7-year-old Seidali Aliev was deeply traumatized after armed and masked men burst into his home on 11 February 2016, and still now avoids the room where he saw his father Muslim Aliev pinned to the ground before being taken away in handcuffs. Many of the 100 Crimean children whose fathers have been seized on trumped-up charges have stopped speaking altogether for many months. Small wonder that, in Nadzhiye Alieva’s words, “childhood ended on 11 February in just a few moments” for her children, and those of human rights activist Emir-Usein Kuku, Vadim Siruk and Enver Bekirov.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
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Halya Coynash: The Crimean childhoods Russia ended in just a few brutal moments
Armed men stand guard in front of the entrance of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars) in Simferopol on Sept. 16, 2014.
