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Crimean Tartars protest

Russian security forces blocking the way for Crimean Tatars crossing a checkpoint between Crimea and Kherson.


Since the annexation by Russia recently, all is not rosy in Crimea:

Thousands of Crimean Tatars on Saturday responded to news that their spiritual leader had been banned from the peninsula by blocking several highways in a tense standoff with riot police — the first sign that the Muslim ethnic group's discontent with Russian authorities may lead to turmoil.

On Saturday, Crimean authorities promised to dish out criminal charges to the group, which numbered about five thousand, according to the BBC Russian service. The group broke through border posts near the city of Armyansk and crossed the border into the buffer zone between Ukraine and the Crimean peninsula to meet Mustafa Dzhemilev, former head of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, the ethnic group's representative body.

The group blocked several highways near Simferopol, Bakhchysarai, Stary Krym, Yevpatoriya and Oktyabrskoye, Interfax-Ukraine reported.

The incident seems to vindicate analysts' earlier warnings that the Muslim ethnic group's disaffection with Russian authorities may lead to instability in the region. Many Crimean Tatars, who account for more than 10 percent of the Crimean peninsula's population, opposed the territory's annexation by Russia in March.

"Before the annexation many predicted that Crimean Tatars would become a headache for Russians, and now the head is already aching," said Alexei Malashenko, an Islamic studies expert at the Carnegie Moscow Center.

Malashenko warned that such protests could eventually destabilize Crimea, adding that some Crimean Tatars had already joined the Hizb-ut-Tahrir Islamist organization and even fought in Syria.
When the article says that Crimean Tartars opposed the annexation, they did so by refusing to participate in the voting that did not given them an option have Crimea remain as part of Ukraine.

Russia to Prosecute Crimean Tatar Protesters Over Unrest">Russia to Prosecute Crimean Tatar Protesters Over Unrest

Comments

  1. There are of course literally millions of Tartars in Russia - one of the most beautiful cities in the world is Kazan - where about half the people are Tartars and the other half Russian and who have lived together for generations in harmony often inter marrying.

    Putin's supposed mistress Alina Kabaeva is, of course, a Tartar. Whether or not she is his mistress I couldn't say but it is a good story.


    Russia is indeed a lot more than "a gas station masquerading as a country" as one of the American architects of mayhem is quoted as saying

    Meanwhile in the Ukraine annexed by the USA

    https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NKuDzXAgdf4

    ReplyDelete
  2. Andrei,

    The Tartars of the Crimea boycotted the recent referendum to join Russia, because they remember not living in Russia peacefully, given that most or all were deported from Crimea in 1944 - see Deportation of the Crimean Tartars. Looking at the history of Kazan, I can see that such deportations occurred there as well, just not as recently.

    I've been doing a lot of reading about Russia in recent weeks, and I have learned a lot (but barely anything). So I disagree that Russia is "a gas station masquerading as a country", that's just plain ignorance.

    This stuff about the Ukrainians being Nazis is just painful and tedious, so I'm going to move on.

    Were you aware of these protests back in 2011 for "free and fair elections" in Russia: Thousands protesting voting fraud. At the time, Putin blamed Hillary Clinton for the protests. Other news sources I've found have direct quotes from protesters denying that Hillary got them there (see this NYTimes article). An even larger protest .

    A couple of things I find interesting:

    1) the idea of the people deciding to protest against the government without someone foreign telling them to seems to be an alien concept to Putin.
    2) a protest against voting fraud! Already I saw a Russian article that said that in one area of Crimea, the voter turnout was 123%. They were questioning it. Can't remember where this was, but I can find it if you want proof.


    So, what I'm going is I'm getting context for the Ukraine fisaco, and it's confirming what I believed initially anyway. Giving me videos with Nazi symbols on them just makes your position look like Kremlin propaganda - ie not believable.

    ReplyDelete
  3. But when ye shall see the abomination of desolation, spoken of by Daniel the prophet, standing where it ought not, (let him that readeth understand,) then let them that be in Judaea flee to the mountains:


    We are headed into a major war - it probably can't be stopped now.


    And it isn't what you think it is.....


    I've thought this for more than a year now, tried to open peoples eyes but it is a waste of time.


    Satan will have his way and millions will die.


    Perhaps its even armageddon

    ReplyDelete

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