The Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Eskender Bariiev, stated that Russian occupiers continue to persecute women – Crimean Tatars in the case of the Noman Chelebidzhihan Battalion.
‘If you think that the occupiers are persecuting only men in the Noman Chelebidzhihan case, you are greatly mistaken. I recently learned of the arrest in absentia of two more Crimean Tatar women from the Genichesk district, Amina Kadyr and Elmira Umerova, who received suspended sentences in this case,’ -he noted.
According to Bariiev, it does not matter to the occupiers whether a person participated in the trade blockade of Crimea, was simply passing by, happened to glance at it, or even breathed the same air — this is enough for them to be detained and arrested in the so-called case of the Noman Chelebidzhihan Battalion.
Since 2014, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center has recorded at least 66 detentions on charges of participating in the Noman Chelebidzhihan Battalion: 19 in occupied Crimea and 47 in the occupied Kherson region after 24 February 2022.
In Soviet times, when Crimean Tatars fought for their rights and return to their homeland in Crimea, all those who were arrested at rallies, protests and for participating in the national movement were persecuted and imprisoned not on political charges, but for idleness (they were not registered in Crimea, were not employed in Crimea, and were therefore considered idlers) and for swindling. The Soviet authorities demonstratively abused their legislation to discredit activists who were followed by the people and put them in prison to suppress any attempts to return to Crimea,” explained Eskender Bariiev.
The Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center emphasised that history is repeating itself in its worst forms, and that the Russian occupying state is actively demonstrating that it will do everything to continue ‘the party’s business in the best traditions’.
‘ You broke your teeth fighting against Crimean Tatars back then, and you will break them again this time… There is no Soviet Union, and there will be no place in the world for totalitarian Russia!!!’ – added the human rights defender.