The Diplomacy in Ireland – The European Diplomat Awards Committee has unanimously recognized the steadfast leadership and dedication of Mustafa Dzhemilev, former Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and Crimean Tatar Community with a Diplomatic Service Medal with Valour in the 2021 Diplomacy Awards held in Dublin, Ireland.
The conferral of the Diplomatic Service Medals took place on Dec. 31, 2021, with Dzhemilev accepting his award by video.
Additionally, the Committee awarded Ayla Bakkalli, the Crimean Tatar Representative to the United Nations Permanent Forum on Indigenous People the Diplomatic Service Medal with Honours on behalf of the Crimean Tatar people.
Dzhemilev’s leadership of the Crimean Tatar people and community has served as a beacon of light and unity for the ancient, indigenous people of Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula, the Crimean Tatars, in the rebuilding of their community on Crimean soil after Ukraine’s independence with the support of the Ukrainian government. It has been particularly important after the devastating occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014.
The Crimean Tatars have been singled out as particular targets of Russian persecution and brutality. A steady stream of Crimean Tatars have been arrested under specious circumstances and illegally transported to Russia, despite being Ukrainian citizens. Once in Russia, the Crimean Tatars have been deprived of their fundamental rights to due process or enjoy an effective defense and consequently have suffered appalling injustices including long-detention for unfounded charges.
In their native Crimea, the Tatars are subjected to ongoing oppression, violence, forced disappearances and even summary execution at the hands of Russian occupying forces.
The awards were given in recognition of the Herculean efforts of the Crimean Tatar leaders defending the human and fundamental rights of their people and the Crimean Tatar community’s commitment to endure until their freedom is restored in what they uniformly affirm, “Crimea is Ukraine.”
Comments from Editor-in-Chief Miceál O’Hurley
“Few peoples have known the joy of living and thriving on their indigenous lands for so long. And yet, beginning with the Russian invasion of their homeland under Catherine the Great, again under Soviet rule and yet once again with Russia’s illegal attempt to annex Crimea by force in 2014, the Crimean Tatars have known great suffering,” said O’Hurley. “By sheer will, determination and devotion to his people, Mustafa Dzhemilev has continued to bind his people together and give them hope for the future, through the peaceful and democratic demands for justice, and that is worth of our recognition,” O’Hurley concluded.
Comments from Awards Chairperson Oksana Shadrina
“The sadness we all experience by witnessing the plight of the Crimean Tatars pales in comparison to the persecution, death, deportation and injustices to which they are continually subjected by their Russian occupiers,” said Shadrina. “Witnessing the strength of the great Qirimoğlu (Mustafa Dzhemilev – ‘Son of Crimea’) and determination of the Crimean Tatars to endure and be restored to their lands, assisted by Ayla Bakkalli and people from all over the world, gives us all hope that ‘Crimea is Ukraine’ will be true in every sense soon,” Shadrina stated.
Miceál O’Hurley, Editor-in-Chief, Diplomacy in Ireland – The European Diplomat
