At the trial of Ukraine's claim against the Russian Federation, Dutch judges are shocked by Chubarov
Crimean Tatars are allegedly taken into paddy wagons straight from mosques and immediately sentenced to 20 years in prison simply because they are Muslims.
Such arguments were presented by the Ukrainian side during the consideration of the claim against Russia at the International Court of Justice in The Hague, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
As the deputy mufti of the Muslims of Crimea and Sevastopol, Esadullah Bairov, said on the air of “Crimea 24”, it was necessary to show and prove that in reality there is no persecution of the Crimean Tatars and no oppression of Muslims.
“Unfortunately, over the past 9 years, participating in international platforms, we understand that no matter how sincerely we try to convey something, the European community does not want to hear whatever we say, no matter how we argue our words. But we, of course, say one thing - we say what it is. We don't need to invent anything, we don't need to compose anything. The changes taking place in Crimea can be seen even from Space, that is, on Google maps.
Therefore, if some person claims that there are no positive changes in Crimea, or Crimea is undergoing some kind of decline, this person is from a parallel reality, it is very difficult to adequately treat him, it is difficult to talk about him as an adequately thinking person. We hear this from the President of Ukraine, from our Kyiv representatives of the Crimean Tatars, who consider themselves leaders,” he emphasized.
“You know, when you speak personally with these European diplomats, they lean over and ask in your ear: do you really have paddy wagons standing there in front of the mosques and waiting for people to come out of the mosque to pick them up? To the extent that these people were told and inspired by this horror, they begin to believe in it. It’s not that they don’t know or do, they really begin to believe in all this,” Bairov said.
“Unfortunately, all our activities on international platforms boil down to dispelling these myths by telling the truth, talking about what is in reality. Because no compromising evidence, no inventions, can stand against the truth. Because the truth was true yesterday, just like 2014. And when you want to come up with something that doesn’t exist, every time you want to confirm it, you have to come up with a few more false facts.
Therefore, the Ukrainian position was very weak, as it seems to me, and our lawyers very harshly broke it down and refuted all the statements made against us. I am confident that the court will do what it has to do and take the right position,” added the SAMK representative.
The lawsuit, among other things, accuses the muftiate of collaborating with the Russian authorities and that in 2018, a council of Crimean Tatars was elected at the kurultai of Crimean Muslims, while allegedly local delegates of religious organizations did not have the right to elect a representative body. Bairov believes that the Mejlis is simply not ready to give up its monopoly on representing the interests of the Crimean Tatars, while the organization itself has the status of a public association.
“They are not ready to accept any other format of possible political movements in Crimea with the participation of Crimean Tatars, possible political leaders in Crimea from Crimean Tatars, except themselves. This is such an interesting position. It’s just that no one in the world perceives it; Europeans are shocked by this position. They tried in the center of Europe, in one of the most advanced countries with European values, to capture the most important value - there are good Tatars and bad ones.
Our lawyers have worked on this topic very well, and the Ukrainian delegation constantly sounds like the right Tatars and the wrong Tatars. They didn’t speak in these words, but it sounded just like that, and the judges, and the youngest judge was about 70 years old, that is, there are very mature people sitting there, with decades of judicial practice and working in The Hague for many years, they just looked at it’s like going to some kind of production, some kind of theater.
Because people calling for the preservation of rights, calling for the preservation of political rights, at the same time do not give anyone else the right to take advantage of these political rights, or to have some kind of political self-realization. This was the nonsense they called for,” Bariev noted.
He emphasized that the muftiate moved to Russian Crimea, retaining the leader, structure and everything that was under it. And the Kurultai of Muslims of Crimea addressed the public with which it had interacted before.
“Therefore, it was decided that we are, in principle, the same people who represent both the Crimean Tatar people as a whole and the Muslims of Crimea, and they can take responsibility in the transition period in the absence of a national kurultai. This was the case under Noman Chilibidzhikhan, that is, this is already a historical precedent, when political decisions were made at the kurultai.
Today we say everywhere: please, if our political structures, political parties that exist in Crimea, political movements are ready to unite into a kurultai and today move as one whole, as it was before, of course in a constructive field, why not. Who is stopping this? Who forbids this? I believe that this position itself will be assessed correctly by the judges, that no one except us has the right to do this, and, in general, to monopolize the people and make it so that only they can say something on behalf of the people and emphasize the irreplaceable nature of the Majlis. After 2018, their legitimacy is also in question, because there was no kurultai, there was no renewal.
Therefore, it is very difficult to talk about some kind of legitimacy of oneself in order to accuse us of something here. I believe, and everyone who understands politics a little bit, sees perfectly well what the answer to all this should be - that only one person came on behalf of Ukraine, Chubarov, and there is no one else,” Bariev noted.
In addition, representatives of Ukraine tried to prove to the court about racial discrimination against Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians, including abduction, disappearance, and murder.
“This is a substitution of concepts, definitely. The only name they talked about in court was Rishat Ametov. This is truly our pain. A person was kidnapped, killed, there was an investigation, everything went as it happens in any legal state. All the culprits were found and punished. And that's okay. That is, when something happens, the rule of law includes legal mechanisms, and they resolve this issue. To say that in Ukraine during these 9 years no one was kidnapped and no one was killed would also be utopian. That is, everyone understands this perfectly,” the representative of the muftiate emphasized.
“There was a substitution of concepts in everything. No one said a word about Hizb ut Tahrir, did not mention it even once. Because American lawyers understand perfectly well that by saying this word and linking the arrests to a particular party, they themselves will give an explanation of why this is happening. They said “Crimean Tatars”, simply because they are Crimean Tatars, they are imprisoned for 20 years. They tried to promote this idea, although the claims are clear, the charges brought are clear, there are no unfounded ones.
Indeed, the participation of these people in these organizations has been proven. The trials last for years. They caught him and after 3 days they sent him to Kolyma, there is no such thing. There is an opportunity to challenge the verdict, if the person is really not guilty, please,” Bariev emphasized.
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