أوكرانيا: مسلمو القرم يسعون للاستقلال الذاتي

خبر من مصادر إنجليزية.

التقى رموز مسلمو القرم في لقاء يهدف للتعبير عن اعتراض المسلمين على إلحاق "القرم" بـ"روسيا" عقب استفتاء 16 مارس؛ حيث أيد غالبية سكان "القرم" الانضمام إلى "روسيا" للتوافق بينهم في المعتقد الأرثوذكسي؛ حيث يشكل المسلمون في "القرم" نحو 12%، الذي قاطع غالبيتهم الاستفتاء للخلفية التاريخية التي تحمل اضطهاد الروس وقمعهم للمسلمين.

وقد أكد "رفعت شباروف" - رئيس مجلس الشورى الإسلامي في القرم - أن مسلمي القرم لهم حق تقرير المصير أسوةً بغيرهم، مُطالبًا المجتمع الدولي بدعم اعتبار مناطق القرم الإسلامية مناطق استقلال ذاتي، وذلك لتأكيد المواطنين التتار على تخييب "روسيا" لأملهم في العيش المشترك السلمي، وهو ما زعمت "روسيا" وحكومة "القرم" المؤيدة للانضمام ضمانه لمسلمي التتار؛ المصدر: شبكة الألوكة.

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Crimea's Tatars condemn annexation, seek autonomy

Leaders of Crimea's Tatar minority gathered Saturday to condemn Russia's annexation of the peninsula and appealed to international bodies for recognition as an autonomous group.

Tatars, an ethnically Turkic and mainly Muslim group that was subjected to mass deportation from their native Crimea by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in 1944, gathered to forge a collective response to Russia's absorption of their native region.

Decisions on whether to accept Russian citizenship and possible participation in a Moscow-loyal government were deferred as the community further contemplates its options.

But the forum of about 250 delegates underscored difficulties Russia will face in integrating a community that resisted annexation and largely boycotted the March 16 referendum to join Russia.

According to the most recent Ukrainian national census, carried out in 2001, the 245,000-strong Tatar community accounted for 12 percent of Crimea's population. But anecdotal evidence of higher birth rates and a continued return of Tatars from exile in Central Asia suggest those figures may have grown markedly since then.

The Kremlin decision to annex this strategic Black Sea region, which has a large Russian majority, was backed by rhetoric of national self-determination, as Moscow argued that pro-Russian Crimeans had the right to break away from Ukraine.

"Recently, all decisions (by Russia) have been based on the presupposed right of every nation to self-determination," said Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Crimean Tatar governing body. "One must now conclude that the Crimean Tatar people also have that right."

Chubarov also appealed to the international community to recognize the Crimean Tatars as a "national territorial autonomy," but fell short of demanding a referendum on independence or allegiance to Ukraine.

Yet the vociferous tone of the delegates who spoke demonstrated the lingering rage within the Tatar community.

"Russia turned us out three times," Aishe Setmetova, an elderly woman in a knit sweater, bellowed from the stage. "They think of us as worthless objects. I do not believe in Russia."