Crimea and the Constitution of Ukraine: problems and perspective

Twenty-eight years ago, the Constitution of Ukraine was adopted.

How did it happen in Crimea? Are constitutional changes necessary in the context of Crimea? What role can they play in the issues of deoccupation of Crimea and restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine?

Eskender Bariiev, Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, answers these questions.

Bariiev notes that in the history of Ukraine there are known 8 Constitutions from the “Constitution of Pylyp Orlyk” to the current Constitution of Ukraine.

Only in the period from 1989 to 1995 a number of significant changes were made to the text of the Constitution of the Ukrainian SSR of 1978. And this was primarily due to the processes of changing the political system in the USSR, and subsequently the independence of Ukraine.

It is important to note that on June 19, 1991 the Constitution included a reference to the Crimean ASSR.

This was due to a number of historical prerequisites:

On the territory of Crimea there was the “Crimean Khanate” – the state of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine – Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Krymchaks;
In 1917, the Crimean People’s Republic was proclaimed, which had all the attributes of statehood, and was later liquidated by the Communists in 1918;
In 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was established, which was liquidated in June 1946 after the deportation of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people in 1944.
In the document “The Order of the People”, the Crimean Tatar national movement set the following objectives: the return of the people to Crimea and the restoration of the Crimean ASSR, which were reflected in all the documents of the initiative groups;
In 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognized the deportation as criminal and illegal. The necessity to restore the Crimean ASSR was approved by the Resolution of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR “On Conclusions and Proposals of the Commissions on the Problems of Soviet Germans and the Crimean Tatar People”, which noted that “the restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people cannot be realized without restoring the autonomy of Crimea through the formation of the Crimean ASSR within the Ukrainian SSR. This would meet the interests of both Crimean Tatars and representatives of other nationalities currently living in Crimea”.
In February 1991, the Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian SSR adopted the Law “On the Restoration of the Crimean ASSR”, according to which the Crimean ASSR was proclaimed within the territory of the Crimean region within the Ukrainian SSR.

So, let’s return to the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine

1996, when Crimea had just cooled down from active Russian separatism, but the vast majority of its residents were former KGB officers, honored communists, and former high-ranking officials of the USSR, who flatly disliked the process of Ukraine’s independence.

“We in Crimea established a Committee to promote the adoption of the Constitution of Ukraine. This Committee was organized by six public and political organizations, three of them Crimean Tatar: OKND (Organization of Crimean Tatar National Movement), Crimean Tatar Youth Center, Adalet and three Ukrainian: Ukrainian Republican Party, Congress of Ukrainian Nationalists and People’s Rukh of Ukraine”, – said Eskender Bariiev.

According to the expert, an All-Crimean forum was held, which adopted a resolution and an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the President of Ukraine.

In the Constitution of 1996 in Article 11. the term “indigenous peoples” is used, although this issue was settled at the legislative level only in 2021 with the adoption of the Law of Ukraine “On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine”. And Section X did not correspond to the position of the Crimean Tatar national movement and contradicted the Law of the Ukrainian SSR “On the Restoration of the Crimean ASSR”.

“However, based on the socio-political situation that Ukrainian society was in, we realized that in order to confirm the sovereignty and strengthen the independence of Ukraine, the adoption of the Constitution was an important and urgent action,” he explained.

In fact, later constitutional law experts found up to 176 errors in the Constitution of Ukraine, which lead to endless legal conflicts and require immediate legal resolution.

But Eskender Bariiev dwelled on the following:

The existence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as a territorial autonomy contradicts the unitary structure of Ukraine and gives all the prerequisites for the creation of DNR, LNR, Kherson People’s Republic and any other nastiness, which is a threat to the national security of Ukraine and the preservation of its integrity;
In a unitary state there can be no autonomy on the administrative-territorial principle, but only on the national-territorial principle, which is a form of self-determination of the indigenous people living on this territory, which is an important component for the realization of the collective rights of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine.
What should be done?The Chairman of the Board of the CTRC emphasizes that it is unambiguously necessary to amend Section X of the Constitution of Ukraine. Taking into account that the constitutional norm defines the principles of constitutional law, it is sufficient to make a number of additions and amendments, based on which a number of legislative acts regulating these principles, such as the Law on Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine, should be adopted.

So, what principles of constitutional law should be introduced:

The Autonomous Republic of Crimea within the Crimean peninsula is a national-territorial form of realization of the right of the Crimean Tatar people to self-determination and is a guarantee of protection of the rights of other indigenous peoples and national minorities living in Crimea.