Dzhemilev: 10,000 Crimean Tatars flee Crimea since Russian annexation

Crimean Tatar leader, Ukrainian presidential envoy for Crimean Tatar People's affairs, and Ukrainian Member of Parliament from the Bloc of Petro Poroshenko Mustafa Dzhemilev said that since the beginning of the Russian annexation of Crimea, at least 10,000 Crimean Tatars have fled Crimea, according to RFE/RL.

"Tough discrimination and lawlessness against the Crimean Tatars, especially the kidnapping and murder of young people; forced recruitment of young people into the army with a view to sending them to war with their brothers, the Ukrainians; the complete absence of democratic freedoms and the lack of any prospects for young people in occupied Crimea are forcing many to leave their homeland again and move to the Ukrainian mainland," Dzhemilev said at the second World Congress of Crimean Tatars in Ankara.

He noted that after the so-called "Crimean Spring" 76 families attempted to return to the peninsula from places of deportation, but none of them were allowed to settle in Crimea, as "the annual quota" had been reached, so they all had had to go back. According to Dzhemilev, up to 2,000 people per year used to resettle in Crimea in recent years.

"One gets a clear and rightly impression that the iniquity against Crimean Tatars takes place, including with the purpose to drive them beyond Crimea", said Dzhemilev.

According to him, today a large number of ethnic Russians from Russia and also refugees from the conflict areas of Donbas are being brought to Crimea.

As UNIAN reported earlier, after Russia annexed Crimea, 15,000 Crimean Tatars had to leave their home from February 27, 2014, until today [according to different estimates, from 235,000 to 280,000 Crimean Tatars lived before the annexation].

Russia barred the leaders of the Crimean Tatar People from entering Crimea, and the democratically elected Qurultay and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People [the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars in period between sessions of the Qurultay], which became examples of self-government of indigenous peoples, were deprived of the opportunity to continue work, and their assets were confiscated.

The second World Congress of the Crimean Tatars is held July 31 through August 2 in the capital of Turkey, Ankara, which is home to the largest diaspora of Crimean Tatars.