{"id":17128,"date":"2024-03-19T12:48:10","date_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:48:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/ten-years-since-its-illegal-annexation-crimea-is-a-template-for-newly-occupied-parts-of-ukraine\/"},"modified":"2024-03-19T12:48:10","modified_gmt":"2024-03-19T12:48:10","slug":"ten-years-since-its-illegal-annexation-crimea-is-a-template-for-newly-occupied-parts-of-ukraine","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/2024\/03\/19\/ten-years-since-its-illegal-annexation-crimea-is-a-template-for-newly-occupied-parts-of-ukraine\/","title":{"rendered":"Ten years since its illegal annexation, Crimea is a template for\u00a0newly occupied parts of\u00a0Ukraine"},"content":{"rendered":"
\n

A petite woman calmly exits her home, escorted by\u00a0a group of large men in green fatigues, dwarfed by their sheer size and number. They look fierce: green balaclavas cover most of their face, hiding their identity, but their\u00a0Russian flag patches reveal their allegiance. <\/p>\n

The woman is Lutfiye Zudiyeva, a Crimean Tatar, and she shared video of the moment on her social media accounts. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey came to my house to carry out a search,\u201d she said\u00a0in an interview from the occupied Ukrainian peninsula, looking as resolute as she did in the video. \u201cI had been preparing for it for years.\u201d <\/p>\n

Her composure and foresight come from experience \u2013 this was her third arrest since 2019. On this occasion, she was held for an hour and\u00a0accused of \u201cabuse of mass media freedom,\u201d she said,\u00a0over posts she made on social media. <\/p>\n

\u201cWhen you cover politically motivated criminal cases or when you write about torture, you can\u2019t help but get on the radar of the special services or the police,\u201d she explained. <\/p>\n

Zudiyeva is a human rights activist and also one of the many Ukrainians who have suffered under Russia\u2019s now decade-long illegal occupation of Crimea, a period marked by the imposition of Moscow\u2019s laws and institutions,\u00a0the\u00a0oppression and repression of any opposition, as well as serious human rights violations, according to the United Nations. <\/p>\n

\u201cThere are arrests, searches, torture and repression,\u201d Zudiyeva\u00a0said. \u201cAs soon as you try to publicly express your disagreement\u2026 or you somehow get involved, you become a target. It\u2019s inevitable.\u201d <\/p>\n

Arrests like hers, as well as large\u00a0mass\u00a0raids, especially, but not exclusively, in areas predominantly inhabited by Crimean Tatar\u00a0communities, have been common since 2014. <\/p>\n

The Tatars, a Muslim minority of Turkic origin, are widely considered to be Crimea\u2019s indigenous population. They were\u00a0also persecuted while the peninsula, and Ukraine, were part of the Soviet Union, with long-time\u00a0dictator Joseph Stalin forcibly deporting them from Crimea in 1944. <\/p>\n

It was only in the late 1980s and then into the 1990s, as Ukraine achieved independence, that Crimean Tatars were allowed to return. Tatars were among those who opposed Russia\u2019s annexation of Crimea in 2014 and rights groups noted Russian authorities\u2019 persecution of the minority group in the aftermath. <\/p>\n

But what was already common has become more frequent and more invasive since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. <\/p>\n

\u201cThe situation is only getting worse,\u201d said\u00a0human rights lawyer Emil Kurbedinov, himself a Crimean Tatar.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cThe cases of kidnapping, detention of people without trial in prisons, have increased, especially after 2022.\u201d <\/p>\n

Kurbedinov has lived\u00a0in Crimea since 2008 and says\u00a0he has also faced harassment by Russian authorities since 2014.\u00a0He has\u00a0been arrested on several occasions, most recently, in February, for the same alleged offense as\u00a0Zudiyeva \u2013 who\u2019s\u00a0one of his clients. <\/p>\n

He said\u00a0Russian authorities act under the guise of the \u201cfighting\u00a0terrorism,\u201d frequently claiming Ukraine is directing and controlling networks of dissent inside the peninsula.\u00a0He believes it is just pure opportunism. <\/p>\n

\u201cThey get people when it suits them and they add charges that would make clear to society that these are terrorists,\u201d he explained.\u00a0\u00a0\u201cUnder the auspices of the fight against terrorism, they can arrest at one time a religious figure, a civic journalist, people who discussed something disloyal to the authorities, some other discontented\u00a0people.\u201d <\/p>\n

\u2018Little green men\u2019<\/h2>\n

Russia\u2019s occupation of Crimea began in 2014, shortly after the events of the Maidan Revolution in Ukraine. Confusion and concern riled up pro-Russia sentiment in the region \u2013 which had been a part of\u00a0the Russian republic within the Soviet Union\u00a0until\u00a01954, housed its Black Sea Fleet in the port of Sevastopol\u00a0and already leaned more towards Moscow than other parts of Ukraine\u00a0\u2013 leading to protests and clashes. <\/p>\n

While politicians in Kyiv were trying to hold the country together following then President Viktor Yanukovich\u2019s sudden departure on February 22, following months of political uncertainty and protests, Moscow set its sights on Crimea. <\/p>\n

Russian soldiers in uniform without identifying insignia \u2014 at the time referred to as \u201clittle green men\u201d \u2014 started popping up outside government buildings and military bases, though Moscow denied any involvement. <\/p>\n

Amid the confusion, many Ukrainian troops simply barricaded themselves in their bases, as the green men lined the perimeter.\u00a0Russian helicopters were spotted entering Ukrainian airspace.\u00a0Two top commanders of Ukraine\u2019s navy defected. <\/p>\n

While there were some pro-Russia pockets in cities like Sevastopol who favored annexation by Moscow, that sentiment\u00a0was generally not considered to be widespread.\u00a0A slim majority in Crimea also voted in favor of Ukraine\u2019s independence in a 1991 referendum. In the 2010 regional elections, the party of then-leader\u00a0Yanukovich \u2013 who never argued for Russian annexation of Crimea or any part of Ukraine \u2013 won with nearly 50% of the vote.\u00a0Research also\u00a0indicates\u00a0that before 2014, most residents believed annexation by Moscow was either illegal or pointless. <\/p>\n

Weeks after the appearance of the little green men, a sham referendum, illegal under international law and unrecognized by a large majority of the international community, showed 95.5% of people in the peninsula wanted to secede from Ukraine and to join Russia. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe are going home. Crimea is in Russia,\u201d\u00a0Russian-installed\u00a0Crimean Prime Minister Sergey Aksyonov told crowds gathered in Simferopol, while votes were still being counted. A decade later he is still in charge, as the head of the so-called Russian Republic of Crimea. <\/p>\n

The replacement of Ukrainian institutions and repression of dissent\u00a0started quickly after the vote. <\/p>\n

\u201cFrom the first months we faced a huge number of human rights violations. There were hundreds of administrative cases, kidnappings, and so on and so forth,\u201d Kurbedinov said. \u201cWe realized that we were in a completely different reality.\u201d <\/p>\n

That new reality is one Russia is trying to make permanent and irreversible, according to the UN. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe have seen a systematic effort essentially to erase Ukrainian identity to erase and suppress all things Ukrainian. It also involves suppression of Tatar national identity,\u201d said Krzysztof Janowski, from the UN\u2019s Monitoring Mission in Ukraine.\u00a0\u201cWe know, for example, of at least 100\u00a0forced\u00a0disappearances among people who oppose the new regime and oppose the occupation,\u201d he added. <\/p>\n

The UN says Moscow expropriated at least 730 plots of land belonging to Ukrainian and Tatar\u00a0citizens, which it then gave to Russian servicemen, or ex-servicemen involved in the so-called \u201cspecial military operation\u201d in Ukraine. It has also made it almost\u00a0impossible to live in Crimea without a Russian passport. <\/p>\n

\u201cWithout a Russian passport, you cannot have any access to any of the social services: healthcare, pensions, and so on. So, people are often presented with an offer they cannot refuse,\u201d Janowski\u00a0said. \u201cThey cannot get access, they cannot essentially survive. Accepting a Russian passport is a way of surviving this horrible situation.\u201d <\/p>\n

The major concern now\u00a0is that Crimea is a template for the other four Ukrainian regions now fully or partially occupied by Russia. <\/p>\n

A spokesperson for Russia\u2019s interior ministry, Irina Volk, has claimed\u00a090% of residents of those four regions \u2013 Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia \u2013 now have Russian passports. Less than a week after Ukrainian forces withdrew from the eastern town of Avdiivka, the first residents there had applied for Russian passports, Volk said. <\/p>\n

Propaganda effort<\/h2>\n

When it comes to Crimea,\u00a0Russia has tried to hide its oppression under a veil of public investment, and patriotism. <\/p>\n

Ahead of the 10-year-anniversary of the annexation, billboards and posters have popped up all over the peninsula celebrating how Moscow\u2019s investment has made life there\u00a0better. Some show\u00a0Crimea\u00a0covered in the Russian flag, others feature Russian President Vladimir Putin and read: \u201cThe West doesn\u2019t need Russia. We need Russia.\u201d <\/p>\n

That narrative is not a novelty, as Russian state broadcasters and local pro-Russian media reports often highlight the construction of new roads and other public infrastructure, like sports centers and even mosques in some cases. <\/p>\n

The Kerch Bridge, connecting Crimea to the Russian mainland and inaugurated in 2018, is\u00a0a major source of pride for Moscow and the focus of a large part of its propaganda. Its significance from a symbolic and strategic standpoint also explains\u00a0why Ukraine has\u00a0targeted it\u00a0several times during the war. <\/p>\n

\u201cThis is how we live,\u201d says Kurbedinov. \u201cToday you drive along nice roads, arrive home, tomorrow you simply disappear.\u201d <\/p>\n

Zudiyeva, like others in her community, didn\u2019t set out to be a human rights activist. She wanted to work in education and even opened a\u00a0children\u2019s center before Moscow took over the peninsula. <\/p>\n

But then came the Russian soldiers, along with the Kremlin\u2019s surveillance and oppression. <\/p>\n

\u201cWe began to read news about people going missing, we began to read news about some of them being tortured,\u201d she said. \u201cI realized that I would not be able to abstract from this and live my life as if nothing was happening.\u201d <\/p>\n

For a while, she combined her children\u2019s center with her newfound activism, but Moscow came knocking at her door. <\/p>\n

\u201cIt was difficult to explain to the parents, who brought and trusted us with their children, why their teacher was being harassed and the children\u2019s center was being searched,\u201d she said. <\/p>\n

She closed the center down and focused on her activism; in 2020, she became a journalist as well. <\/p>\n

\u201cI dream of writing a text (that will change the course of events) or hope that my work will bring such results that would stop the repressions in Crimea,\u201d she\u00a0said. \u201cI do it consciously, and I think I overcame my fear back in 2014.\u201d <\/p>\n\n

This post appeared first on cnn.com<\/div>\n<\/div>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

A petite woman calmly exits her home, escorted by\u00a0a group of large men in green fatigues, dwarfed by their sheer size and number. They look fierce: green balaclavas cover most of their face, hiding their identity, but their\u00a0Russian flag patches reveal their allegiance. The woman is Lutfiye Zudiyeva, a Crimean Tatar, and she shared video <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":0,"featured_media":17129,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[23],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-17128","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-world"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17128","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=17128"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/17128\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/17129"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=17128"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=17128"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/shareperformanceinsight.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=17128"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}