Mustafa Jemilev: “I associate Uzbekistan with a Tashkent prison”

 

Mustafa Jemilev © ua.krymr.com

 

In an interview with Uznews.net the leader of Crimean Tatars talked about how Tatars will leave Uzbekistan and relocate to the city of Kherson, and how the occupation has robbed Uzbeks of seasonal work in Crimea.

Mustafa Jemilev, leader of Crimean Tatars, started his activism in Uzbekistan, where his family was deported to in 1944.

After the March referendum which lead to the annexation of Crimea by Russia, the 70-year-old Jemilev was denied an entry visa for the now Autonomous Republic of Crimea. The prominent human rights activist and Ukrainian parliament member invited an Uznews.net correspondent to his apartment in Kiev, which he is using as the headquarters for the fight to free Crimea.

During the conversation, the politician and activist smoked a package of cigarettes while talking about his conversations with Putin, Poroshenko, and Obama, as well as shedding light on the reasons why Crimean Tatars are refusing to return from Uzbekistan.

How did the occupation of Crimea affect Crimean Tatars who are still living in Uzbekistan? Have you heard of any cases of them refusing to return to Crimea?

The majority of my compatriots have returned (to Crimea). There are only about 70 thousand of my people living in Uzbekistan. It is unlikely that any more would move back to Uzbekistan, many associate it with exile.

If they leave Crimea the Crimean Tatars are more likely to move to the mainland in Ukraine. For instance, to Kherson province where they could get resettlement land. The question, however, remains whether Ukraine is currently able to afford to finance resettlement projects.

Today the Crimean Tatars understand that it makes no sense for them to invest in Crimea – it can all be taken away. However, this occupation is temporary, and when Crimea becomes part of Ukraine again we will return to our homeland.

How did the return of Crimean Tatars from Uzbekistan unfold?

The repatriation of Tatars has slowed down recently with only about one and a half thousand people moving every year. If anyone wanted to return it would be to the Ukraine.

The cost of life in Uzbekistan and Ukraine differ greatly and it is hard for people to move without significant savings to buy an apartment and find employment. For instance, a one-bedroom apartment in Simferopol costs 60-70 thousand USD on average.

As a rule, one member of the family moves first, finds employment, and only then starts to slowly get their family to join them.

There is a group of well-off Tatars in Uzbekistan who have the means to resettle. They keep postponing their departure, however, arguing that they can make a bit more money and then move.

There are no oligarchs among the ethnic Crimean Tatars. There was one wealthy man but he was thrown in prison. Moreover, even those Crimean Tatars who had successful businesses in the telecom sector of Uzbekistan are planning to shut their businesses down. There are no laws in the country and anyone can fall victim of extortion or abuse at any time.

The dream of returning to the historic homeland greatly depends on the traditions of the specific family. I was six months old when my family left Crimea but I’ve always known that we should live in our homeland and that Crimea belongs to us.

What do Crimean Tatars do in Uzbekistan?

It depends on where they live. But mostly they are blue-collar workers. For instance, in Almalyk Tatars mostly work in factories or in the agricultural sector.

There is no political party in Uzbekistan that would have represented the interests of Crimean Tatars. In a totalitarian regime rights of native groups are being violated so of course foreign settlers are affected as well.

The Crimean Tatars are represented by a lobby organization called Doslyk but it wields very little political power. While Crimean Tatars in the Ukraine supported the Maidan movement, Doslyk made statements of an entire different nature.

The Uzbekistan delegation did not show up to the UN general assembly resolution on the validity of the March referendum vote. This is a cowardly position: they did not want to sour their relationship with either Russia or the Ukraine.

Is it true that many Uzbeks have moved to the Crimean peninsula along with the Crimean Tatars? Some of the émigrés allegedly falsified their documents identifying them as ethnically Tatar. What did Uzbeks do in Crimea?

On the one hand many Tatars came with their ethnically mixed families. An Uzbek husband and a Crimean Tatar wife.

And on the other, Ukraine is much more liberal than Uzbekistan and there are many more opportunities here. It’s very difficult to get a Ukrainian citizenship, but easy to obtain a work visa. Many (Uzbeks) came for seasonal work in cafes or construction sites. Now, however, the situation is very different: there are not so many tourists in Crimea at the moment and there are practically no jobs for migrants.

What are the next steps for the Crimean Tatars? Are there plans in development over the next few years to free the peninsula?

We unequivocally choose non-violent forms of action – no victory is worth human lives. I told Putin exactly that when I talked to him before the referendum. The Russian president promised to resolve all of our issues within one month but we did not reach an agreement. I told him that the first step should be for Russia to take its forces out of Crimea.

Moscow should bear responsibility for the Crimean Tatars. In 1944 when we were deported from Crimea it belonged to Russia. These negations, however, are only possible after the troops are taken out of the region.

I told him that if he considers Ukraine to be a brotherly nation, he should not talk like this to his brothers. When I was being honored with the Solidarity Prize I asked Barack Obama if Crimea would become a bargaining chip – if Russia puts forth an ultimatum: halting its support of the separatist movement in eastern Ukraine if it accepts the loss of Crimea. He (Obama) assured me that the US would never accept this annexation.

Did President Petr Poroshenko make any promises regarding the peninsula?

Poroshenko and I have a long history together. We sat next to each other in parliament and I have visited his manufacturing cites.

His workers like him. He is not fixated on money.

When Poroshenko promised to repair the Maidan (Square) I asked him to pick small cobblestones, so they fit in your hand. (Laughs).

And on a serious note, we are set to discuss soon how the ministry dealing with Crimea will be organized and the new agency’s minister candidates.

One of the most important tasks of the new ministry will be the preparation of lawsuits for international courts. Currently, the occupying government in Crimea is unlawfully taking away and nationalizing Ukrainian property – from Artek (one of the best and most well-known Soviet summer camps for children) to factories.

Based on the most modest estimates, the total sum of lawsuits could be three trillion USD. The courts will tell Moscow to compensate the damages and in case it refuses Russian assets will be seized all over the world.

Another incident: on May 3 three and a half thousand people crossed the border between Crimea and the mainland Ukraine in order to meet with me (after Russia banned me from coming to Crimea). And all of them were fined for illegal border crossing.

However, according to the international law, there is no border there. It is all part of Ukraine. We are hoping that the European court would reach a decision to force Russia to compensate these people in the amount of 5 to 10 thousand Euros.

And what should we call exactly the current Russian policies of making Crimea residents accept Russian citizenship? If one does not have a double-headed eagle on their passport (Russian official symbol), they can be left without their property, not be hired, or robbed of the right to vote.

How can the annexation of Crimea influence other former Soviet countries? For instance, Karakalpakstan has expressed separatist aspirations and would like to leave Uzbekistan?

The desire to separate by any autonomous region is driven by insufficient respect for their rights. Should Karakalpakstan residents feel they at home in Uzbekistan, they would not want to leave.

The Uzbek regime is undemocratic and a carbon copy of the Soviet system. That is why any leaders (there) can expect political repression, planted drugs, and accusations of terrorist activity.

What do you remember from your time in Uzbekistan?

I spent most of my life in that country and even spent two prison terms there. In the beginning the Crimean Tatars were unable to move away from their official settlements. In 1955, however, they were allowed to seek employment in other regions of the country so my family moved from a village in Andijan province to Angren in Tashkent province. And later when they were allowed to freely move around the country my father’s brother, whom we had not seen for twelve years, invited us to Mirzachul (now Gulistan).

I associate Uzbekistan with a prison in Tashkent where I served time while my case was being investigated. They threw me there the moment they arrested me. It’s a bad place with boorish attitudes and complete disrespect for human rights.

In Uzbek prison camps I worked as a turner, a machinist, and operated giant weaving looms that produced aprons. The most difficult time was in Magadan where prisoners had to carry heavy concrete blocks with a 12-ton a day quota. If you cannot fulfill your quota, you are thrown in solitary confinement and receive less food.

I have some good memories as well; in particular when I was at the Engineering Institute for Irrigation and Land Reclamation in Tashkent.

I was not allowed to complete my studies; I was expelled for organizing meetings where I advocated resisting the “wise” Soviet policies of the forced resettlement of Crimean Tatars. I was also reprimanded for an essay I wrote entitled “A Brief historic analysis of Turk culture in Crimea in the 13th-18th Centuries:.

After the deportation a lot of official material was published that offered justifications for resettlement accusing the Tatars of leading a parasitic lifestyle and cooperating with Nazi Germany.

I asked my academic advisors if they even read my work – there was no Soviet Union in 18th Ccentury. I was also expelled because I refused to join Komsomol (a Communist student organization during the Soviet times).

I remember my classmate Tanya Selivanova. Once we were standing in line and Komsomol leader Arakelov was pestering her, “Why don’t you join Komsomol? Mustafa despises everything Soviet but you have such prominent parents!”

So the entire queue and I overhear this exchange. Everybody knew that Tanya’s father was a general in the Turkestan military jurisdiction. The entire line is waiting for her retort. Tanya calls the Komsomol leader and whispers in his ear so that everyone can hear, “You see, Arakelov, if I join Komsomol, then there won’t be any difference between you – a scumbag – and me. As it is now, you are a member and I am not.”

A couple of days after I was expelled I was drafted into the army. I wondered: so I cannot be trusted to study but can be trusted with a weapon. I soon found out that it was not a weapon that the army had in mind for me but a shovel.

I refused to go to the Soviet army and got my first prison term for that. I owe my release from prison to Sakharov: when Gorbachev called Sakharov and offered that he could return to his Moscow flat, Sakharov asked for several dissidents to be released from Soviet prisons.

I was fourth or fifth on this list. Reagan gave the same list to Gorbachev in Reykjavik. It was then that I was sentenced in Magadan to another three years for breaking the prison rules and then suddenly I was given parole.

My wife asked me if I knew why exactly I was freed. It turns out that the prison authorities found out about my decision to start a hunger strike a day after dissident Vladimir Marchenko died from his hunger strike in a Ukrainian prison. It was a scandal: how can we allow people to die in protest during the Perestroika.

Islam Karimov is going to celebrate 25 years in power at the end of June. What is your assessment of his rule?

Uzbekistan could have become a prosperous country but this feudalistic and totalitarian style of governing of Karimov has precluded the country from developing.

Karimov, just as Stalin, is even afraid to leave his country, fearing assassination. When my friends and relatives visit Uzbekistan, they are astonished: it is worse than in the Soviet times.

People are afraid to even talk about politics and prisons are overcrowded with civic activists. And if we compare the level of corruption in Uzbekistan and Ukraine, we can see that in Karimov’s country all democratic institutions are just veneer, at least Ukraine has a chance to reanimate itself.

Not long ago my friends asked me to arrange a deputy minister job for an allegedly great candidate who was in opposition with Yanukovich’s regime.

I asked for his (candidate’s) paperwork and the petitioner told me that he would compensate me for the job for his friend.

“Your candidate is not a good fit. If you pay me that means your candidate intends to use his post to steal,” I stopped the petitioner.

I am not idealizing Maidan but nowadays any new corrupt official causes popular discontent in the media and the person ends up losing the post.

The democratization movement in Uzbekistan is very weak. I do not know if they themselves understand the futility of their struggle. EUzbek movements abroad are not even united; they do not have a common goal or leader.

There is some foundation for democratization but it is unlikely to take place while Karimov is in power. Uzbekistan will not be saved by a successor but by democratic elections.

Uznews.net

http://www.uznews.net/en/world/26750-mustafa-jemilev-i-associate-uzbekistan-with-a-tashkent-prison