Kyiv Mayor Leonid Chernovetsky: I’m giving the Government the following ideas, okay? The liquidation of all special organizations, from hospitals to clinics and the various…uh…huge land plots…uh…that they own will net Ukraine 10 billion dollars, okay? The liquidation of the system…uh…of the systems of the Academy of Sciences — for example, okay? — that exist only in China and Ukraine and also in Russia will also net…there’s a lot of property there as well.
Sounds like the voice of experience, doesn't it?
The expert accounting and the science behind it reminded me of my favorite Depeche Mode song, “Everything Counts.”
An unprecedented squatter crackdown took place in Crimea on Tuesday. The below Novy Kanal report strikingly — and surprisingly — resembles the scripts used by Russian state television in its Chechen War coverage.
Voiceover: Another showdown in Crimea. Armed-to-the-teeth Berkut SWAT teams stormed Mt. Ai-Petri. They demolished from the sanctuary plateau the illegal settlements of Crimean Tatars. The operation was so secret that the task force leaders didn’t even tell their personnel where they were going. As a result, the Tatars had no time to pull their main forces to Mt. Ai-Petri. Currently, all roads leading to the mountains are sealed.
Bailiff: Based on the court ruling of November 6, 2007, in the absence of voluntary compliance, forcible execution has been mandated.
Voiceover: Early in the morning today, a bailiff read out to all of the present 50 Tatars the decision to demolish their ethnic eateries in Yalta Sanctuary at Mt. Ai-Petri. It would have been naive to hope that the real estate owners would obey the law. Instead, they kept at the ready Molotov cocktails and propane gas tanks.
Tatars: This is robbery! We will stand until death! We won’t quit, we mean it!
Voiceover: They didn’t have to stand for too long — heavy gear went into action.
Tatars: You will be responsibly for murder!
Voiceover: After a brief staff meeting, special police forces and internal troops are ordered to provide ground support for the bailiffs and for the bulldozer.
Voiceover: Five minutes later, the sanctuary plateau at Mt. Ai-Petri was quiet. Everyone was doing their job. Law enforcement was packing the offenders to police trucks; the machinery was leveling the illegal real estate.
Anatoliy Mohyliov, head of the Crimean Directorate of the Ministry of the Interior: Any resistance to law enforcement officers will be forcefully thwarted. That’s what police is for — to uphold decisions made under the law. Any counteraction to the execution of this lawful court decision will naturally be thwarted.
Voiceover: Who occupied the sanctuary? During today’s events he was in the first line and obstructed the bailiffs. His name is Akhtem Chyigoz; he is the head of the Bakhchysarai Majlis. On the occupied land, on behalf of the Majlis, they started a business. They collected rent from their fellow believers for the right to open an eatery here.
Forest Ranger: People came from the Bakhchysarais Majlis and said that all paperwork has been completed. Only a few signoffs were left to be obtained from the [Crimean] Cabinet of Ministers. They showed me the flagged plots, a total 18 plots, I guess. They named the price each had to pay to build a house there and to open a business.
Voiceover: Now, in place of the businesses, Mt. Ai-Petri is again a sanctuary. Police and bulldozers won’t be sitting idly for too long, local law enforcement says. As the head of Crimean police, Anatoliy Mohyliov, promised, by the end of the week Crimeans will witness yet another series of court decisions being carried out. Oleh Kryuchkov, Oleksandr Solovyenko, Novy Kanal.
Notice the lack of balance, the gung-ho attitude, and the racist overtones. It looks more like a public relations material from Myanmar’s Ministry of the Interior.
According to earlier reports at Ukrayinska Pravda, the bailiffs’ writ of execution concerned only one building. Later in the day, however, that figure rose to seven. A total of 28 Tatars were detained. Three were hospitalized with major injuries.
All of which raises grave questions:
What doesn’t Novy Kanal ever mention those recreation centers and vast tracts of land grabitized by non-Tatars for a nickel or a dime? See no evil, hear no evil?
Why is it that some have to bear the full brunt of the law while others stay above the law?
Why is it that some have to play by the rules while others play with the rules?
“To my friends, everything; to my enemies, the law.” Is that the house rule?
Unless the "untouchables" give these questions some thought, they may very well be subscribing to a nightmare that will put First Blood on a Sri Lankan scale.
With the Tatars playing as the Tamil Tigers, this “action movie” will render the "untouchables’" villas uninhabitable for a long time.
Henadiy Holub, head of the Yalta State Bailiff Service Department: I believe that this is…uh…the beginning…the beginning of these teardowns that take place in Crimea, say, the teardowns of illegal real estate.
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.
