. They will not investigate the crimes of "their boys."

- Crimean Tatars are afraid to go out?

- They are not afraid to go out into the street - after all, Soviet experience was behind, then it was worse. Precautions, of course, are taken, they try to not walk in the evening in the evening. According to our information, about seven hundred people, most of whom are Crimean Tatars, moreover, mostly women and children, crossed the border of Crimea towards the Kherson region. About seven thousand Crimean Tatars live there. From other areas, they also offer help.

In general, the strategy is this: not to leave their territory, sending wives and children to safe places.

- The Verkhovna Rada on March 20 guaranteed the rights of the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous people of Ukraine: the preservation and development of ethnic, cultural, linguistic, religious identity and the right to self -determination in Ukraine. How is glad about to fulfill this decision in the Crimea, where he cannot save even the Ukrainian military?

- Of course, this is the right decision. But he had to be taken 23 years ago. We have sought it for many years. If it were accepted on time, maybe the situation in Crimea would be different now. The recognition of the status of the indigenous people, which I glad finally gave the Crimean Tatars, would give a lot of levers of influence on the situation. For example, the UN declaration on the rights of indigenous peoples, on which Rada was based, states that without the consent of these peoples, military bases cannot be placed on their territory. Now it’s too late to appeal to this. In the territory of the annexed Crimea, this decision has no power. However, thanks on that.

- Shortly before the referendum, you were in Moscow and talked with Russian President Vladimir Putin. What did they talk about and what did you agree on?

- In general, they did not agree on anything. He assured me that it would always be possible to contact him with urgent need. Our fundamental positions did not coincide either, either during or after conversation. He argued that it was necessary to be guided by the will of the people of Crimea. I told him that this formulation is ambiguous, that there is a native people - Crimean Tatars - and representatives of many other nationalities who were relocated to Crimea mainly after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. I warned him that we did not recognize the referendum and other reasonable people were unlikely to recognize him. He urged me to wait on March 16.

- Putin tried to convince you?

- No. He told me that he did not expect another answer from me, because he considers me a decent person who is faithful to his country. I was pleasantly surprised. And then we all watched a referendum under the muzzles of machine guns.

- Your people suffered from the Soviet regime, and you - especially: spent fifteen years in prisons, were starving for ten months. Vladimir Putin has recently been often compared with Hitler, then with Stalin. Do you consider these comparisons appropriate?

- Now there is the same neglect of the people as then, but it has not yet reached the scale. In the end, you interview me. And the channel "Rain" still exists ...

- Our site was blocked by Roskomnadzor , the largest operators and even the lessor refused to rain.

- The repetition of the horrors of the Soviet regime, of course, is becoming more and more likely. But the community of people who went to the march of the world is also strong. I believe that this community is determined to make its country democratic. They have to save the relationship between Russia and Ukraine.