Independent religious communities that have remained in Crimea during the 11th year of occupation are subject to systematic persecution.
“These are, in fact, religious communities that did not want to obey and come under the control of the Religious Administration of Muslims of the Republic of Crimea,” – Korotkikh said.Liudmyla Korotkikh also spoke about imams and said that there are cases when imams are persecuted for allegedly illegal missionary activities, but in fact no one has seen the materials of these so-called cases and no one understands exactly why these people are being persecuted. It’s just that they allegedly told something wrong during their activities, or allegedly had no right to send a religious code.
“The most striking example of this is the persecution of the Alushta community, which has been going on since 2020. The community was fined, and several of its imams were subjected to administrative prosecution. “In fact, religion itself has become a tool to persecute the disloyal population,” – adds the CTRC lawyer.
On the occupied peninsula, the persecution of Muslims is accompanied by searches and administrative arrests. In February 2023, the occupiers searched a mosque in the city of Staryi Krym, after which they detained the imam of the Eski Kirim community, Izet Sayfulin, on charges of “illegal missionary activity.” In May of the same year, searches took place in the Suvuk-Dere mosque in Akmesdzhit (Simferopol), and in November – in the house of Vilen Useinov, a member of the Alushta community.
Later, searches were conducted at the house of the imam of the mosque in Alushta, Yusuf Ashirov, and another member of the community, Zinur Appazov. The occupation “court” arrested Appazov for his old posts on social networks, and Ashirov was arrested on charges of hooliganism.
Liudmyla Korotkikh emphasizes that Russia is using the persecution of Crimean Muslims to create the illusion of control and demonstrate loyalty among Muslim communities: “In general, the Russian Federation is trying to paint a picture that everything is supposedly fine. They support Islam there, they have no problems, they built the Grand Cathedral Mosque in Simferopol, they opened it. That is, the picture is very good, and this, of course, is mostly done not for the people in Crimea, but in order to broadcast all this outside and show that they are basically tolerant and have no religious intolerance.”
In view of the systematic persecution of Crimean Muslims, human rights activists call on the international community to take measures to stop the repression and support religious freedom in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea.