The Crimean Tatars – the largest of the three communities in Ukraine – see their identity threatened as their home remains under Russian occupation. For tens of thousands of Ukrainian refugees, the dream of returning home may be closer to coming true than it has ever been in the past nine years, and it depends on the success of the Ukrainian counter-offensive.
Between 2,000 and 3,000 Crimean Tatars have taken refuge in Odessa (south) after their region was annexed by Russia in 2014, according to EFE Mefa, who co-hosted an event in Odessa on Wednesday to coincide with the World Day of Indigenous Peoples. . “At first glance, there are many nationalities in Russia. But if you take a closer look, they have all been losing their distinctive features. We don’t want the same thing to happen to us,” he adds.
Mefa describes Moscow’s measures against the Crimean Tatars as “genocide” and alludes to the extermination of intellectual elites and the forced deportations that have occurred over the past 250 years.
In the background, songs are played in Ukrainian and in the language of the Crimean Tatars, of Turkic origin, while hundreds of visitors are served the typical dish known as “plov” and made with rice, spices and raisins.
Emine, a 14-year-old girl dressed in traditional dress, tells EFE that many Tatars began to appreciate their identity and language after the Russian occupation of Crimea.
Samira, 21, recalls that the mass deportations to Central Asia in 1944 dealt a severe blow to the language and that entire generations switched to Russian in an environment where any reference to Crimean Tatar identity was discouraged. that the culture of his people is at this moment on the verge of extinction.
Since the start of the Russian invasion in 2022, he has not visited his relatives in Crimea. “You can feel the oppression that the Crimean Tatars are subjected to there,” she says.
Odessa, on the other hand, is very different. “Ukrainians are open and love freedom just like us,” she stresses.
Despite the difficulties, the current situation provides an opportunity for the Crimean Tatars to finally regain their home, believes Fevzi Mamutov, head of the association representing Crimean Tatars in Odessa and a member of the Odessa regional council.
“For nine years, there was talk of a diplomatic way to return Crimea to Ukraine. But diplomacy with terrorists is useless. Now we finally see that Ukraine, together with its foreign allies, is capable of liberating the peninsula,” he told EFE.
Crimea holds a special place in the heart of every Tatar, as generations of their ancestors lived there, he says. Ukraine’s law on indigenous peoples can help the Tatars revitalize their culture and language, but it would need to be applied in Crimea, where most of them still live, to have its full effect.
On the contrary, Mamutov thinks that the attitude of the Russian authorities in Crimea is dictated by fear and the awareness of imminent defeat.
“Every time the Ukrainian army attacks, there are search operations among the Tatars in Crimea,” he recalls, but points out that such operations and the long prison sentences of 17 or 19 years no longer frighten them.
“People understand that this will end once the Russian state is defeated,” he explains. “Dictators should not be respected or feared. They are the ones who are afraid, while we are going to win,” he adds.
Mamutov further points out that Russia’s control of Crimea poses a threat to democracy and international law. “All people, no matter where they live in the world, should hate imperialism,” he says.
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