Speaking ahead of the anniversary of the March 16 referendum that preceded Russia’s annexation of Crimea, Suleymanov said the pressure on Tatars and Ukrainians on the peninsula had forced many to leave.
“Crimean Tatars are once again being expelled from their homes by the same state within 100 years,” said Suleymanov, who lives in Poland. “Russia is creating such conditions that it becomes impossible to endure and people have to leave.”
Suleymanov said he was born in Uzbekistan during the Soviet-era deportation of Crimean Tatars and later returned with his family to Crimea. He said he had to leave again in 2014 after Russia’s occupation began.
“For me, as for many others, the war started in 2014,” he said.
He recalled clashes on February 26, 2014, between pro-Russian and pro-Ukrainian forces outside Crimea’s parliament in Simferopol.
Because of his involvement in protests against the referendum and Russian activity on the peninsula, and the threat of arrest by the new authorities, he fled to Kyiv.
Since 2019, Suleymanov and his family have lived in Poland. Since 2022 he has run a restaurant called Crimea opposite the Russian embassy in Warsaw, a location he said was chosen deliberately.
“I decided it was a good place to keep showing that Crimea is Ukrainian and that there is war and occupation in Ukraine,” he said. “It is a space that for me is a fragment of my own home, Crimea.”
He said Russia was again pushing out people who opposed its rule, just as the Soviet authorities deported nearly the entire Crimean Tatar population to Uzbekistan in 1944.
Many did not survive the deportation or the harsh living conditions in Central Asia, and return to Crimea became possible only in the late 1980s.
“Currently the Russians are also creating such conditions that people who disagree with their policy must leave Crimea or stay silent,” Suleymanov said.
He added that Tatars, Ukrainians and anyone rejecting Russian actions were being forced out.
“People in Crimea were sent to prison for a like on social media under a post about the Ukrainian army,” he said. “There is constant surveillance. You can be detained or arrested for anything that does not agree with the Russian version of the world.”
Suleymanov said Russians were moving into Crimea in place of those who had left, with new homes and entire housing estates being built.
He said the number of Russians on the peninsula had risen by half and that many worked in military-linked sectors or were members of the security services, soldiers or their families.
He also said Russian propaganda remained a constant problem in Crimea, influencing especially older residents. Many people who supported Russia’s actions in 2014 thought Soviet times would return, he said, but now felt deceived.
Despite this, Suleymanov said Crimean Tatars had not lost hope.
“People still believe the war will end, Crimea will be liberated, and Tatars and Ukrainians will live in a country free from occupation,” he said.
He said many were considering returning to Crimea if the war and Russian occupation ended, though it was impossible to predict when or under what conditions that might happen. He added that Crimean Tatars were grateful for the support Poland had given Ukraine since 2014.
“Poland strongly supports Ukraine, more than other countries, and we see that,” Suleymanov said. “Personally, I feel very comfortable here, but of course I worry about what is happening in Crimea and that I cannot return there.”
(jh)
Source: PAP