By
Russia suffered an unexpected
defeat in the Eurovision Song Contest on Saturday
when its singer came in third, while Ukraine, of all countries, took first
place.
To add insult to injury,
Ukraine’s contestant, Jamala, is of Crimean Tatar descent. And she didn’t sing
just any song, but a song about her people’s
ruthless deportation by Soviet authorities in 1944, when more than 230,000
Crimean Tatars, an overwhelming majority of the population, were exiled from
the Crimean Peninsula. Nearly half died as a result of this ethnic cleansing.
Russian officials criticized Ukraine’s
victory as yet another example of the West’s “propaganda and information war”
against their country. Meanwhile, Europe is no doubt feeling good about itself
for delivering a karmic blow to President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia, whose
annexation of Crimea in 2014 and continuing war in Ukraine still sting.
But the Eurovision victory
took place in the world of entertainment. In the real world, Russia is
escalating its crackdown on the Crimean Tatars, who now make up 12 percent of
Crimea’s population after the Soviet Union allowed the deportation survivors
and their descendants to return in 1989.
On April 26, Russia banned the
Crimean Tatars’ legislature, the Mejlis, calling it an extremist organization. On
May 12, the authorities arrested several Tatars, including Ilmi Umerov, deputy
chairman of the Mejlis. Activists say that more searches and arrests are likely
soon. This would be a particularly tone-deaf move on Russia’s part, considering
that the anniversary of the
1944 deportation is this week.
But if past treatment of the
Crimean Tatars is anything to go by, Russia probably isn’t bothered by that.
The Crimean Tatars have always
been easy scapegoats for Russia. Joseph Stalin’s justification for deporting
them was that they had sided with Germany in World War II. It’s true that some did,
historians say, either because they were forced to by the invading army or because
they believed the Germans would liberate them from the Soviet Union. But
records show that just as many Crimean Tatars, if not more, did not defect
during the war. Many fought valiantly for the Red Army.
Brian Glyn Williams, a
historian at the University of Massachusetts at Dartmouth, posits that Stalin’s
true motivation wasn’t revenge but instead plans to launch a war against Turkey
to retake land that Russia had lost during World War I. Stalin wanted to
neutralize potential collaborators; the Crimean Tatars, a Muslim Turkic people,
were prime suspects.
The Crimean Tatars’ suffering
goes as far back as 1783, when Russia first conquered and annexed the peninsula
and began forcing them out. For hundreds of years before Russia took control,
the Crimean Tatars had their own state, the Crimean Khanate.
Crimean Tatars still refuse to
submit to Russian occupation. Most opposed the 2014 annexation, and their
leadership continues to demand Crimea’s reunification with Ukraine.
Russia has not taken kindly to
this dissent. Russian authorities have shut down Crimean Tatar media. Russian
forces have raided homes and mosques, and harassed and imprisoned Crimean Tatar
activists, some of whom have disappeared or been killed. Russia has tried to
block the Crimean Tatars from publicly commemorating the deportation and has
even re-exiled Mustafa Dzhemilev, the Crimean Tatars’ political leader.
According to Ukraine’s Foreign
Ministry, about 20,000 Crimean Tatars have fled the peninsula since the
annexation. This is devastating for a people who spent 45 years banished from
their homeland. Many thought they were done with Russia once and for all when
the Soviet Union disintegrated and Crimea belonged to Ukraine. Few predicted
that their nightmare would begin anew in 2014.
If the Crimean Tatars are to
survive, Western governments must do more to help.
The first step is to formally
recognize the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous people of Crimea. Ukraine
finally did so two years ago, and the European Parliament later followed.
Likewise, the 1944 deportation should be recognized as an act of genocide.
Ukraine officially declared it so in 2015 and is now calling on other
governments and organizations, including the United Nations, to do the same.
The State Department has
issued the occasional news release denouncing Russia’s treatment of the Tatars,
but this is not enough. After Russia's invasion of Crimea, President Obama
signed executive orders outlining the sanctions the United States would apply
and the justifications for them. These should be updated to cite Russia’s human
rights violations against the Tatars. The United States should also push for European
Union officials to renew sanctions against Russia when they expire at the end
of July. Not doing so would signal to Mr. Putin that he can get away with
trampling on Ukraine’s sovereignty.
In addition, American elected
officials should support the Stand for Ukraine bill, introduced in Congress in
April. The law would affirm the United States’ refusal to recognize Russia’s
annexation of Crimea. More significantly, it would prevent the president from
lifting the sanctions listed in the executive orders until Crimea’s status has
been resolved with Ukraine’s approval.
The Crimean Tatars are doing
all they can to resist the destruction of their culture. Last year activists prevented food and
power coming from Ukraine from entering the peninsula. The blockade caused
blackouts but demonstrated how dependent Crimea was on the Ukrainian mainland.
Mr. Dzhemilev and other Crimean Tatar leaders in Ukraine frequently meet with
foreign leaders and appear in the news media. Crimean Tatar representatives are
trying to make their case to the United Nations.
Is anyone listening? The world
does not have a good track record when it comes to protecting indigenous
peoples; it is often too eager to sacrifice them for political expediency.
There are those who say that
Crimea is a lost cause — that Mr. Putin will never allow it to be returned to
Ukraine because Russian ties to the peninsula run too deep. They forget that
Crimea belonged to the Crimean Tatars first, long before the Russian Empire,
the Soviet Union and Mr. Putin.
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