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Mustafa DZHEMILIOV: The Russian secret services have started the “reorientation” of the Crimea by splitting the Crimean Tatars

MUSTAFA DZHEMILIOV

The meeting of the so-called “Consolidated Front of the Crimean Tatars’ NGOs in Support of the Initiative of the Veterans of the Crimean Tatars’ National Movement” that “impeached the leaders of the Majlis” took place last week in Simferopol. According to the information of the law enforcement agencies, 300 to 400 people took part in the meeting in the small square near the Crimean Tatar National Theater. That is why there is no reason to speak about the real impeachment. The meeting was mostly attended by the representatives of the new NGOs: “New Generation – the Crimea,” “Sebat,” and “Milli Firka.” Initially the meeting was presented as the one of the “Protest Glades” participants organized in order to discuss and resolve the problems of land distribution; however, after the meeting started its organizers switched to criticizing the Majlis that displeasured some of its random participants. Those present adopted the re-solution that “in the name of all the people” supported “the impeachment to the leaders of the Majlis” declared on November 14 of this year. The authors of the resolution asked the leaders of the Crimean Council of Ministers to withdraw the representatives of the Majlis Refat Chubarov and Zevdzhet Kurtumerov from the commission for questions of land release and distribution, and appoint the representatives of the “Protest Glades” to their positions. “The people charge the Council of Representatives and the Elders’ Assembly with convening an extraordinary national assembly. It has to found a new representative body,” the resolution reads. Its authors addressed President Viktor Yanukovych with the request to withdraw the proteges of the Chairman of the Majlis Mustafa Dzhemiliov from all the executive bodies and to replace them by the people recommended by the abovementioned council. At the end of the meeting the activists of the abovementioned organizations burnt down an effigy symbolizing Mustafa Dzhemiliov.

The supporters of the Majlis also attended the meeting. The police made a human chain between the opposing sides. Regardless of this, there were small skirmishes and the opponents of the Head of the Majlis Secretariat Zair Smedliayev knocked down his hat from his head. The Head of the Standing Commission for the International Relations and Problems of the Deported People at the Crimean Parliament Remzi Ilyasov present at the meeting was criticized, too.

At the same time another meeting of the Crimean Tatars took place near the Majlis in Schmidt Street in Simferopol. Its participants were the MP Mustafa Dzhemiliov, his deputy Refat Chubarov, the Head of the Standing Commission at the Crimean Parliament Remzi Ilyasov, Deputy Head of the Crimean Council of Ministers Aziz

Abdulaiev and the representatives of the local Majlises. Those present denounced the meeting of the “Consolidated Front…” and declared that the people did not impeach the leaders of the Majlis. The meeting adopted the resolution in which the actions of the “Consolidated Front…” were called a provocation aiming at splitting the Crimean Tatars’ national movement.

The authors of the resolution emphasize that the active provocations are caused by the forthcoming International Forum for the international help in order to resolve the problems of the Crimean Tatars: “It is clear that the opponents of the restitution of the Crimean Tatars are aiming at torpedoing the international forum using the provokers.” The participants of the meeting denounced the actions of several Crimean Tatars’ NGOs and supported the actions of the national assembly, Majlis and regional and municipal Maj-lises. “We address all the Crimean Tatars and call upon to denounce the destructive provokers’ actions and take public measures aiming at preservation of the further consolidation of the Crimean Tatars!” the resolution reads.

The meeting of the representatives of the Crimean Tatar youth organizations “The Crimean Tatar’s Youth Center,” “The Youth Council,” “Our Crimea,” and “The Voice of the Youth” were also held in Simferopol. They denounced the meeting initiated by the organizations “Sebat” and “The New Generation” aiming at “splitting the Crimean Tatars’ society.”

Thereby The Day asked MP Mustafa Dzhemiliov to tell about the reasons that caused the aggravation of the situation in the Crimean peninsula.

Some of the organizations that impeached you were unknown in the Crimea until recently. Could you tell why they were created?

“Some of the journalists and politicians irresponsibly took my declarations that the destabilization of the situation in the Crimea is organized by the Russian secret services, FSB [Federal Security Service. – Ed.] and GRU [Main Intelligence Directorate. – Ed.]. In the Majlis we have the information that I can share with The Day. This is the information for May 2011. It reads that FSB developed a project to destabilize the situation in the Crimea. The reason is that the Crimean Tatars are a serious threat to the Russian interests since they impede the intentions to annex the Crimea to the Russian territory. Since the main opponent of this idea is the Crimean Tatars’ Majlis, their task is to split the Crimean Tatars, withdraw the chairman of the Majlis and make it a part of the pro-Russian activists, guided from Russia that will contribute to this process in the future.

“The abovementioned program reads that there will be a ‘complex information campaign’ (the information war) funded from a special budget. To realize this campaign in the Crimea a Coordination Office is being created based on the pro-Russian organizations; several political experts, consultants and political technologists from Russia and several Crimean Politicians and Journalist will make its staff. There will be several main focuses of their work. 1. They are preparing an appeal in the name of the Crimean Tatars to the Ukrainian president, the Norwegian Nobel Prize Committee and the world community in order to prevent Dzhemiliov from receiving the Nobel Prize. This appeal will draw a wide response. 2. They are creating a number of ramified Crimean Tatars’ NGOs in the Crimea controlled by the Russian Coordination Office that involve the new members using both social and age factors. 3. They are creating their electronic and printed media. They are planning to create a special media holding (the Internet resources, newspapers, leaflets and TV programs) funded from Russia. 4. They are making a new social and political movement that has to perform the function of the new powerful and severe opposition to the Majlis.

“In general, everything is very lo-gical and detailed. In particular, they are preparing a new pro-Russian leader for the Majlis. As far as I know, they are selecting candidates now. Besides, they are looking for a ‘dark horse’ that will stay in the shadow and will appear at the very last moment and will be elected the chairman of the Majlis. It is very unlikely since the new leader will be elected at the national assembly and it is impossible to cheat its delegates.

“The large work is planned in the religious sector with the religious and political groups: Habasits, Salafis, Hisbah, etc. They want to reinforce the influence of the so-called Arab Islam in opposition to the Turkish Islam; one of their priorities is to weaken the influence of the Turkish Islam to the Muslim ummah [community. – Ed.] in the Crimea and later replace it by the Arab confessions. It is also planned to resume the old criminal cases concerning the members of the Majlis though I cannot recall any. The evidence of this is the resumption of the framed-up case against the member of the Majlis Zair Smedliayev though it is hopeless. A group of inspectors will check the Crimean Tatar businesspeople that fund the current Crimean Tatars’ pro-Ukrainian organizations. They are also preparing a number of deputy requests concerning the law violation by the Crimean Tatars in the Crimea.”

Do you know the people doing this work?

“Yes, I do. For some reason they think that I could run for the parliament in the 2nd election district (since there are the most of the Crimean Tatars there) and prepare a certain Rinat Shaimardanov to be Verkhovna elected in this district. Now he is an activist of the organization called ‘Sebat’ and has a so-called ‘Special Project Mustafa’ on his Internet resource. He pretends to hold journalistic investigations presenting the old well-known information that he probably found in the file of the secret services.

“We also know the GRU colonel Vladimir Lysenko that the Ukrainian secret service sent out from Ukraine some time ago because ‘the purpose of his work was to introduce the pro-Russian activists into the management of the Ukrainian organization, in particular, the Majlis.’ According to the information we have, he has recently appeared in the Crimea five times. I discussed it with our SBU [Security Ser-vice of Ukraine. – Ed.] staff but they said that they do not have this information though they have to have it. We have the information that he is involved into the work of the Coordination Office.

“I also know the leader of the new organization ‘New Generation – the Crimea’ Ruslan Balbek who has two previous convictions; his parents addressed me as an MP asking to protect him somehow. I asked the law enforcement agencies to make allowance for the young man and he was released. However, he somehow got to one of the TV channels and said utter nonsense there; shortly after he was convicted for another charge. I tried to protect him again. Now he is free. I think that he was released in order to fulfill a specific task and this is what he is doing now.”

What do you think the consequences of this severe information campaign can be for the Crimea and for Ukraine in general?

“I do not think that this work among the Crimean Tatars will be successful, however, some people will be decieved. We have the information that the organizers of the meeting paid its participants 130 hryvnias that is not that much. As we can see, a part of the Crimean Tatars was involved into the meeting by deception since they were taken not there where they were promi-sed. At the same time, this information war is dangerous since it is aimed at undermining the stability in our state and preparing a part of the sovereign Ukraine to be detached. It is only the start. Obviously, FSB and other Russian secret services started ‘reorienting’ the Crimea by splitting the Crimean Tatars that are the most pro-Ukrainian force in the Crimea and destabilizing the situation in the peninsula. Probably, we do not know the further planned stages of this campaign. However, there is no doubt that the organizers of these actions are going to involve larger social groups: pro-Russian organizations, mi-litary and policing branch and, probably, the army and the fleet at the last stage which is very serious.”

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