This Week in the News

In two interviews this last week, Mejlis head Mustafa Djemilev repeated his disappointment and lack of confidence in the Crimean, Ukrainian, and Russian governments. As reported on RusNavy.com, Dzemilev said--on День защитника Отечества, or Defender of the Fatherland Day, the day of the first drafts into the Red Army--that Russia's Black Sea Fleet, stationed in Sevastopol', is weak and poses no military threat, stating that it is several times weaker than the Turskish fleet. It does however, Dzhemilev said, constitute a political threat. He noted the separatist feelings from various polls, that a majority of the Russian-speaking Crimeans see their future with Russia, and the 23,000-person strong Russian Navy only fosters such feelings. The majority presence of ethnic Russians in the peninsula is also the major cause of conflict in Crimea, both with the Tatar population and the Ukrainian government. Dzhemilev contends in an interview with Kyiv Post that in the course of the last year--Victor Yanukovich's first as president--the situation has only worsened. This is not just because of the personal and personnel issues the Tatars have with the Yanukovich administration, but because of the perceived "fifth column" the Russian population presents. He draws connections with the armed conflict in Georgia over Abkhazia and South Ossetia and the situation in Crimea, commenting on the number of Ukrainian-Russian dual citizens (illegal in Ukraine) and the fact that should Russia move to overtake Crimea militarily, Russia already has a significant armed force in the form of the Black Sea Fleet.

Dzhemilev also stated that he is skeptical of the recent land allocation for the central mosque in Simferopol', is still unsatisfied with the lack of participation of Tatars in local government bodies, and that he is interested in stepping down as head of the Mejlis. I found this third point to be the most interesting, as Dzhemilev has been the vanguard for Crimean Tatar rights since the 60s. He has headed the Mejlis since its inception in 1991 and states that it has become "undemocratic" because the Tatars have been conditioned to look to him for leadership. Jokingly, he even threatened to have himself taken out like Mubarak in Egypt. All humor aside, the issue of succession in the Mejlis is a very important one.

In other news, the Young Leader's Club has announced a new youth program in Crimea entitled "Многонациональный Актив Крыма (Multinational Asset of Crimea)." It is a three-month program, March-April of this year, wherein the young participants will be introduced to the multiethnic history and culture of Crimea and will learn the "origins of nationalism and chauvinism." The information provided was scant, but as more news comes out on this program, I will be following it.


Articles referenced in this post:

Crimean Tatars: Russian fleet poses no threat; it is much weaker than Turkish Navy

http://rusnavy.com/news/navy/index.php?ELEMENT_ID=11566

Life 'changed for the worse' under Yanukovych, says Crimean Tatar leader

http://www.kyivpost.com/news/politics/detail/98553/

АНОНС: молодежная программа «Многонациональный Актив Крыма» (март-май) (Annoucement: youth program "Multinational Asset of Crimea" [March-May])

http://www.religion.in.ua/news/ukrainian_news/8576-anons-molodezhnaya-programma-mnogonacionalnyj-aktiv-kryma-mart-maj.html

У Черноморского флота деловые отношения с Севастополем и стабильные с Крымом (The Black Sea Fleet's business relationship with Sevastopol' and Crimea is stable)

http://www.nr2.ru/sevas/321788.html