Census in Crimea caused mistrust among Tatars – media
Moscow - Simferopol, December 17 (PolitNavigator, Mikhail Stamm) - The population census in Crimea revealed mistrust on the part of the Crimean Tatars and showed that the organizers were interested not only in the number of Crimeans, but also in its change after joining the Russian Federation, writes Kommersant. The Tatars were afraid that they were being enumerated in order to evict them, and the census takers, in addition to standard questions, were interested in “how long have you been living in this locality, where you lived in October 2013, for what purpose did you come to Crimea?”
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According to the head of the population and health statistics department of Rosstat, Svetlana Nikitina, for Crimeans the census was a “holiday”; only 0,6% of residents refused to participate in it. According to her, the Crimean Tatars took an active part in it, especially in the Bakhchisaray and Dzhankoy regions, although “there were several refusals in Yalta.”
However, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars (a body of people’s government) could not accurately name the number of Tatars, noting that there are at least 300 thousand of them. At the same time, the deputy chairman of the Mejlis, Akhtem Chiygoz, fears that the census results may underestimate the number of Crimean Tatars. He called the percentage of Crimean Tatars participating in the census “low.” “We have more than 300 compact settlements where people are wary of strangers,” he told the publication.
Vice Speaker of the State Council of Crimea Remzi Ilyasov said that cases of Crimean Tatars refusing to participate in the census were often recorded: “There were cases when people reacted aggressively. They say you are rewriting us because you want to evict the whole people later.” He associates such sentiments with “attempts to discredit” the census among the Crimean Tatars, which “could have been planned.”
During the census, in addition to the usual questions (full name, date and place of birth, nationality, education, etc.), specific ones were also asked: how long have you lived in this locality, where did you live in October 2013, for what purpose did you come to Crimea? Apparently, Rosstat was more interested in population dynamics in connection with the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation, and not in comparison with 2001.
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