On Tuesday, March 9, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine opened a photo exhibition “Loyalty to oneself is not a crime!” dedicated to the children of Crimean political prisoners who are illegally persecuted by the Russian Federation on the territory of the occupied peninsula.
The project was initiated by Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar. The event was also attended by: Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Dmytro Kuleba, leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, member of Mejlis, former political prisoner Ilmi Umerov, wife of the defendant in the so-called second Bakhchysarai Hizb ut-Tahrir case Seyran Saliiev, Mumine, and also the Head of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, head of the department of legal and foreign affairs of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev.
This photo exhibition tells about the stories of the children of the Crimean Tatar political prisoners of the Kremlin, who were left without parents due to the massive repressions of the Russian Federation and lost their childhood. As Emine Dzheppar noted, this “project is primarily about the fact that people who defend their faith and identity become objects of crime.”
“Pay attention to the eyes of these children. Today, more than 200 children are deprived of their paternal affection, paternal care. We need to fight for this. We need to fight for these children, for our people in Crimea, for our territories. Such exhibitions are very important, and they should attract more public attention to this problem”,- Bariiev said.
The Head of the CTRC recalled the tragic death of three-year-old Musa Suleymanov, who is the son of a political prisoner, a defendant in the so-called second Simferopol Hizb-ut Tahrir case Ruslan Suleymanov.
“We put him in the category of victims of police arbitrariness because he was deprived of parental supervision. We believe that all the persons involved in the obviously unlawful detention of Ruslan Suleymanov and in the pressure on his family are also undoubtedly involved in the tragic death of his son, even if it really was a tragic accident, and not a special operation of the Russian special services to intimidate the Crimean Tatar people”,- he stressed.
