Crimea’s capital once again the site of Tatars’ May 17 demonstrations marking of the anniversary of their deportation by Soviet dictator Josef Stalin; scattered protests reported
ar protests were reported across Crimea.
The Tatars set up tent camps in Simferopol, Crimea’s capital, and in several other towns, decorating the tents with signs demanding direct presidential rule for the region.
They also demanded participation in the distribution of land that once belonged to communal farms and was recently given to farmers, and some raised demands for ousting Crimea’s parliament, Ukrainian news reports said.
Police appealed to the Tatars and representatives of other minorities expelled by Stalin to maintain calm Thursday, the 56th anniversary of the Tatars’ deportation.
Stalin deported more than 200,000 Crimean Tatars to Central Asia in 1944 after accusing them of collaborating with Nazi Germany during World War II. Many died in the harsh exile.
Stalin had earlier deported ethnic Germans living in Crimea, and later in 1944 sent into exile tens of thousands of the peninsula’s ethnic Greeks, Armenians and Bulgarians who were also accused of pro-Nazi sentiments.
The Tatars, who trace their origins back to the Mongols that seized much of present-day Russia and Ukraine in the 13th century, were allowed to return to their homes only shortly before the Soviet collapse in 1991.
More than 270,000 have returned to Crimea over the past decade, but have encountered problems in getting representation in Crimea’s governing bodies, acquiring citizenship, finding jobs and receiving an official status for their language.
Last year, Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma formed a council representing Crimean Tatars. At a meeting with council members earlier this month, he promised the government and Crimean authorities would look into the land distribution question and set up a special bank to accumulate funds needed for absorbing the Tatars.
About 150,000 out of some 250,000 Crimean Tatars living elsewhere in the ex-Soviet Union, mostly in Uzbekistan, reportedly plan to return to Crimea.
