Crimean Tatars Face Repression After Russia Takes Over

Crimean Tatars attend a memorial ceremony marking the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Tatars from Crimea, near a Mosque in Simferopol, on May 18, 2014. Max Vetrov/AFP/Getty Images

A Crimean Tatar boy lights a candle during a memorial ceremony in Kiev on May 17, 2014, held on the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Tatars from Crimea. Sergei Supinsky/AFP/Getty Images

Chubarov was living in Crimea in February when the Russian troops arrived. As the head of the Mejlis, he was involved in negotiations between the Russian and Ukrainian troops.

“Of course, in this situation we expected that the international community would help so justice would prevail,” he said.

He attended a meeting of the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE) in Azerbaijan in July to gather international support for his cause. On the way back to Crimea he was denied re-entry.

“I was told that Russia denied me the right to enter Russia for the next five years. I said I was not going to Russia, I am going home, to Crimea. Then they used armed personnel to make me go to Ukraine,” he said. He and another senior member of the Mejlis have been living in exile ever since.

The current situation of Tatars in Crimea remains tense.

Human Rights Watch (HRW) said in a 2014 report that at least 15 pro-Ukraine and Crimean Tatars have “disappeared” since March, but the Ukrainian government puts that number closer to 20, and HRW acknowledges the number is probably much higher.

“We need to look at the main reason for all these misfortunes—Russia’s aggression,” said Chubarov. “As long as it exists, we will not be able to have human rights.”