On Tuesday, September 6, the Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center Eskender Bariiev met with the journalist of the well-known French newspaper Le Monde Olivier Truc. Truc was informed about the situation in the occupied Crimea and the new occupied territories, as well as about violations of the rights of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.
Eskender Bariiev told his interlocutor about the activities of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, about the situation with human rights violations in the occupied Crimea, systemic repressions against the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, persecution on ethnic and religious grounds.
“The persecution of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people in the occupied Crimea is systemic. For the entire period of occupation, the CTRC recorded 262 political prisoners and those prosecuted in criminal cases for the period of occupation of Crimea, 188 of them are representatives of the Crimean Tatar people”,- he stressed.
The expert added that, unfortunately, repressions against Crimean Tatars continue in the newly occupied territories of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions.
“The CTRC began to record violations of people's rights in the South of Ukraine, where representatives of the Crimean Tatar people live compactly. And according to our data, during the period of a full-scale war in Ukraine, we recorded at least 258 cases of detention, 84 against representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people”,- Bariiev added.
Speaking about the trends, the member of the Mejlis noted that the invaders massively detain and arrest Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians involved in participation in the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar Volunteer Battalion, banned in Russia. So far, 20 arrests are known: 6 in the occupied Crimea, 14 in the occupied Kherson region after February 24, 2022.
The journalist was also told about the adoption of the law On the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine. Bariiev explained that thanks to this law, the question has already been clearly settled in Ukraine: who are the indigenous people of Ukraine. After all, many do not fully understand the difference between indigenous peoples and national minorities.
Eskender Bariiev stressed that the adoption of the law is not the final result. It is very important to make this law work. Each article of the law must be clearly spelled out by by-laws. For example, on August 23, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted a regulatory legal act "The procedure for securing the legal status of the representative body of the indigenous people of Ukraine and depriving such status."
“The team of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center has put a lot of effort into the adoption of the Law On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine, and is also carrying out systematic work on the preparation of by-laws for the implementation of the law”,- concluded the Head of the Board of the CTRC.