Occupiers in Crimea Detain Dozens of Crimean Tatars: How It Started, Protests and Zelensky's Reaction

Among those abducted is First Deputy Chair of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Nariman Dzhelyal.

Persecution of the Crimean Tatar people continues in Russian-occupied Crimea. As of September 4, Russian security forces had illegally abducted about 50 people over two days, including First Deputy Chair of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Nariman Dzhelyal.

We explain how the detentions began, Ukraine's government's reaction, and the rally that followed.

Searches and the Abduction of Dzhelyal

On September 4, it became known that in the morning, FSB officers came to the home of First Deputy Chair of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Nariman Dzhelyal in occupied Crimea to conduct a search.

Later, security officers abducted him in an unmarked car and took him in an unknown direction, as activist Zair Smedlya reported. 

Later, Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova said that Dzhelyal had been taken to the so-called “Directorate of the FSB of Russia for the Republic of Crimea and the City of Sevastopol”.

Afterward, the Crimean Human Rights Organization issued an urgent statement, which revealed that four more Crimean Tatars had been detained.

It is known that on September 3 and 4, FSB officers conducted five searches in occupied Crimea, after which they detained and took five Crimean Tatars in an unknown direction: Eldar Odamanov, Aziz Akhtemov, Nariman Dzhelyal, Shevket Useinov and Asan Akhtemov.

Relatives and lawyers of the detainees filed applications with various “de facto law enforcement agencies,” but no one has reported the whereabouts of the missing people.

The Crimean Human Rights Group notes that nothing is known about the whereabouts of Eldar Odamanov since 7:00 a.m. on September 3.

It is known that the searches of Eldar Odamanov and Aziz Akhtemov were allegedly carried out in connection with the sabotage of a gas pipeline near Simferopol, which took place on August 23, 2021.

The next search was carried out at the home of Nariman Dzhelyal, First Deputy Chair of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and a public activist who openly declared gross violations of human rights in occupied Crimea and took part in the founding summit of the Crimea Platform on August 23.

“Such actions by the occupation authorities may qualify as enforced disappearance, since the security structures deprive the detained person of communication with their relatives and lawyers, which creates a real threat to their health and life. Over the years of occupation, the UN Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine and human rights organizations have recorded more than 40 cases of enforced disappearances on the peninsula.

Arbitrary searches and detentions have also become a systemic practice carried out by the Russian Federation against anyone who expresses the slightest disagreement with the actions of the occupation authorities, especially in relation to the Crimean Tatar community,” the human rights organization said.

Reaction of Ukrainian Authorities

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that Russia is responding to the start of the Crimea Platform with a new wave of detentions of Crimean Tatars.

Volodymyr Zelensky
President of Ukraine

The occupiers in Crimea are once again resorting to persecution of Crimean Tatars. New searches and detentions are taking place in their homes. They have already taken Nariman Dzhelyal, First Deputy Chair of the Mejlis. This is how Russia is responding to the start of the Crimea Platform. All detainees must be released!

The Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs protested the latest raid of illegal searches and detentions on September 3 and 4.

“We regard this punitive raid against the leaders of the Mejlis as punishment for participating in the founding summit of the Crimea Platform on August 23, as well as another repression by the Russian Federation aimed at intimidating representatives of the Crimean Tatar people and pushing them out of the temporarily occupied peninsula,” the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs said.

The Ministry also called on the international community to firmly condemn such unlawful actions by the occupying state and to strengthen sanctions against Russia for gross human rights violations in occupied Crimea.

The Protest That Followed and Dozens of Detainees

After the illegal searches and detentions on September 3 and 4, relatives of the detainees came out to protest outside the FSB building in Simferopol. The occupiers abducted at least 50 protesters, reported Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova.

As reported Ukrainian Human Rights Ombudsman Lyudmila Denisova, protesters were shoved into buses using brute force, beaten in the kidneys, and taken to various so-called “police” departments, where they are interrogated without access to lawyers.

The ombudsman reported that among the detainees are also two journalists from Crimean Solidarity, Ayder Kadyrov and Nuri Abdurashitov, the head of the Central Election Commission of the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar people Zair Smedlya, member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Lemmar Yunusov, and former political prisoner, defendant in the “Vedzhie Kashka case” Kazim Ametov.

Lyudmila Denisova
Ombudsman of Ukraine for the Protection of Human Rights

With their actions, so-called “law enforcement officers” violated the presumption of innocence, the right to liberty, personal inviolability and legal assistance. Without coordinated action by Ukraine and international partners, the citizens of Ukraine detained today will once again be turned into “criminals” in fabricated cases. I call on the international community to apply all possible leverage on the aggressor state to end repression against the indigenous population.