Mustafa Dzhemilev

Mustafa Dzhemilev

Ukrainian-Tatar politician
Date of Birth: 13.11.1943
Country: Ukraine

Content:
  1. Early Life and Deportation
  2. Activism and Imprisonment
  3. Return to Crimea and International Recognition
  4. Recent Years and International Recognition

Mustafa Dzhemilev: The Struggle for the Rights of the Crimean Tatars

Mustafa Dzhemilev

Mustafa Abduldzhemil Dzhemilev is a Ukrainian-Tatar political activist, former chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, member of the Ukrainian parliament, and former dissident. He is widely regarded as one of the prominent representatives of the Crimean Tatar national movement.

Mustafa Dzhemilev

Early Life and Deportation

Mustafa was born in Ai-Serez, Crimea, which was then part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) under German fascist occupation. When Dzhemilev was just 6 months old, his family, along with the rest of the Crimean Tatars, was deported by the Soviet authorities in May 1944 when Soviet troops regained control of the peninsula. He spent his childhood in exile in Uzbekistan.

Mustafa Dzhemilev

Activism and Imprisonment

At the age of 18, Dzhemilev and several of his activist friends founded the Union of Young Crimean Tatars. Mustafa embarked on a long and arduous struggle for the recognition of the rights of the Crimean Tatars to return to their homeland. Between 1966 and 1986, Dzhemilev was arrested a total of 6 times for his anti-Soviet activities. He spent a significant amount of time either in Soviet prisons and labor camps or under strict surveillance by the authorities. In addition to his activism, Dzhemilev expressed his position through high-profile protest actions. His hunger strike, for example, set a record for its duration in the history of the struggle for civil rights - Mustafa survived without food for 303 days, relying solely on force-feeding.

Mustafa Dzhemilev

Return to Crimea and International Recognition

In May 1989, Dzhemilev was elected the leader of the newly formed National Movement of the Crimean Tatars. In the same year, he finally returned to Crimea with his family, along with approximately 250,000 other exiled Tatars. In October 1998, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees awarded Dzhemilev the Nansen Medal for his outstanding contributions to the cause of the Crimean Tatars' return. Shortly after receiving the medal, Mustafa emphasized the non-aggressive nature of the Crimean Tatar national movement in an interview. In 1998, during the Ukrainian parliamentary elections, Mustafa Dzhemilev was elected as a member of the "Rukh" party. He was re-elected in 2002, 2006, and 2007, but this time as a member of "Our Ukraine." In October 2009, the Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs, Yuriy Lutsenko, announced that a terrorist group called "At-Takfir wal-Hijra," linked to the Taliban and Al-Qaeda, was planning an assassination attempt on Dzhemilev's life. This became known after the arrest of two members of the group.

Recent Years and International Recognition

In early November 2011, Dzhemilev announced his retirement from mainstream politics. However, during the 2012 parliamentary elections, he joined the All-Ukrainian Union "Fatherland" and was re-elected to parliament. In April 2014, Dzhemilev was handed a document at the Ukrainian border officially banning him from entering Russian territory. According to the document, Dzhemilev was prohibited from entering Russia for 5 years under federal law. The printed document was not signed or officially stamped and was soon published by the Mejlis. A representative of the Russian Federal Migration Service stated that they had no information about such a ban. On June 3, 2014, Mustafa Dzhemilev became the first laureate of the Lech Walesa Solidarity Prize. During the Crimea crisis, Dzhemilev was in Ankara. After the preliminary results of the referendum became public, Dzhemilev held a joint press conference with the Turkish Foreign Minister, Ahmet Davutoglu. He stated that the Mejlis, like Turkey, considered the referendum illegal and its results manipulated.

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