According to a source within the Crimean Tatar resistance, the pro-Moscow authorities in Crimea are making every effort to disrupt or neutralize the planned 2nd World Congress of Crimean Tatars, scheduled for August 1-2, 2015 in Ankara.
The source believes that with this goal in mind, a conference of the new movement «Qirim» was convened in Simferopol on July 25. The Moscow puppeteers and their Crimean Tatar puppets aim to eventually replace the independent Crimean Tatar movement headed by the Mejlis with this new movement. However, the Russian propaganda machine is acting in its usual absurd style. Most Crimean Tatars did not even know about the conference of the pro-Russian «Qirim» movement. The reason is comical — the «Krym 1» channel, integrated into VGTRK and designed to manipulate the Crimean Tatar audience in a pro-Moscow spirit, still does not cover the majority of Crimean Tatar-populated regions, such as Djankoy and Stary Krym. This allowed the head of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, to declare that the conference of Moscow’s puppets had ended in a complete failure.
Nevertheless, the puppeteers and marionettes are working with a long-term perspective. According to our source, their calculation is that after a relatively long period of Crimea’s incorporation into Russia (about 10 years or more), the taming of the Crimean Tatars will finally take place. The leadership of the Mejlis in Crimea is already practically neutralized. Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov were expelled from the peninsula. The third most popular figure in the Mejlis, Ahtem Chiygoz, was thrown in prison for defending the rights of Crimean Tatars at rallies not authorized by the Russian administration. Another influential leader of the Crimean Tatar movement, Iskander Bariyev, who opened a human rights center to defend the rights of Crimean Tatars, is under constant pressure, including threats of violence. Russia, acting in its grotesque style, has even managed to arrest the leader of the «Sebat» movement, Seytumer Seytumerov, who actively supported Russia and initiated the participation of Crimean Tatar Salafists in the «Anti-Maidan» events, thus confirming its old rule — «the informer is the first to get the whip».
But Moscow never relies on ideological cadres. That is why marginal but sincere Russophiles like the dwarf party «Milli Firka», Vasvi Abduraimov, and the comic figure «Tonya Cholhanova» (Yura Sapozhnikov, brought to Crimea and Donbass from St. Petersburg, where he participated in the suppression of the local Islamic movement) constantly complain that the voices of «true patriots» are inexplicably not heard by the new Crimean authorities. It is clear why — the Kremlin always trusts the co-opted nomenklatura, which can be manipulated with money and compromising material, rather than its sincere ideological supporters. Therefore, the current bet seems to be on Ramzan Ilyasov — a rival of Chubarov in the Mejlis, for whom «Qirim» is being created. Ilyasov lost to Chubarov in honest debates and elections, but now apparently hopes that the Russian administrative resources will spare him this tedious necessity. After all, in the new Russian reality there is no Chubarov, there are no honest elections, and the remaining unbroken Mejlis leaders and activists in Crimea are under pressure from somebody, which means that there is a good chance that with Moscow’s support he will become the Crimean Tatar Kadyrov.
It is clear that in this situation the planned 2nd World Congress of the Crimean Tatars in Ankara is causing real anger among the puppets and their puppeteers. Representatives of about 200 Crimean Tatar organizations, about half of the diaspora and Crimea, are expected to participate in the congress. Currently, everything is being done to prevent people from Crimea from attending. According to our source, Crimean Tatar activists are being summoned for «interviews» and warned that attending the congress in Ankara is a one-way ticket, meaning that they had better not return to their homeland afterward.
The participants of the Crimean Tatar resistance view the holding of the congress in Ankara with cautious optimism. They note that the choice of the venue speaks volumes. It would be logical for Kiev to organize such an event; however, the fact that it did not happen indicates that the Ukrainian oligarchic clans are too preoccupied with the division of power and property and do not care about the Crimean Tatars or the return of Crimea, which they seem to have accepted as lost. Therefore, the current hopes of the Crimean Tatar resistance are linked to the possibility of significant support from the diaspora and indirectly from Turkey, which could offer certain opportunities.
However, this moderate optimism borders on skepticism. Our source believes that the congress in Ankara may be the last chance for the foreign leadership of the Mejlis to maintain its influence on the Crimean Tatar resistance on the peninsula. If no concrete and strategic decisions are taken there, the resistance is likely to choose the path of independent struggle, regardless of Kiev, Ankara or the Mejlis. And as our source emphasized, the basis for such a struggle will be based on Islam instead of national-democratic illusions.