The Crimea Exodus Has Begun

[DonViejo]

Oleg Shynkarenko

As pro-Moscow squads are intimidating locals to vote ‘yes’ to join Russia, many Ukraine nationalists and ethnic Tatars are trying to make arrangements to temporarily leave the region.

For locals in Crimea, who are will be voting today on the referendum on whether to join Russia, future prospects don’t look bright.

In the run-up to the vote, Russian media has been churning out non-stop propaganda about how thousands of Ukrainians are fleeing into Russia proper to escape neo-Nazis and fascists. But the reality is that many Crimeans are fleeing north to other regions of Ukraine, to escape the local militias manned by Russian separatists. This weekend, as reports surfaced of Russian armed forces landing in Kherson, the escape to safety seemed even more pressing for the region’s pro-Kiev activists and ethnic minority Tatars.

Tamily Tasheva is a Crimean Tatar from Simferopol. Now, she coordinates a civil campaign, KRYM.SOS (“Crimea SOS”) to inform people about events on the peninsula, which has been largely shut off from the outside world.

“Women with children and older people are temporarily leaving Crimea for Kiev and Western Ukraine,” Tasheva says. “They will be hosted in boarding houses and in volunteers’ apartments for free. In the last five days, about 500 people have asked for information about asylum for us.”

more
http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2014/03/16/the-crimea-exodus-has-begun.html

[Voice for Peace]

1. "It may be crying time again."

http://www.slate.com/blogs/the_world_/2014/03/01/the_biggest_victims_of_today_s_events_the_crimean_tatars.html

A Crimean Tatar man cries during a mass rally held on the 60th anniversary of the
deportation of Tatars from Crimea, on May 18, 2004. It may be crying time again.

Tatars are certainly have a grim history of being scapegoated. In 1944, after Soviet forces regained control of Crimea and two and a half years of German occupation, Joseph Stalin ordered that the entire population be deported under the pretense that they had collaborated with the Nazis. (It was a false accusation: Quite a few Tatars had fought in the Soviet army.)

Officers from the NKVD, predecessor to the KGB, went from home to home ordering Tatars onto cattle trains. More than 180,000 people were deported, most of them to Uzbekistan. Many died on the trains, many more in their new homes, where they found a harsh climate, and local inhabitants unprepared and unenthusiastic about supporting the new arrivals. About 46 percent of the exiles died.

In 1953, after Stalin’s death, the charge of mass collaboration was withdrawn from the Tatars(though the accusation is still periodically made today), but they were not allowed to return home until the late 1980s. Tatars argue that the deportation should be considered genocide. Though generally pro-Ukrainian in their politics, they have pressed Kiev to do more to help them recover their land and property and called on Europe to make the recognition of Tatar rights a condition of EU membership.

[Igel]

2. Neither side will care.

One side will discount it as meaningless propaganda, devoid of truth.

The other side will view it as redundant.

It's easy and fairly legal to bash immigrants in Moscow who's only "crime" is having the wrong color skin or holding a job or speaking with the wrong accent. At the same time, if you're undesirable it's possible to be in serious trouble for driving with expired car registration or having an office without the right permit--even if you've applied for the permit, have paid bribe after bribe, and have been waiting for years. If a court rules in your favor and shouldn't have, it's fixed--the appeals court can take up the matter ex parte and the judge suddenly finds himself on administrative duty.

As long as you know what side of your bread the butter is on and don't stick your head up to offend those who wield power, it's okay. Otherwise things happen. Those who already stuck their head up or were disloyal should make arrangements for finding new digs.

Some Tatars will be imported to make up for the loss, lest anybody try to say the Russians are racist. The Russians don't want them where they are, and if they're moved to their "homeland" at government expense, the expectation that they are grateful will be enforced.

[DetlefK]

3. 10 bucks that Tamily Tasheva will be assaulted/kidnapped/killed before May.