On Thursday, August 13, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Ukraine and Open Society Foundation continued the work of the International Summer Camp “Freedom Camp”. The participants were told about the preconditions and consequences of the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, about human rights violations on the peninsula, as well as about the role of non-violence in gaining freedom and promoting democracy.
Iryna Starovytska, Project Manager of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for FreedomSubregion Ukraine and Belarus, told the participants of the Freedom Camp about the activities and areas of work of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Ukraine and Belarus.
Zarema Bariieva, manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, told the activists about the preconditions and consequences of the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and human rights violations on the peninsula.
As the trainer noted, the seizure of Crimea was an absolutely planned action, which Russia was preparing at least several years before the start of the annexation of the peninsula.
“After the occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation, mass searches began in the dwellings of Crimean Tatars and pro-Ukrainian activists, interrogations, enforced disappearances, abductions, detentions and arrests, especially in relation to Crimean Tatars, began to take place on a regular basis on the peninsula”,- said the manager of the CTRC in her speech.
Bariieva also spoke about political prisoners,the missing and the killed people during the occupation period of Crimea.
“Currently, according to the CTRC, there are 204 political prisoners and persecuted in Crimea in criminal cases. 144 of them are Crimean Tatars, representatives of the indigenous people of Crimea. Many of the political prisoners were illegally taken to the territory of the Russian Federation”,- the lecturer emphasized.
The camp participants were told about the pressure on the media, the prohibition of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, the seizure of state and private property by the Russian invaders, as well as about non-violent struggle and advocacy both in the mainland Ukraine and around the world. In particular, Zarema Bariieva noted that the Crimean Tatar Resource Center had submitted 76 appeals, complaints, reports to international bodies and their structures.
Also on the second day of the camp, Mridula Ghosh, Chairman of the Board of the East European Development Institute, joined the participants online. She talked about the role of non-violence in gaining freedom and promoting democracy.
The evening program included a screening and discussion of the feature film Gandhi.
The International Summer Camp "Freedom Camp" was organized with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Ukraine and Belarus and Open Society Foundation.
We remind you that on August 12, the work of the International Summer Camp "Freedom Camp" began. The event, which takes place in the village of Strilkove, Henichesk district, Kherson region, is attended by activists from different parts of Ukraine. The goal of the camp is to unite activists, exchange experience, obtain information about liberal values, communication technologies, image, international public actions, methods of nonviolent resistance, etc., as well as the formation of new creative ideas in the context of the liberation of Crimea.