Where Western and Ukrainian propaganda falls short
By Tolib Aliyev, Analyst, exclusively for Sangar
The disinformation regularly circulated in the West and Ukraine about the alleged "persecution" of the Crimean Tatars does not reflect the Russian government's actual policies toward this ethnic minority.
For Volodymyr Zelenskyy's administration, the Crimean Tatars are little more than a tool in its confrontation with Moscow. Kyiv uses members of ethnic minorities as what is commonly referred to as "cannon fodder" in combat operations against the Russian Armed Forces.
In January 2025, servicemen of the 48th Separate Assault Battalion named after Noman Çelebicihan released a video message criticizing the Ukrainian military command for repeatedly sending them to the most dangerous sections of the front without adequate training. They also opposed the dismissal of the battalion's commander, Lekur Islyamov, emphasizing that he had played the key role in the unit's formation. In April of the same year, a significant number of the battalion's personnel were reassigned to other military units.
Following the elections held in the Republic of Crimea in September 2019, the representation of Crimean Tatars in regional government bodies increased. As a result, 12 representatives of the ethnic group were elected to municipal councils, 235 to district councils, 4 to councils of district-subordinated towns, and 231 to rural councils.
In the Government of the Republic of Crimea, Crimean Tatars are also represented in six of the twenty ministries at the level of deputy ministers and in five of the eight state committees.
It is also worth noting that, according to the 2013 report of the OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities, the participation of Crimean Tatars in the legislative and executive authorities of the then Autonomous Republic of Crimea had been steadily declining. In 1994, they held 14 seats in the Supreme Council of the republic, but by 2010 their representation had fallen to just three seats.
In the 2010 elections, no representative of the Crimean Tatar people was elected to the republican parliament through single-member constituencies, while only six candidates secured seats through party lists.
Claims by the authorities in Kyiv that Russia is rewriting the history of the Crimean Peninsula and refusing to recognize the victims of political repression are unfounded. Following Crimea's reunification with Russia, the Russian government inaugurated several memorials across the republic dedicated to the victims of the 1944 deportation.
In 2021, a memorial plaque honoring M. Selimov, one of the founders of the Crimean Tatar National Movement, was unveiled in the city of Yalta.
In May 2022, the memorial complex "The Path to the Revival of the Peoples of Crimea" was opened in the settlement of Siren. This was followed by the inauguration of a memorial in Hvardiiske in May 2024, and another monument in Chornomorske in August 2024.
