PODCAST
EXCLUSIVE
Crimean Solidarity and how publicity saves lives
Elina Kent: Welcome to the Kyiv Post Podcast, where you can tune in to stories that give you a deeper understanding of Ukraine.
I’m your host Elina Kent. I’m a multimedia producer and lifestyle journalist here at the Kyiv Post.
Last week marked the 7-year anniversary of the fraudulent referendum Russia held within newly invaded and occupied Crimea. Since then, those who speak out against the Russian regime or show support for Ukraine are immediately silenced and jailed. The indigenous community, Muslim Crimean Tatars, are not the only ones to be persecuted by the Russians in Crimea. But they represent a staggeringly high percentage of those targeted, compared to their 13% pre-occupation share of the peninsula’s population. Pro-Ukrainian supporters, journalists, and those simply “liking” the wrong post on Facebook have been persecuted, arrested, and deported.
The Kyiv Post recently released the documentary “Crimean Solidarity: The fight for freedom in Russian-occupied Crimea,” which I produced. We followed the families of political prisoners since January 2020 and documented their lives in occupied Crimea. It’s available on our website, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram channels.
Before going into the current events of Crimea it’s important to understand a bit about the tragic cycle of the Crimean Tatars.
Crimea’s indigenous people, the Muslim Crimean Tatars, have faced enormous challenges for generations.
Lutfiye Zudiyeva: Almost every family of political prisoners has tragic stories from the past. At the time many years ago the Crimean Tatars were persecuted by the NKVD [Soviet secret police] and accused of counter-revolutionary agitation. Today, terrorism and extremism.
EK: That was Lutfiye Zudiyeva, a human rights defender with Crimean Solidarity, who was also one of the main characters in the documentary. After a screening of the Crimean Solidarity film, Lutfiye, Emine Dzhaparova, the first deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, and Nariman Dzhelyalov, the deputy chairman of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar people spoke at an online event hosted by the US-Ukraine Foundation.
LZ: The so-called Troikas organ of extrajudicial repression of the NKVD, of the Crimean soviet socialist republic without trial or investigation sentenced to death many religious leaders, intellectuals, and activists of that time.
EK: Crimean Tatars paid a very big price to come back and live in their home.
Now, they have endured constant pressure and persecution by Russian occupation authorities for the past seven years since the illegal 2014 annexation of Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula.
As Russia’s occupation authorities tried to separate and isolate human rights activists, the Crimean Tatar community formed Crimean Solidarity, an NGO that fights for the freedom of Crimean political prisoners and provides information that isn’t controlled by the Russian Federation.
As many Crimean Tatar men are detained and sentenced to long jail sentences, there is a growing community of Crimean Tatar women breaking stereotypes that Islam treats women as subordinate. In the struggle for survival and freedom, and via organizations like Crimean Solidarity, Crimean Tatar women are increasingly taking on leading roles.
Our documentary film Crimean Solidarity chronicles their inspirational efforts.
Starting in January 2020, the Kyiv Post video team kept in close contact with women activists in the Crimean Tatar community. Lutfiye Zudieva, a human rights activist and civic journalist who has herself been detained, helps the wives of political prisoners to connect with each other. The Kyiv Post also followed the families of human rights activist Emir Ussein Kuku and civic journalist Nariman Memediminov.
The cases of Emir Ussein Kuku and Nariman Memediminov are well known. Kuku is a respected human rights activist. When he was first arrested, he said to his wife, “Now all communication with the media and human rights organizations lies on your shoulders.” He told her not to be afraid. “In our world you cannot tell our story if you close yourself off and don’t talk about the pain we are living through.”
That is why Meriem Kuku spoke out. She became a key player in Amnesty International and Frontline Defenders informational campaigns to support political prisoners. Meriem has done this for the past five years. There are seven more years left on her husband’s 12-year sentence.
Lemara Memediminova, now a close friend of Meriem through the support group of wives, also invited the Kyiv Post team into her life over the past year. We were able to capture a unique positive moment on camera: the release of her husband Nariman Memediminov and his reunion with his family after two and half years of detention.
This is Emine Dzhaparova, the first deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, speaking about Nariman at the panel.
Emine Dzhaparova: With Nariman Memediminov. He’s a civil journalist. He was actually one of the first ones to start the information coordination using his cellphone to record the trials, to record the illegal home searches of the Crimean Tatars, trying to inform the international community what is actually the reality in Crimea. He was detained, he spent three years in prison for the video clip that he produced in 2013, before the occupation had happened. And before the effective control of the Russian Federation over Crimea.
When he was released the only reason why he wasn’t tortured was the publicity of his case. And I’m very thankful for our international partners including the US and EU countries for naming those people for delivering the stories of those people suffering and resisting, for helping us protect them as far as it is the only instrument that saves lives. We claim that publicity saves lives.
EK: In December of 2020 two resolutions were introduced to the UN General Assembly, covering the “Problem of the militarization of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine, as well as parts of the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov”
And the “Situation of human rights in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, Ukraine,” which specifically mentions the names of the imprisoned Crimean Solidarity coordinator Server Mustafayev and human rights activist Emir Ussein Kuku.
That is why Lutfiye Zudeiva and Crimean Solidarity continue to speak out and tell the stories of the many men taken away from their families.
LZ: From 2014 to the present, 94 Crimean Tatars have already been arrested or restricted in freedom of movement in Crimea under various articles of the criminal court of the Russian Federation and politically motivated charges. More than 40 people on this list are activists of Crimean Solidarity organization. The law enforcement judicial and penitential system have become instruments of political pressure on people with convictions beyond the control of the state.
EK: Those who speak out against the Russian regime or show support for Ukraine are immediately silenced and jailed.
Nariman and other political prisoners that have been recognized by international organizations are protected by a layer of publicity and public outrage. And one of the main ways to facilitate more discourse on the subject is with the creation of the upcoming Crimea Platform, an international forum to help address the challenges emanating from the occupation of Crimea, set to take place at the end of this summer.
ED: President Volodymyr Zelensky initiated a Crimea Platform format, which is supposed to strengthen the international effort it has to bring to de-occupation by political and diplomatic efforts. The Crimea Platform lays within 3 main pillars. It is about strategic vision, it’s about consolidation and about synergy. And those dimensions envisioned in the architecture of the Crimea platform has to lead to the common response and we believe this isn’t only a domestic issue of Ukraine to find those answer to for extremely difficult questions but we believe it’s a common responsibility to restore international law and to restore international humanitarian law, and to restore justice in the context of those crimes and these days we all marking the seventh anniversary of our resistance to the occupation.
We believe that by having a discourse about Crimea, by discussing the issues related to Crimea and those consequences of the occupation is extremely important in order not to allow the criminal which is the russian to hide its Crimea. It happened in 2014 and that has been taken on an everyday basis in Crimea. And these kind of films that we have seen and have participated in, are something that serves one cause. That publicity saves lives.
EK: As independent journalism has been squeezed out of the Crimean peninsula by persecution, arrest, and deportation. It’s vital to keep the conversation going and support the community.
LZ: If we talk about practical steps. Then you could help us in the following directions. You can become a mentor for any political prisoner and help us spread information about him. Publicity saves lives in Crimea and protects. We must save lives and use all possible instruments to facilitate the release of all political prisoners. You can also help us with communication with the media the reason for the huge shortage of professional journalists in Crimea. You can organize various flash mobs and actions in support of political prisoners on the territory of your countries thus gaining public attention. You can write letters to political prisoners, they call it a “breath of air in jail.”
ED: Raising awareness, raising publicity, raising the discourse. We think that the Crimean case has to be much more vocal than it is today where we have an objective situation that year by year the international conjecture becomes more turbulent that attention goes to other issues and we have to fight for the attention of the Crimean cause. All those activities that will allow us that will explain what Crimea is today.
EK: You can watch the Kyiv Post documentary “Crimean Solidarity: The fight for freedom in Russian-occupied Crimea.” on our website, YouTube, Facebook, and Instagram channels to hear more from Lutfiye Zudeiva and the wives of Crimean Tatar political political prisoners. That was this week’s episode of the Kyiv Post Podcast. Remember to stay safe, stay home, and subscribe to the Kyiv Post.
