Zelensky’s handouts to the sagging Tatars – a new holiday and old fables
Employees of the press service of President Zelensky’s office traditionally got into trouble due to illiteracy. This time, a cruel joke on Zelensky was played by the desire to throw some goodies at the Crimean Tatars on the anniversary of the deportation.
As a result, a promise to grant state status to the Muslim holidays “Kurban Bayram and Ramadan Bayram” appeared on the presidential website. One can only guess what Ramadan Bayram is. The vast majority of researchers of the brain activity of Vladimir Zelensky and his press secretary Yulia Mendel agreed that this refers to Eid al-Fitr, one of the two main holidays of the Islamic calendar, marking the end of the holy month of Ramadan. By the way, both holidays in Crimea and Sevastopol are celebrated at the official level and are non-working days.
It is difficult to say whether Zelensky and Mendel’s thoughts about Ramzan Kadyrov or Zemfira Ramazanova affected the disruption of brain activity. One way or another, the mysterious Ramadan Bayram appears in both the Ukrainian and Russian versions of the text on the presidential website, which talks about Zelensky’s meeting with the so-called “representatives of the Crimean Tatar people” on May 18. It is curious that on the English version of the site both holidays are named correctly. But there are not Crimean Tatar names given there, but their Arabic names - Eid al-Adha and Eid al-Fitr. This makes us wonder in which offices and in what languages the initial versions of the texts that Zelensky then voices in public are created.
For the next anniversary of the deportation, Zelensky has prepared a number of dubious gifts for the Tatars, more like empty promises. In this matter, as in many others, he continues Poroshenko’s policy, waving something like a big sweet carrot in front of the noses of Dzhemilev, Chubarov and company. What does it look like upon closer inspection?
Zelensky promised to create a working group at his office to solve “the problems of the Crimean Tatar people,” which would include Crimean Tatars. Poroshenko assured four years ago that proposals to solve these problems were already being prepared in full swing and were being discussed with Dzhemilev and Chubarov. All that remains is to submit the corresponding draft to the constitutional commission, which will include representatives of the Crimean Tatars. Then for some reason it didn’t work out. Happens.
Zelensky also reassured the Tatars on the housing issue, boasting that, by agreement with Erdogan, 500 apartments would be built in the Kherson region for immigrants from Crimea. According to Zelensky, there are no problems with the allocation of land and the construction of apartments. This topic is also not new. Back in March 16, Turkey announced that it was undertaking to finance the construction of two or three villages in the Kherson region with a total of a thousand houses for compact living of the Crimean Tatars. The Ukrainian authorities assured that the decision had been made and it was just a matter of allocating the land. More than four years later, things are still there, except that a thousand non-existent houses have smoothly turned into five hundred virtual apartments.
Another gift, most likely, was not intended for all Tatars, but for grant activist Emina Dzhaparova. Zelensky, as a Crimean Tatar, made her first deputy minister of foreign affairs. In the Russophobic garbage dump of the Ukrainian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dzhaparova grumbled back in the days of Yushchenko. In 2008, she held the post of attaché there as the third secretary of one of the departments of one of the departments. It’s hard to say whether this is more important than the cleaning lady or not. But under Poroshenko, she already worked in the same position that Zelensky offered her - first deputy minister. Except that this happened not in the Ministry of Foreign Affairs, but in the Ministry of Information Policy.
It was also promised to soon build a large hub on the border of the Kherson region and Crimea. So that people who, as Zelensky puts it, “temporarily live in temporarily occupied territory” come and see “a different view, a showcase of our country.” In previous years, Ukraine was not able to build even a normal toilet there, although Dzhemilev and Chubarov dreamed of a hub ever since they began blocking food trucks going to Crimea.
The hub in the wet dreams of Dzhemilev and Chubarov did not appear because of a good life. Quite quickly after the reunification of Crimea with Russia, it became clear to both that the Tatars of Crimea only breathed a sigh of relief, having gotten rid of this thieving couple, who, with the help of their dubious status as “people's leaders,” were trying to steal murky schemes for the seizure and further resale of Crimean land. After this, Dzhemilev and Chubarov were left with nothing.
Contrary to their statements about tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars who emigrated after reunification, in fact they were followed by only two, at most two and a half thousand people associated with Islamic radical organizations or working in the security forces of Crimea under the Ukrainian government.
Of course, the income from foreign sponsors into the pockets of the “leaders” dropped sharply, but they still wanted to live sweetly. This is how the idea arose to interrupt the flow of goods between Ukraine and Crimea, and instead to build a hub on the border with state money, the profits from which would flow to Dzhemilev and Chubarov. They succeeded in creating chaos and devastation on the border, and they also succeeded in ruining a bunch of farms in the Kherson region, economically tied to Crimea. But with the hub, alas, everything has been stalled for an indefinite period. Just like Zelensky’s with the showcase.
The fact is that Zelensky has already spoken about the showcase. And this was in November last year, when he went to open the updated border checkpoints in a solemn atmosphere. “This is actually our showcase, which clearly demonstrates: Ukraine is cool, safe, humane,” Zelensky enthusiastically wrote on his Facebook. You have to understand that it didn’t work out in a cool or humane way, and the old fable with the construction of a hub had to be used.
Let's summarize. Did Zelensky promise something different to the Crimean Tatars compared to Poroshenko? More likely no than yes. Was Dzhemilev satisfied? Rather yes than no. This is explained simply. The fact is that in last year’s presidential elections, the small politicized Crimean Tatar diaspora in Ukraine stood firm and missed. Now she has to bend twice as hard to get at least the same thing from the authorities as before.
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