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Crimea’s persecuted Muslims

Paying the price: Tatars detained, interrogated, and harassed after Russia’s annexation of Crimea.

Russian APCs drive on the road outside Simferopol, Crimea, a Black Sea peninsula that Moscow annexed from Ukraine in March.

By Denis Sinyakov and Mansur Mirovalev

Published On 26 Nov 2014

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Putilovka, Crimea – Unlike Crimea’s ethnic Russian majority, most Tatars resisted Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula in March. They fielded patrols to prevent Russian soldiers, APCs, pro-Russian paramilitary squads and Cossacks from entering their villages, even using an Android app to turn their smartphones into walkie-talkies that provided instant communication with hundreds of people.

Moscow responded by exiling community leaders, banning rallies, closing down Tatar media outlets, and paralysing the work of the Mejlis, an informal Tatar parliament. At least 15 Tatars and pro-Ukrainian activists were kidnapped or went missing, one was found dead with traces of torture, another one allegedly hanged himself in a desolate barn.

Hundreds of Muslims were detained, interrogated, and fined for blocking highways during protest rallies. There were attempts to set two mosques afire, and several more have been vandalised. 

Many Muslims complain that during searches officers force their way in, break down doors and furniture, and harass and humiliate them in front of their wives and children, according to more than a dozen people interviewed by Al Jazeera. 

RELATED: Russia’s crackdown on Crimea’s Muslims



A village in Crimea with a mixed ethnic Russian and Tatar population. Ethnic Russians became a majority in Crimea after the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars for their alleged collaboration with Nazi Germany during World War II. After Moscow(***)s annexation of Crimea in March, Tatars have been facing increasing pressure from pro-Moscow authorities and paramilitary units.
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Crimean Tatar Enver, 81, drives his sheep and goats outside Simferopol. Enver survived the 1944 deportation from the Black Sea peninsula to Central Asia. Tatars have been facing increasing pressure after Moscow annexed the peninsula in March. 
A statue with Ukrainian symbols next to a mosque outside the town of Belogorsk in Crimea. 
Abdureshit Jepparov, a Crimean Tatar activist, talks about his kidnapped son Islyam and nephew Djevdet Islyamov at his house outside the town of Belogorsk. Several people have been kidnapped or gone missing after Moscow annexed Crimea from Ukraine.
Jepparov sits inside a mosque outside the town of Belogorsk, Crimea, before Friday prayers. 
A Crimean Tatar couple, Eldar [not pictured] and Alime, wearing traditional attire, listen to a Muslim cleric pronouncing them husband and wife during a Muslim wedding ritual at the Great Khan mosque in the former palace of Tatar rulers of Crimea.
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Refat Ablyakimov, an elderly Crimean Tatar from Sinekamenka, survived the 1944 deportation of his people from the Black Sea peninsula to Central Asia. Crimean Tatars have been facing increasing pressure after Moscow annexed the Black Sea peninsula.
A portrait of Seiran Zinetdinov, a Crimean Tatar who was kidnapped in May, in front of his father, Seitumer, from their house in Simferopol, Crimea(***)s main city.
Lenie Velieva, 77, an elderly Crimean Tatar, is on her way to a village outside Simferopol. Velieva also survived the 1944 deportation of Tatars from the Black Sea peninsula to Central Asia. 
Muslyadin Muslyadinov, a Muslim activist from the Crimean Tatar community, and his wife Reime with their cow in the back yard of their house in the village of Putilovka, southern Crimea. Observant Muslims and members of Islamist groups have been facing increasing pressure since Russia seized Crimea from Ukraine.
Residents of Simferopol, Crimea, walk outside Saint Peter and Paul Orthodox Cathedral whose restoration was personally commissioned by Russian President Vladimir Putin after Moscow(***)s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula from Ukraine.
Vladimir Maguylo, a commander of a (***)self-defence(***) paramilitary militia in Simferopol, Crimea. The commanders are reluctant to dissolve the militias and Russian authorities have pledged to finance and recognise the units.
Local Crimean Tatar farmers, Edem and Osman stand next to a half-empty water canal outside Nikolskoye in Crimea. Ukrainian authorities stopped the supply of fresh water from the mainland after the peninsula was annexed by Russia in March. To secure water supply to Crimean cities, officials ordered a stop to fresh water, pumped from underground aquifers, to farm fields.
A newsroom at ATR, a television channel in Simferopol, Crimea, that advocates for the rights of Crimean Tatars, a Muslim minority who face increasing pressure after Moscow(***)s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula. 
Sergei Aksyonov, head of the pro-Russian government of Crimea, receives a symbolic loaf of bread from the staff of a bread factory in Simferopol that was nationalised by authorities in early November. Aksyonov became head of the Black Sea peninsula shortly before Moscow annexed it from Ukraine.