Concerns for Crimean Tatars increase

Concerns for Crimean Tatars increase

After boycotting the referendum, Crimean Tatars became open targets for the local militia and Russia as well, experts warn.

Demonstrators hold a combination Ukrainian-Crimean-Tatar flag during a rally at Independence Square in Kiev on March 23rd. [AFP]

Russia's annexation of Crimea has once again placed the Tatar community in a precarious position that scholars and security analysts fear could result in assimilation, forced migration or worse.

Under Joseph Stalin, the Soviet Union forcibly removed Tatars from Crimea in 1944. Decades later many were able to return, and today 300,000 Tatars live there, constituting 14 percent of the population and representing significant opposition to Russia's policies in the region.

"Unfortunately there is no good scenario for Crimean Tatars," Can Kasapoglu, a security analyst at Istanbul's Centre for Economics and Foreign Policy Studies (EDAM) told SETimes. "The worst case would be the local militia forces turn the life of Tatars into hell. They would follow the intimidation policy through systematic acts of violence, which could result in serious losses."

Togrul Ismayil, an international relations scholar at TOBB University in Ankara, echoed Kasapoglu's assessment, saying that Russia has deployed people in the region and distributed weapons to them.

"In the streets you can see people walking with their guns. It is almost impossible to control these people from committing violent acts," he warned, adding that such militias have started to threaten Crimean Tatars. "Every day we hear of another incident."

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