Hundreds of children in the occupied Crimea are forced to grow up without their dads, without their support, care and smile. They miss them very much. The children of political prisoner Arsen Abkhairov have not seen him for more than three years. Despite this, they do not give up hope and continue to wait for dad to go home, but still have to live the important moments of their lives without him.
“I am the wife of Arsen Abkhairov – Azize Abkhairova. On February 14, 2019, a search took place in our house. This is a day that cannot be forgotten and cannot be erased from our memory. That morning I remember very well how they knocked on our iron door, as if they were knocking it out with a hammer. The husband came out and looked, said that they had come with a search. They took away all our phones and refused to provide a lawyer. They said: “You can't do anything”. We already understood what this was leading to, because this was not the first search”,- said Aziza Abkhairova.
The family has two children. The eldest is Mediie, who is 5 years old at the moment, she has been going to kindergarten for the second year already. The son's name is Emir, he is 3 years old. He also started going to kindergarten this year. They really wanted their father to take them to the kindergarten. They waited a lot, but unfortunately.
.jpg)
“At the time of the search, my son was only 6 months old, and he does not remember anything at all. He knows his father from photographs. They had a long-distance connection, he even fell in love with his dad from photographs. And my daughter was two and a half years old at the time of the search, and she still perfectly remembers that day. I was then with my daughter, she woke up and the first thing she saw were people in masks. And when she is asked: “Where is your father?” She says: “He was taken away by evil people in masks.” Although she was only two years old, this episode is firmly stuck in her memory”,- said the woman.
More than 3 years have passed since the man was detained, but the children were never given the opportunity to see him.
“Every day we have a conversation about our father. My daughter has already grasped that every day we make parcels and transfers to my husband. She always says: “These are my favorite sweets, send this to dad”. And I see that the Emir recently also started asking me: “Have you prepared the package for dad? Have you made a list of what he needs?” – a child who is only 3 years old already asks this. Because our reality is this: we live between shipments and between sending parcels and transfers somewhere. I am leaving, and they ask with one voice: “Are you going again to the court session? Which one? Dad’s? To the court? To send the parcel?” This is the norm for them already”,- Azize emphasized.
The wife of Arsen Abkhairov believes that it is necessary to start talking with children in an adult way. It is important to constantly say that their father is not a terrorist, but the kindest, most honest person who has always helped everyone.
“My daughter, while reading Dua, says: “I want not only my dad, but also the dads of other children to come back”. She doesn't give up hope. I believe that this will happen soon. And we, as wives, human rights defenders, I think we have toto cover this topic, talk about it and show all this injustice that is happening in our country today, everywhere at all venues where it is possible”,- she added.
Let's help the kids and give them their dad back.
The team of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center hopes and does everything so that in the near future every child in the occupied Crimea could hug his or her father and truly enjoy every day of childhood.
To achieve this goal, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center decided to create a short documentary film "Give Me Back My Dad!"
In our film, we have collected the stories of children whose parents were imprisoned or forcibly kidnapped after the occupation of Crimea. Some of them saw the brutal detention of their fathers and now they have one request: "Give Me Back My Dad!"
With this picture, we want to draw the attention of the Ukrainian and international community to the problem of political prisoners in Crimea, as well as their children, who suffer no less than their parents.
The premiere of our film will take place very soon, but for now, stay tuned so as not to miss anything.