The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People has said that the current Crimean authorities continue to violate human rights and the rights of the Crimean Tatars on a large scale.
As a response, the Mejlis has called on the Crimean people to boycott the elections of the parliament and local government agencies of the peninsula, which are scheduled for Sept. 14, 2014.
“The last few months in Crimea have been characterized by massive violations of human rights and the rights of the Crimean Tatar People, by the de facto authorities formed on the peninsula as a result of its annexation. These violations include a lot of heinous and dramatically outrageous events and facts demanding not only a political but legal assessment and reaction as well,” reads the statement by the Mejlis adopted at its meeting on Aug. 23.
The authors of the document noted numerous violations, including the failure to find the killer of Reshat Ametov, the unknown fates of public activists who disappeared in March, and the fact that Crimean Tatars having been prosecuted for meeting Mustafa Jemilev (Cemilev), former Head of the Mejlis, on his arrival to Crimea, which led to unjustly large monetary fines.
“The Crimean Tatars were prohibited from meeting in traditional places to conduct rallies that had become truly national… at the same time, such restrictions weren’t implemented for representatives of other ethnic groups,” reads the statement.
According to the Mejlis, it has become a common practice for the Federal Security Service of Russia to conduct “soul-winning” talks. It has also become common for members of the Crimean Tatars’ national self-administrations, journalists and NGOs representatives to receive “prosecution warnings.”
The authors of the statement also noted that in trying to divide the Crimean Tatars, the authorities of the peninsula placed their bets on three Mejlis members that, despite a resolution, took positions in Crimean government agencies. Thus, they have been excluded from the Mejlis.
“Those members of the national self-administration agencies that individually decided to participate in the elections on Sept. 14 must make up their minds. According to the resolution of the Mejlis and Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People adopted within these last months, they are to submit letters of resignation to leave a corresponding national self-administration agency of the Crimean Tatar people,” reads the statement.
Therefore, the Mejlis once again confirmed its resolution as of June 12, 2014 not to nominate candidates for deputies of the Crimean State Council and for positions in representative municipal agencies of the Republic of Crimea; and to call for all Crimean citizens, regardless of their nationality, who think that discriminative laws on elections violate the fundamental rights of the Crimean Tatar people will damage interethnic relations and social justice on the peninsula, to boycott the elections scheduled for September 2014.
