June 19, 2015

June 23, 1995

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Twenty years ago on June 23, 1995, clashes broke out between Crimean Tatars and local militia – triggered when Crimean Tatars refused to pay protection money to a local gang in the village of Shchebetkivka – and left four people dead over the weekend.

During the funeral procession on June 25 from Shchebetkivka to Sudak, some Crimean Tatars began storming local bars and restaurants belonging to the local gang responsible for the deaths of the Tatars. That same day, local elections were being held across Ukraine, including Crimea. Voter turnout was 54 percent, but Crimean Tatars did not take part due to the fact that no provisions were made for all Tatars living on the peninsula to cast ballots and a lack of voting rights for resettled Crimean Tatars from Central Asia. In Crimea, the local Communist leader, Leonid Hrach, claimed his party had won 42.5 percent of seats, while the majority of elected deputies had no party affiliation.

Ukrainian President Leonid Kuchma on June 25 issued a decree on fighting corruption on the peninsula and dispatched Berkut special forces to the region to maintain order.

It remained unclear who gave the order to open fire during the funeral procession, resulting in the deaths of two more Crimean Tatars and injuries to seven policemen, said Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis who is banned from entry to Crimea since its annexation by Russia last year. “The events here look like Budenovsk,” he added. “The current conflict in Crimea is not inter-ethnic,” said Refat Chubarov, a member of the Crimean Parliament’s presidium, “however, it can be a prelude to a new civil war caused by a conflict between the despair of some people and the greed of others.”

Mass media attempts, including Russia’s Channel 1, to portray the events as a “potential hot spot are not grounded in reality. They are aimed at frightening off people wishing to come to Crimea for vacation,” stated the Crimean government.

On June 26, 1995, nearly 150 young residents near Sevastopol gathered on the outskirts of Sudak to voice anti-Tatar sentiments.

Volodymyr Radchenko, Ukraine’s minister of internal affairs, stated that “certain forces which have succeeded in provoking residents of the Crimean Tatar nationality into mass riots have exploited the conflict between the Crimean Tatars and the peninsula’s criminals.”

Vyacheslav Chornovil, leader of the Rukh political faction observed: “The threat to the Crimea and all of Ukraine stems from these criminal forces, the mafia, militia and separatist authorities on the peninsula.”

“Tatars came under fire from unidentified persons in fatigues, supposedly members of a criminal gang,” said Viktor Zubechuk, spokesperson for Ukraine’s Ministry of Internal Affairs. A report by the ministry described looting and arson carried out by Crimean Tatars in the villages of Shchebetkivka and Koktebel, and the towns of Sudak and Feodosia, including several businesses, cars and the houses of a local collective farm director and a gang boss in Sudak.

Mr. Dzhemilev noted that the Crimean Tatars had been left to battle the mafia and police corruption on their own since the collapse of the Soviet Union, as the once-flourishing resort area had been suffering economic decline.  The Mejlis, he added, would remain true to its conviction and use non-violent means to protect the rights of its people.

Source: “Violence erupts in the Crimea, overshadowing elections,” by Marta Kolomayets, The Ukrainian Weekly, July 2, 1995.

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