Separated: Life for Family Members of Political Prisoners From Crimea

[Rogue Valley]

Separated: Life for Family Members of Political Prisoners From Crimea

12/24/18
Five mothers, two wives, a father and a sister traveled from occupied Crimea to Kyiv to share what it’s like in the family of a political prisoner. Their loved ones – Crimean Tatar men arrested by Russian authorities on the occupied peninsula – are now behind bars in Crimea’s Simferopol or Russia’s Rostov-on-Don. Some have been in prison for over two years already, as their cases drag on in court, many still awaiting a verdict.

Nine Crimean Tatar people talk about their sons, husbands, and brother who were arrested by the Russian Security Services in Crimea and placed in unending detention, awaiting their trials in a Russian kangaroo court. This is the fate of any in Crimea - Tatars and Ukrainians alike - who disagree with or protest Russia's illegal annexation of the Ukraine peninsula. Many receive sentences of 15-20 years in penal colonies in Siberia. The Russian occupiers have been persecuting the Crimean Tatar people relentlessly. These people are easy targets due to their Muslim religion and the security services use "Islamic extremist" as a trusty excuse for arrest and property confiscation. The Russians have shut down the Crimean Tatar parliament, closed mosque's, and silenced all Tatar media. The pressure is relentless to surrender Ukrainian citizenship and accept internal Russian passports.

Human Rights Watch | Crimea: Persecution of Crimean Tatars Intensifies

Crimean Tatars: New Draft Resolution on Crimea Approved by the UN

 

[Daisy]

Par for the course with Russia...to drag court proceedings out indefinitely because they have no solid grounds for convicting them...

 

[Westphalian]

More generally, I would point to the reality that Russia is a peaceful multi-cultural state which celebrates diversity and Islam. Look at the much maligned Chechnya, and look at how Muslims thrive in Moscow.

By contrast, the much more heterogenous and white Ukraine, with its strong neo-Nazi nationalist movement, would be a hostile environment for Tatars if they ventured into it.

As so often, broader objective facts counter the delicious narrative formed from evidence based on accounts of a tiny number of people.

 

[Rogue Valley]

By contrast, the much more heterogenous and white Ukraine, with its strong neo-Nazi nationalist movement, would be a hostile environment for Tatars if they ventured into it.

The typical Kremlin disinformation lines :roll:

Thousands of Tatar refuges fled to the Ukraine mainland after the illegal occupation and constitute a part of the 1.5 million internally displaced persons (IDPs) due to the Crimea occupation and Russia's invasion in eastern Ukraine..

 

[Chagos]

More generally, I would point to the reality that Russia is a peaceful multi-cultural state which celebrates diversity and Islam. Look at the much maligned Chechnya, and look at how Muslims thrive in Moscow.

By contrast, the much more heterogenous and white Ukraine, with its strong neo-Nazi nationalist movement, would be a hostile environment for Tatars if they ventured into it.
As so often, broader objective facts counter the delicious narrative formed from evidence based on accounts of a tiny number of people

So by that logic, if I can supply a narrative by which I suppress far less people on one side than I actually do suppress on the other, I'm not suppressing anyone at all.

Maybe not the most stupid argument of the year, but solely on account of there still being a couple of days left.

Jesus wept.:roll:

 

[Rogue Valley]

Par for the course with Russia...to drag court proceedings out indefinitely because they have no solid grounds for convicting them...

Fair trials are a fiction. The convictions are pre-determined. The only variable is the sentence.

Amnesty International | Crimea: More than 70 Crimean Tatar activists put on trial simultaneously in brazen crackdown