Ukrainiana

Land Conflict Deepens Crimea’s Ethnic Fault Lines

The legacy of Stalin’s forcible deportation of Crimean Tatars comes back to haunt the peninsula. Tatar repatriates, whom local authorities often refuse to compensate for the land their parents and grandparents lost, often resort to squatting.

Against a background of widespread corruption and land grabs by the well-connected elites, squatting becomes the only remedy available to Tatar repatriates. This festering problem once again came to the fore Thursday, when a Simferopol firm tried to regain control of a land plot occupied by Tatar squatters.



Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! Glory to Ukraine! Glory to the heroes! (The rallying call of Ukrainian nationalists. Apparently a group of them came to show support for the Tatars.)
Tatars: How about coming out in the open? Just you wait! We’ll hold each of you accountable.
Police officer: In the event of unforeseeable circumstances that will lead to aggravated consequences, all of you will be prosecuted in accordance with the criminal code.
The firm’s “security forces”: What now, huh? Come over here if you’re so tough. Come on, come on, come on! Get them all here!
Tatars: Don’t think we’ll let you get away with it. No way. No way! Just some 100-200 hryvnias, and you’re dead! If you don’t convert to Islam, you’ll die. Allah Akbar! Allah Akbar!

(Situation spins out of control. Shots fired in the air. Police fire tear gas.)

The longstanding mistreatment of the Tatar minority lays the ground for extremism, a time bomb that may explode at any time. Tatars steadily vote for NUNS, as a counterweight against Russian dominance and separatist ferment, fueled by the presence of the Russian Black Sea Fleet and its blatant disregard for Ukrainian law.

Still, “one law for all,” NUNS’ campaign slogan, has yet to materialize in Crimea and in the rest of Ukraine. Thankfully, the confrontation did not result in large-scale violence. Several people sustained minor injuries.

The Thursday episode must serve as a wake up call to the Party of Regions, which holds a solid majority in local government. Unless the Party of Regions rethinks its land policies, the situation may escalate from bad to worse.

Once the genie is out of the bottle, the splendid villas of Kyiv, Donetsk, and Moscow moguls will be washed away into the Black Sea in a bloodbath that will rival Bosnia and the Gaza Strip. It’s not too late to work out a win-win land policy. This policy will rescue Crimea from a future of a world-class flash point, and instead will reprogram it to a future of a world-class resort.

Sources: http://www.pravda.com.ua/news/2007/11/2/66243.htm
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