Aksenov spoke unflatteringly about Konstantinov for his reluctance to establish a dialogue with Kiev, - head of the Mejlis
Simferopol, March 23 (PolitNavigator, Evgeniy Andreev) – The head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, Refat Chubarov, exiled to Ukraine, unexpectedly published on the social network an interesting version of the Simferopol events of February last year, telling a lot of interesting things about the current leadership of the Republic of Crimea.
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Chubarov assures of the peaceful intentions of the Majlis after the events of February 21 in Kyiv:
“On the eve and day of February 26, 2014
February 23 is a sad date for the Crimean Tatars - the day of the murder of Noman Celebidzhikhan in 1918, one of the organizers of the First Kurultai, Chairman of the Crimean People's Republic, Mufti of Muslims of Crimea, Belarus, Lithuania, Poland, Ukraine.
In 2014, on this day, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people pre-planned two mass memorial events - a prayer meeting near the walls of the former Sevastopol city prison, where Noman Celebidzhikhan was killed, and in Simferopol, on the central square of the city.
But by February 23, a lot had changed in the country, Yanukovych had already disappeared. Therefore, the meeting was dedicated not only to the memory of Noman Celebidzhikhan, but also to the future of Crimea. Not only Crimean Tatars, but also Ukrainian patriots and people of other nationalities came to the central square of Simferopol. In total there were more than 15 thousand people.
At the rally, we demanded that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine immediately dissolve the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea as the center of the separatist coven in Crimea. Secondly, they demanded a new electoral law for Crimea, which would ensure effective representation of the Crimean Tatars. Thirdly, it was necessary to determine the principles of forming the transitional government of Crimea for the period before the elections,” the politician recalls.
He insists that he was far from being led by the radicals:
“On the eve of the rally, some people gently, but very persistently pushed us to occupy the Council of Ministers. Seeing that they weren’t succeeding, they changed tactics, saying, let’s at least demolish the huge monument to Lenin erected in front of the Council of Ministers. The second sentence to some extent corresponded to the mood of many people who were carried away by the “Lenin fall” that began in mainland Ukraine.
I understood that this could not be done, that it would divert attention - both from Ukraine and the whole world - from our demands. I had to try to convince people then that the cleansing of Crimea from the previous government should begin with actions that were understandable and united everyone in Crimea,” the exile assures.
But, he complains, not everyone in Crimea thought so:
“The Chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea, Vladimir Konstantinov, proposed holding an extraordinary session and dismissing the Chairman of the Council of Ministers, Anatoly Mogilev.
We learn that it is known that the initiators of the extraordinary session are planning to adopt some kind of appeal to Russian President Putin...
I proposed creating a small group of representatives of different political forces represented in the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, who would develop principles for forming a new composition of the Government. So that we determine the candidacy of the new chairman, we coordinate it with Kiev, since this is the procedure enshrined in the Constitution of Ukraine. It would take two or three days. But they told me that there is no time, that Crimea is ungovernable, that it is enough to “overthrow” Mogilev, and we will come to an agreement,” writes Refat Chubarov.
Meanwhile, he notes, something completely unusual was happening in the Crimean parliament:
“...On February 25, 2014, I spent the whole day in the Verkhovna Rada, alternately speaking with Konstantinov, Donich, Ioffe... In response to my demands to declare a moratorium on the session for 2-3 days, go together to Kiev, agree on the candidacy of the Prime Minister of Crimea, they they only tirelessly repeated that they had no thoughts of calling on Moscow for help. However, already on February 25, I saw people in the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea whom I could not identify. They had nothing to do with our services or public organizations in Crimea. At the same time, they stood out for their emphasized silence and tried to be invisible. 7-8 people on the sixth floor, where Konstantinov was sitting, carefully monitored and recorded everyone. There was a feeling that they were the most important here.”
And then came a dramatic day - February 26:
“In general, Konstantinov announced an extraordinary session for February 26. I urgently convened the Mejlis, which supported my proposal to hold a rally on February 26 in support of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and democratic changes in the country.
Since there was very little time for organization, we tried to use social networks and electronic media as much as possible to inform the public about the upcoming rally.
It also became known that, at the same time, the Russian Unity party of Sergei Aksenov also announced a rally at the same place. On my instructions, one of my deputies, Zaur Smirnov, came into direct contact with Aksenov, as well as police officers, in order to jointly agree on the division of protesters in a single square. Already late at night, Smirnov and Aksenov called me alternately, saying that they had sorted out all the organizational issues to avoid provocations among the protesters. At the same time, Aksenov spoke rather unflatteringly about Konstantinov and his group for their reluctance to establish a dialogue with Kiev,” emphasizes the leader of the Majlis.
According to him, on the morning of February 26, it turned out that there were many more supporters under the parliamentary “nut” than supporters of “Russian Unity”:
“By 12 o’clock there were up to 15 thousand Crimean Tatars, supporters of “Russian Unity” - 2,5-3 thousand. Already after lunch, people from Sevastopol arrived in an organized manner, and “Russian Unity” had 6-7 thousand by 16.
The situation among the protesters became tense as 15:6 approached, the start of the announced session. I, and Aksenov as well, each on his own route, constantly shuttled between the protesters and the XNUMXth floor of the Verkhovna Rada building, where Konstantinov’s office was located.
Sometimes we were forced to rush into the midst of people in order to separate the most ardent participants in the rally. This was easier for me, since the actual maintenance of order and prevention of provocations was entrusted to the chairmen of regional mejlises. And they coped with this task successfully.”
Aksenov, says Chubarov, had a “tough time”, since the reinforcements from Sevastopol that arrived in time for the “Russian eaters” refused to carry out his orders, many of them were drunk. Accordingly, most often clashes between protesters arose with their participation.”
“An hour before the session, at about 14:00, the head of the Crimean SBU, Gennady Kalachev, called me and said that, according to their information, there were two machine gunners in the crowd who had arrived from Sevastopol.
I asked: “What is their task?” He replied: “Shoot to kill on command.” I asked: “Which direction?” He replied: “I don’t think it matters, they can shoot both ways, they want the crowd to explode.”
This worried me then, I understood that they were definitely leading us to occupy this building. I realized that someone really needed a bright illustration as a prelude to the bloody events, during which completely different tasks would be realized than holding a session.
But, thank God, everything worked out, there was no shooting. The chairmen of the regional Mejlis worked very clearly, whose main task was not to allow the participants of the rally organized by the Mejlis to get involved in provocations. And there were plenty of provocateurs among the arriving Sevastopol residents, and this can be seen from numerous videos. They stood out for their coordinated actions in an unprecedented crush. Most likely, they were military men dressed in civilian clothes,” the leader of the Majlis believes.
In his opinion, the scenario of “the outrages of the Crimean Tatars,” against the backdrop of which Russian troops would be introduced into Crimea, was prepared in advance.
“But it couldn’t be launched... It’s clear that if fire had been opened on people, they would have had no choice but to storm and occupy the building of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea. What would happen next, now we can no longer speculate, since the signal for the start of a special operation to seize Crimea by Moscow has already been given...
The only force that could adequately resist the special operation that had begun were the Ukrainian military units stationed in Crimea. But this is a topic for another conversation...
Late in the evening of February 26, 2014, I was one of the last to leave the already empty square in front of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea. Before this, I talked with the organizer of the rally of the “Russians” Akenov, agreed to meet the next day to discuss issues of coordinating actions to avoid escalation of the situation in Crimea, contact Kiev and decide on the date of the Crimean delegation’s trip to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine,” concludes Refat Chubarov.
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