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MOSCOW— A Tatar leader scoffed Saturday at a government overture to members of the disgruntled ethnic group and called a plan to allow some Tatars to return to their Crimean homeland a campaign to deceive the public. Reshat Dzhemilev, who was jailed for three years because he once asked Saudi Arabia to aid the cause of his people, said Moscow's move would affect only a small number of his people — and only those who toe the Communist Party line. “It's a campaign to deceive the public, to create the appearance of action,” Dzhemilev said in a tele phone interview The Tatars were deported in 1944 from Crimea, a peninsula in the Ukrainian republic that extends into the Black Sea. A government official told a com mission in the Central Asian republic of Uzbekistan on March 5 that Cri mean Tatars who are “the most virtu ous and well-proven in work and so cial life’ would be allowed to return to Crimea, the newspaper Pravda Vostoka reported. The newspaper, in its March 6 edi tion, said the State Labor Committee would decide which Crimean Tatars are eligible for resettlement on the basis of recommendations from labor collectives, and commissions of Crimean Tatars. Dzhemilev said he did not believe the Crimean Tatars who attended the commission meeting in the Uzbek capital of Tashkent faithfully ex pressed the wishes of most of his peo ple. Pravda Vostok said the commis sion was made up of republic-level representatives of Crimean Tatars and that the meeting also was attend ed by officials of regional commis sions. “Two hundred families maybe will be allowed to move there, but that will not solve the problem,” said Dzhemilev, a leader in the Crimean Tatar effort who lives in Tashkent but spoke during a visit to Moscow. “It's just supposed to distract attention.” The newspaper indicated that the Crimean Tatars would be allowed to resettle “as conditions are created” primarily in steppe regions of the Crimea. It hinted that resettlement will be limited in the areas on the Black Sea that have become popular resorts. The Crimean Tatars, who number from 250,000 to 350,000, are among the more than 100 national groups in the Soviet Union. Soviet leader Mi khail S. Gorbachev has said that en suring national unity while granting ethnic groups cultural and linguistic rights is “the most vital, fundamental issue of our society.” The Crimean Tatars have been fighting for the right to return to their ancestral homeland ever since they were driven away. In May 1944, soon after Soviet troops liberated the Cri mea from Nazi Germany, all the Cri mean Tatars were charged with be traying their country and forcibly de ported. They were shipped in sealed freight cars to the eastern regions of the Soviet Union, with most winding up in reservations in Uzbekistan, Ka zakhstan, Turkmenia and Kirgizia. Thousands died during deportation. The war crimes charges leveled against them were dropped in 1967 but the Tatars were not allowed to return permanently to the Crimea. The Crimean Tatars stage demon strations regularly to press their cause, the most recent being a rally March 5 outside a Moscow hotel. Po lice broke up the protest and de tained 15 of the 20 demonstrators, dissidents reported. The government set up a national commission headed by President An drei A. Gromyko to consider the Cri mean Tatars’ demands, and on Feb. 3 it endorsed steps to promote the group’s culture. It also said new pro cedures had been adopted on reset tlement, but did not release details.
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Nashua Telegraph
Nashua, New Hampshire, US
Sun, Mar 13, 1988
Page 18
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USA 23 Jun 2026
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