Russia’s ethnic cleansing shocks the world – they are cleansing the Tatars in the Crimea.

Mustafa Dzhemilev, who claims that Russia is conducting ethnic cleansing in Crimea. ⓒReuters Website Capture

Suspicions have been raised that Russia is massacring minority ethnic groups in Crimea.

Mustafa Dzhemilev, a member of the Islamic minority Tatar ethnic group, claimed in The Times of the UK on the 7th (local time) that “Russia is massacring the Tatars in Crimea” and “Russia has been conducting ethnic cleansing against minorities since the forced annexation of Crimea.”

Dzhemilev has been a strong critic of Russian President Vladimir Putin. When Russia forcibly annexed Crimea in 2014, he received a call from President Putin to conform to Russia. However, he drew the line, stating, “We support non-violence in our country, but it’s a different matter when foreign military invades our territory.”

Upon hearing Dzhemilev’s response, the Putin administration included him and about 100 other Tatars in the ‘ethnic cleansing target.’ According to human rights organizations, about 100 Tatars are serving up to 20 years in prison on charges of terrorism, dozens are missing, and tens of thousands have fled Crimea, their ancestral home, to escape Russian oppression. Their lawyers have been arrested and stripped of their qualifications.

Dzhemilev himself also received a forced expulsion order from the Russian government for continuing the resistance movement. He can only return to Crimea in 2034. Dzhemilev claimed, “Russia doesn’t want me to be buried in the land of Crimea” and “Putin’s method is more brutal than Stalin’s during the Soviet era.”

The Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea, were forcibly relocated to Central Asia under Soviet rule in 1944 and resettled in Crimea after the collapse of the Soviet Union. During Russia’s forced annexation in 2014, they played a pivotal role in the anti-Russian forces.

Dzhemilev, who has served as the chairman of the Tatar National Council, is still considered a symbol of the Tatar resistance movement and has been nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize several times. He said, “If I weren’t famous, I would have been killed or disappeared,” and conveyed his desire to “return to Crimea and continue the resistance movement.”