On the eve of the G20 Tatars launch appeal: Do not forget the Crimea

The Muslim minority has taken up the tradition of collective prayers in private homes, to circumvent the prohibitions imposed by the Russian authorities on public gatherings. The last big meeting was at the home of Ilmi Umerov, the leader who has been targeted by the FSB. His daughter: "There has been a return of the use of repressive psychiatry against dissidents, just like under the USSR".

Bakhchysarai (AsiaNews) - A few days before the G20 scheduled to take place in Hangzhou, China, where the situation in Ukraine will be one of the topics of the meetings between the leaders, the Tatars ethnic minority (about 15% of the population on the Black Sea peninsula) are asking the international community not to consider the Crimean a closed case.

Collective prayers to stay united

Against the background of an extensive lobbying campaign by the new Russian authorities, which have effectively banned them from all public gathering, the Crimean Tatars have begun to meet in private homes and pray for their political prisoners. The last large gathering for a dua (invocation to Allah) took place on August 22 in Bakhchisaray, where over 500 people gathered at the home of the activist Ilmi Umerov, confined to a hospital for the mentally ill in Simferopol, on a court order that imposed a psychiatric evaluation.

Umerov, 59, is the deputy chairman of the Mejlis - the representative body of the Crimean Tatars, this year banned by the local Prosecutor's Office on charges of "extremist activities." Like other activists of the movement for the rights of Tatars, the man has come under fire from Russian secret services (FSB) for his outspoken opposition to the annexation of the Crimea to Russia, which took place after a referendum in March 2014, never recognized by the international community.

Umerov was accused of "public appeals to separatism", for an interview with the ATR channel, in which he called for the liberation of the Crimea from Russia. After several searches of his home and the opening of an investigation, he was subjected to a forced psychiatric examination; according to his lawyers the measure was implemented "without any legal basis." He is currently hospitalized in Simferopol, under restricted observation and his health is deteriorating. As his daughter Ayshe explains to AsiaNews, her father suffers from Parkinson's, diabetes and hypertension, and is growing weaker everyday "even if he is morally strong and does not want to surrender." The Bakhchisaray family makes the journey up and down from Simferopol (over 30 km) twice a day, at least to assure regular meals. "He is in a room on his own but there are no doors and the hospitalized patients there are special, they get up at all hours of the night, screaming, singing, Dad can not even sleep," says the girl.

Ayshe worked and lived in Kiev, but has come back specifically to the Crimea to keep attention focused on the case of the father. The group has launched a support campaign with the hashtag #StopKillingIlmiUmerov and several human rights organizations have called for the activist's release, denouncing the violation of freedom of expression and association in the Crimea. During these two and a half years after the referendum, the Russian authorities have denied entry to the peninsula to two prominent members of this ethnic minority of Muslim faith, they have closed down all of their media on spurious pretences and banned public gatherings.

A political case

Ayshe is convinced that her father's case is politically motivated: "The purpose of the investigators is to isolate one of the Tatar leader, forcing him to shut up and frighten his supporters. Like in the times of Soviet dissidents, repressive medicine is now used in the Crimea". Human Rights Watch, is of the same opinion denouncing "persecution of those who criticize Russia's actions in Crimea".

Archbishop Kliment of Simferopol and Crimea of ​​the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Kyivan Patriarchate, has also denounced the leader's situation. The case is based on dell'art.280.1 alleged violation of the Criminal Code, which provides for punishment of "public calls to action to violate the territorial integrity of Russia with the use of the media." According to the Human Rights NGO, the Article was introduced in March 2015, specifically to prosecute those who speak against the fact that the Crimea becoming Russian territory.

Lobbying campaign

"Russia had promised to respect our rights, but in two and a half years have confronted us with entirely new phenomena: problems with the teaching in Tatar language, killings, kidnappings, political processes, mass raids", explains Nariman Dzhelalov to AsiaNews. The deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars participated in the collective prayer. "Several of our activists have disappeared and none of them has been found alive so far," adds Dzhelalov, who calls on the international community of "not consider the Crimean a closed case."

President Vladimir Putin has always promised the respect of this minority - native of this land, deported to Central Asia by Stalin and which only returned in the 1980s - but the local authorities accused the Tatars of being agents of Kiev.

The FSB said that Umerov will be discharged on September 7, but but there are no assurances on other detainees for months, awaiting trial. Such as Akhtem Chiygoz, arrested a year and a half ago, on charges of having organized an anti-Russian demonstration in Simferopol, February 26, 2014, back when the Crimea was Ukrainian. Zeitulla, Chiygoz's father has experienced the deportation of the Soviet era, but he said "even then I saw so much injustice." He like other Tatars swear not to give up and to continue praying.