More harassment of a member of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis

Gayana Yuksel, member of the Mejlis or representative body of the Crimean Tatars, was taken off the train from Kyiv to Simferopol and was held for around 3 hours at the station in Dzhankoy.  Her passport was taken away from her.

Gayana Yuksel was on her way home from Kyiv where her husband Ismet Yuksel has been living since he was banned from re-entering the Crimea. 

As reported, Ismet Yuksel, director of the Crimean News Agency [QHA] and adviser to the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar on relations with Turkey was issued with a 5-year ban on Aug 9.  He learned of the ban as he and his family were returning to the Crimea.  Yuksel himself is a Turkish national who has lived in the Crimea for 20 years. 

Russia has not confined its repressive measures to non-Ukrainian nationals.  The first two 5-year bans were imposed on Crimean Tatar leader and Ukrainian MP Mustafa Dzhemiliev and Refat Chubarov.

Chubarov notes that the harassment of Gayana Yuksel comes on the eve of the Conference on Indigenous Peoples beginning on Monday in New York.  One of the scheduled participants in that conference, Crimean Tatar scholar Nadir Bekir was attacked by 4 assailants as he was heading to Dzhankoy to catch the train to Kyiv from where he was to fly to New York.  The assailants took only his passport and mobile phone. 

Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Pavlo Klimkin reported that the Russian foreign ministry had written a letter protesting at the planned address at the conference by representatives of the Mejlis.  The UN Secretariat, however, declined Russia’s demand that they be excluded.