I am proud that we all involved

The Crimea mourns. Flags are lowered. 18 May is the day of mourning for all Crimean Tartars, for all who dislike national oppression. The black shadow of horrible crimes of 55 years ago, pain and unmeasurable love to their native land triggered the march of Crimean Tartars to the Crimean capital. 15 columns from all parts of the peninsula pooled together on the central square near the House of Government. More than 40 thousand of demonstrators gathered there. Every Tartar was proud when a new column under national blue flags arrived at the square. The inscriptions on the posters and slogans read: ‘Restore our national state!’, ‘Create conditions for returning all Crimean Tartars!’, ‘We demand juridical acknowledgement of our Medjliss!’, ‘If my language disappears tomorrow, I shall die today!’, ‘Down with national oppression!’. The most frequent slogan was ‘Motherland, people, Medjliss!’, the motto uniting all Crimean Tartars. The Crimean Mufti Nuri Efendi and Father Pavel (Ukrainian Orthodox church of Kyivan patriarchy) prayed for victims of the deportation. The Prime-Minister of the Crimea Sergey Kunitsyn read the edict of the President of Ukraine on the creation of the Council of representatives of Crimean Tartars as a consulting organ at the President’s administration. The Council consists of 33 representatives form the Medjliss and is headed by Mustafa Djemilev, the chairman of the Medjliss.

Beside the Crimean Tartars other public figures participated in the meeting, such as Gennadiy Udovenko, the head of ‘Rukh’, Genrikh Altunian, the human rights protection activist, Nikolay Rudko, the chairman of the State Committee of national minorities, Mykola Gorbal, a poet and the human rights protection activist, Gelal Ichten, a guest from Stambul.

M.Djemilev, the Medjliss chairman, thanked his compatriots for unity and activeness, saying ‘I am proud that we all involved’.

’Golos Kryma’, 21 May 1999