Crimea

[Rassah]

Oh the hypocrisy! Russia's stated reason for invading and annexing Crimea was to protect its people from assault and oppression. Russia then proceeds to assault and oppress the indigenous Tatar population. Guess it's time for Turkey to invade and annex Crimea away from Russia! 

Pagan has infested the thread as well...  

The derivative meanings in Russian with the root stemming from "Pagan" are
- Poganec (noun) - someone worthless, shitty, bastard.
- (Is-)poganit' (verb) - to spoil, to pour dirt onto, to fuck up.

Just some food for thought...

Of course! Christianity infected everything, and turned anything it didn't agree with, or anyone who didn't believe in their beliefs, into an insult. Horrible religion that was.

[Pagan]

Refat Chubarov: Repressions against Crimean Tatars are becoming life-threatening


Two policemen walk past armed men standing guard at the entrance of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars) in Simferopol on September 16, 2014.

Editor's note: Below is the  text of the remarks made by Refat Chubarov, leader of the Mejlis, the executive-representative body of Crimean Tatars, at the United Nations' conference on indigenous peoples on Sept. 24.

Being part of the huge international community of indigenous peoples we are certainly happy with the success of each indigenous people and are sincerely concerned with the fate of those indigenous peoples whose rights and interests are being continuously ignored. The success of our joint work on ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples in UN framework is obvious. However we are facing new challenges and new threats to development and future of indigenous peoples.

Crimea Tatars are the people who suffered total deportation from their native land in 1944, their return to the native land became possible on the eve of the Soviet Union collapse and coincided with establishment of independent Ukraine. At the same time our return and settlement were taking place under extremely complicated and controversial conditions in the past 23 years but we were full of hopes. As part of the Ukrainian political nation jointly with Ukrainian citizens of different nationalities, Crimean Tatars spoke up in November 2013 – February 2014 against political and economic corruption, supported the demands of the Ukrainian society for European integration.

Our hopes to restore our rights were wiped out at the end of February – March 2014 as a result of the events that shocked the whole world – occupation and annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation.

It is very hard to count on ensuring the rights of indigenous peoples in case when the whole international legal framework and the power of multilateral and bilateral agreements and accords came under threat of complete destruction.

Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of the peninsula, by speaking up openly against Crimea’s occupation, have now become the most vulnerable group. De-facto the so-called Crimean authorities started systematic discrimination of Crimean Tatars by racial and ethnic origin, religion. Repressions are gaining the scale and character threatening life and safety of the Crimean Tatars. They include abductions of people, people going missing, bandits’ attacks on Crimean Tatars and Ukrainian civil activists, mass searches in private houses of the citizens, mosques, madrasah (Islamic colleges), libraries and schools.

De-facto the so-called Crimean authorities aim to destroy national institutions of the Crimean Tatars – Kurultai (congress) and Mejlis (executive body) of Crimean Tatar people, both institutions operate in full accordance with the principles of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples.

It would not be an exaggeration to say that in relation to the Crimea and Crimean Tatars the Russian Empire doctrine “Crimea without Crimean Tatars” is being implemented again, but this time in the XXI century. Moreover, it's done by UN member state, the Russian Federation.

Our suggestions:

1. We join the requests of other indigenous peoples on granting the status of permanent observers across the whole UN system to the institutions representing indigenous peoples.

2. We support the suggestion on setting up a special UN agency with the mandate to assist, protect and report on activities of the states as to their implementation of indigenous peoples’ rights. However, in case of Crimea and in regard to the circumstances threatening the life and safety of Crimean Tatars we cannot wait until such agency is created. That’s why we call on the UN to establish a special mission on Crimea having set legal and other mechanisms of its permanent presence in Crimea.

We are grateful to the Parliament of Ukraine for adopting the decisions for Ukraine to join the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples and for recognizing the Crimea Tatar people’s status of indigenous people of Crimea.

Thank you for attention.

http://www.kyivpost.com/opinion/op-ed/refat-chubarov-repressions-against-crimean-tatars-are-becoming-life-threatening-365895.html

[Rassah]

Why Ukraine crisis has China in a bind

At Sunday night's emergency U.N. Security Council meeting, Western countries denounced Russian efforts to destabilize eastern Ukraine. Depending on your reading of its statement, China either refused to do the same, or refused to back Russia. Either way, the meeting was just the latest example of how the Ukraine crisis has put China in a bind.

Still, China is very unlikely to come down unequivocally in Russia's camp on Ukraine.

Why? To begin with, Russia's use of a referendum to break Crimea away from Ukraine contradicts one of the core tenets of Chinese foreign policy: mutual respect for territorial integrity and sovereignty and non-aggression and non-interference in another country's internal affairs.

More fundamentally, the Crimea referendum could be viewed as a protest against the established order and Beijing may well worry that Russian actions will encourage challenges to the Chinese Communist Party's authority at home. Beijing may also be wary that the Crimea or any future referendums in Ukraine could be used as a precedent for similar votes in Taiwan, Xinjiang, and Tibet – any of which would amount to a crisis for Beijing. In other words, China likely sees the Crimea referendum more from the perspective of Kiev than Moscow.

Chinese military strategists have prided themselves on never occupying foreign territory or invading other countries for purposes other than self-defense. China opposes countries that attempt to use force or intimidation to challenge the sovereignty of other independent states. Importantly, China did not support Russia in its invasion of Georgia in 2008.

Russia's claim that it will seek a closer relationship with China in the event the West isolates it is likely to continue to meet with a very cautious response from Beijing. As much as China may wish to lean on Russia should Beijing find itself at odds with the United States, Xi seeks a new type of great power relationship with the United States that calls for mutual respect, no confrontation, and cooperation. China wants – and some even argue needs – to have good relations with the United States and the international community as it continues to grow.  The United States and the European Union are also China's largest trade partners. An embrace of Russia at this time could cost China much global goodwill.

Finally, Xi has also made combating corruption a key domestic agenda. Given that cronyism was a key factor in Yanukovych's demise, it would not be easy for Xi to appear to side with him without negative domestic blowback.

http://globalpublicsquare.blogs.cnn.com/2014/04/15/why-ukraine-crisis-has-china-in-a-bind/

[Pagan]

Crimea'n Tatar leader Mustafa Djemilev's son was taken to Russia



http://radio24.ua/news/showSingleNews.do?objectId=24252

[ernie-]

Oh, Pagan. So how much do you get paid per post anyway?

That's kind of what I was starting to think based on the articles he chooses to refer to, they are all cherry picked from well known anti-Russian sources. How about some balance? There are no shortage of Crimeans on the Internet if you look around too.

[Balthazar]

I thought that he's a special kind of traitor/provocateur and his mission includes anything to make the regular supporter of Kiev to appear an idiot. But it seems that I was wrong and the most of them are idiots really. 

[Pagan]

Chubarov: Crimea is descending into Terror and Fear

It is over 24 hours since two young Crimean Tatars were abducted from Sary-Su near Belogorsk in the Crimea.  At around 19.00 on Saturday evening, 19-year-old Islam Dzhepparov and his 23-year-old cousin Dzhevdet Islamov were forced into a dark blue Volkswagen Transporter by men in uniforms.  The minivan then headed off in the direction of Feodosiya.

Despite the young men’s families having immediately reported the abduction, and even provided the registration number of the vehicle, there is still no sign of them.  The police and FSB are also denying any involvement in their disappearance.

Refat Chubarov, head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, writes of the abduction in response to Russian foreign minister Sergei Lavrov’s claim that he “hadn’t heard of any problems”. 

Chubarov points out that although the FSB appear to be searching for the young men, “it is clear that the FSB have established total control over the entire society in the Crimea. I can’t believe that a service which follows virtually every Crimean resident would have difficulty establishing who had carried out this latest act of violence against the Crimean Tatars”.

This, he notes, is while the Crimean authorities are continuing to support “at the highest level” the so-called ‘self-defence’ paramilitary units deployed since Russia occupied the Crimea in late February 2014.

These paramilitary thugs were almost certainly responsible for the abduction, torture and murder of 39-year-old Reshat Ametov in March. His abduction from outside the government building in Simferopol where he was holding a solitary protest against Russia’s invasion, was recorded on video.  There is no evidence that the authorities are even trying to find his murderers. They are also failing to take any measures to find three pro-Ukrainian civic activists - Timur Shaimardanov; Seiran Zinedinov and Leonid Korzh who disappeared within a week of each other in May.

Among the other problems that Lavrov claimed to have not heard of are the armed searches of Crimean Tatar homes, mosques, and religious schools, over the last weeks as well, of course, as the eviction of the Mejlis from its headquarters in Simferopol and the planned eviction of the Bakhchysarai Mejlis.

Lavrov was presumably hoping that his audience were not aware of the mounting offensive against the Crimean Tatars in their homeland.  Russia certainly pulled all levers in their attempts to prevent the Crimean Tatars even being represented at the UN Conference on Indigenous Peoples last week.  It was doubtless galling to Lavrov and Russian President Vladimir Putin that the two Crimean Tatar leaders  - Mustafa Dzhemiliev and Refat Chubarov - whom Russia has banned from their homeland were able to publicly speak of the mounting offensive being waged against Crimean Tatars.

This may be the reason for the new attack against Mustafa Dzhemiliev via his son Khaiser.  The latter has been moved from a detention centre in the Crimea to Russia’s Krasnodar region. This is in flagrant breach of a directive from the European Court of Human Rights which on July 10 applied Rule 39 ordering that Khaiser be released from custody.  Instead, the young man has been taken into Russia, with neither his family nor lawyers able to see him.

In August Mustafa Dzhemiliev recounted how he had been approached by Putin’s people who proposed a meeting which, they hinted, could determine whether or not Khaiser Dzhemiliev was released from custody.  His suspicions that his son was being used as a hostage are only confirmed by this latest move.

In Sary-Su a large number of Crimean Tatars gathered on Sunday at the home of one of the abducted young men, and are planning to come on Monday.  Abdureshit Dzhepparov says that the authorities have overstepped all limits when they force people to the floor in their own homes, and turn up at their schools and mosques. He stressed that Sergei Aksyonov, the Russian-installed Crimean prime minister should explain the authorities’ actions in relation to the Crimean Tatars.

Russia and its occupation regime in the Crimea are demonstrating terrifying contempt for rule of law, including the instructions from the European Court of Human Rights which are binding on Russia.

It is difficult not to suspect that this latest abduction is aimed at instilling an atmosphere of terror and forcing the Crimean Tatars to leave their homeland.  Lack of adequate response from the international community will only compound what Refat Chubarov calls “a state of terror and fear”.  An unfolding tragedy for the Crimean Tatar people and a frightening moral defeat before the rule of the fist.

http://khpg.org/index.php?id=1411937159

[Balthazar]

That's funny because Chubarov himself had a strong ties with hizb-ut-tahrir, which is banned as the terrorist organization.

[247crypto]

[247crypto]

[Balthazar]

http://english.farsnews.com/newstext.aspx?nn=13930708001355

Ukraine Introduces Customs Regime on Crimea Border

[Paya]

[247crypto]

[ElitistCA]

Crimean people were never happier, also they never lived in richer state and never had higher standard of living. There is reason why there was no violence. Must feel great to be saved from bankrupt debt enslaved country.

[samaricanin]

Crimean people were never happier, also they never lived in richer state and never had higher standard of living. There is reason why there was no violence. Must feel great to be saved from bankrupt debt enslaved country.

I can imagine that feeling

[Balthazar]

Unfortunately, some communication issues still exist between Crimea and the mainland.

Just one example, Megafon operator with "All inclusive" plan:

Call from Moscow to Republic of Crimea or Sevastopol: 20 rubles per minute;
Call from Moscow to any other number, with exception for local numbers: 4.6 rubles per minute.

Reason of dramatically higher prices is lack of bandwidth. Only one cable was laid by Rostelecom, it is used to provide internet and telephony for all citizens of the Crimea. Additional cables are planned in 2015.

[247crypto]

Call from Moscow to Republic of Crimea or Sevastopol: 20 rubles per minute;
Call from Moscow to any other number, with exception for local numbers: 4.6 rubles per minute.

Give me some number, i will test my rates.

[Pagan]

21 Ways Life in Crimea has Changed Since the Russian Anschluss

by Paul Goble

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia.

The Russian occupation of Crimea has affected residents of the Ukrainian peninsula in large ways and small. Now, Novy Region-2 has published a list of 21 ways in which life has changed for all the residents of that region, establishing a useful checklist for all concerned (nr2.com.ua/hots/Okkupacija_Kryma/Krym-do-okkupacii-i-posle-81493.html).

There are other, more high-profile changes that affect the Crimean Tatars, for example, but here is a list of changes that the site suggests are affecting everyone in Russian-occupied Crimea


Vodka costs more and isn’t sold after 10:00 pm.

Residents can no longer take part in spontaneous political meetings, “even if they want to thank the authorities and Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin personally.”

Crimeans can no longer rent out rooms to visitors.

Crimeans are to be drafted into the Russian army and serve not in Yalta but in Chechnay, Daghestan, the Far North and the Far East.

Pregnant women can’t “hope for direct compensation for the birth” of children. Any money the state does give them will only be for their children and well into the future at that.

Those with Russian passports and Crimean residence permits can’t travel abroad for vacations: they are expected to stay in Crime “or go to Sochi and become patriots.”

Crimean residents can no longer make money by serving as informal taxi drivers: there simply aren’t enough visitors to allow them to operate.

Because Moscow doesn’t allow elections for mayors any more, Crimeans are not subjected to a constant barrage of campaign literature and promises.

Those who served in the Ukrainian army may get a chance to serve again – in the Russian one.
Participating in demonstrations no longer brings in money from the authorities; it can lead to “up to 15 years in prison.”

“Seven parties of Russian nationalists will monitor suspicious ‘Russians and Crimean Tatars’ who have been subject for 23 years to the influence of ‘Banderite propaganda’ in Ukraine.”

Crimeans who have received Russian passports are learning about an important aspect of Russian geography: the location of prison camps in various parts of the Russian Federation.

Crimeans won’t get paid for taking part in May Day or City Day holiday marches. They also won’t be allowed “to carry their own signs or shout their own slogans when they pass the tribune.”

Crimeans long accustomed to cursing their own presidents on social networks are having to learn that now they must never do that. Instead, they must praise whatever the Russian rpesident does.

Crimean school children are having to forget much that they had been taught by “’falsifiers from Ukraine’” about such subjects as the Mongol yoke and the terror famine. “How could Russians survive hundreds of years under the Tatar yoke?”

Crimean residents are now having to learn not to be proud of themselves and their families but of the Russian state.

Crimeans also now have to remember that “there is no sex in Russia just as there was none in the Soviet Union.” They can no longer be tolerant of gays or lesbians, and they have to remember that they must “love a young woman just as they do the Motherland, the army, the president, and the Fatherland.”

They have to adapt to Russian dietary traditions including some that are very confusing involving Russians who like Ukrainian dishes but may not call them that.

“Young people of Crimea must become accustomed … to ‘a second national-regional language’ if not for [themselves], then for [their] children in schools.” And they must speak it better than Ukrainian because they may be sent anywhere in Russia in the future.

Crimeans can “curse other nationalities (for example, Ukrainians and their culture) in blogs and social networks only if they are in Ukraine. In the Russian Federation,” on the other hand, that can lead to jail. But the list of approved and disapproved peoples keeps changing “after each ‘reset’ in ties between the Russian Federation and the United States.” It is thus best to avoid “the nationality question altogether.”

And Crimeans must now always carry their passports because they may be asked for them by officials, something that wasn’t true six months ago.

copyright and source:
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.it/2014/10/window-on-eurasia-21-ways-life-in.html

[Pagan]

Disappearances on the Rise in Occupied Crimea, Reflecting Growing Illegality There

by Paul Goble

Paul Goble is a longtime specialist on ethnic and religious questions in Eurasia. He has served as director of research and publications at the Azerbaijan Diplomatic Academy, vice dean for the social sciences and humanities at Audentes University in Tallinn, and a senior research associate at the EuroCollege of the University of Tartu in Estonia.

Since the Anschluss, 18 Crimean Tatars have “disappeared,” three of them in the last week alone, Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Cemilev told a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe yesterday, a reflection of increasing oppression and growing illegality by the Russian occupiers.

Two youths, Isyam Dzhepparov and Dzhevdet Islyamov disappeared on September 27 fromteh village of Sary-Su in the Belgorod district, and a third Edem Asanov disappeared on his way to work in Yevpatoriya (qha.com.ua/za-6-mesyatsev-v-krimu-bez-vesti-propalo-18-krimskih-tatar-djemilev-140295.html).

This wave of disappearances, only one of which has been solved by the discovery of a body, is only part of the oppression that the occupation authorities are inflicting on the Crimean Tatars, Cemilev said. Also in the course of the last week, Russian siloviki conducted 40 searches in Crimean Tatar homes and institutions.

In some but not all cases, the Russian police have opened criminal cases and gone through the motions at least of conducting a search, but their lack of progress has provoked suspicions that the authorities themselves are involved in the disappearances of the Crimean Tatars.

Those suspicions have grown so strong that Sergey Aksyonov, who is the acting head of the Russian occupation, announced that he was creating a special “contact group” attached to the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea to deal with “the affairs of missing Crimean Tatars” (qha.com.ua/po-faktu-propaji-edema-asanova-zaveli-ugolovnoe-delo-140305.html).

But that announcement only underscores the extent of the problem and the failure of the authorities to respond to it in any meaningful way. And it will certainly increase the number of Crimean Tatars who accept Cemilev’s earlier argument that Russia wants a Crimea without Crimean Tatars.

copyright and source:
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.it/2014/10/window-on-eurasia-disappearances-on.html

[Nemo1024]

And it will certainly increase the number of Crimean Tatars who accept Cemilev’s earlier argument that Russia wants a Crimea without Crimean Tatars.

copyright and source:
http://windowoneurasia2.blogspot.it/2014/10/window-on-eurasia-disappearances-on.html

Does he also explain in this context why Tatar was made an official language in Crimea, while Tatars are guaranteed a percentage of seats in the Parliament, something that Ukraine failed to do over the 20+ years of occupation?

Also, 18 Tatars disappeared? Out of a population of Crimea of 2+ million? That's like <0.0009%, which is HUGE!   Have they tried to look for them on the battlefields in East-Ukraine, with the Nazi battalions genociding ethnic Russians by the hundreds?


Let's bring some balance to the Western propaganda.

An Op-Edge by Nadezhda Kevorkova, a war correspondent who has covered the events of the Arab Spring, military and religious conflicts around the world, and the anti-globalization movement.

Russian wife of a Crimean Tatar hero
http://rt.com/op-edge/192864-crimean-tatars-wwii-air-force/

“Do you want to talk to the Russian widow of our Crimean Tatar hero? You’ll hear the opinion of a Russian who knows our people, though her view is different,” a Crimean Tatar family offers.

“Different view” means a positive assessment of Crimea becoming part of Russia.

A memorial plate to a Crimean Tatar fighter pilot, Hero of Soviet Union.