A letter-appeal to the Politburo, 1972 (31.17)

<< No 31 : 17 May 1974 >>

by the Crimean Tatar nation

in connection with the 50th anniversary of the formation of the USSR (1972, 8 pages).

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After mentioning the “great upsurge” and “unprecedented flowering” of economics and culture in the USSR and describing the life of the Crimean Tatars during the existence of the Crimean ASSR, the letter says that “the tragedy of the wholesale deportation” and the requisition of all property

“threw the Crimean Tatar people a long way back … the policy which has been implemented since the 20th Congress and the decree of 1967 in the spirit of ‘implanting’ the people, … has one single aim: by appearing to show concern for the national development of our people, to divert its attention from the fundamental question of principle: the restoration of its national equality in its national homeland”.

The “implanting” measures of the authorities are enumerated, also their repressive actions against the authors of individual and collective letters. The restoration of the rights of the suppressed peoples has not spread to the Crimean Tatars, and the decrees of 1956 and 1967 have not revoked their exile status, which was “legitimized” in 1946.

Moreover, by its very formulation the decree of 1967 “On Citizens of Tatar Nationality who used to reside in the Crimea” seeks to “annul” the existence of the Crimean Tatar people and not to allow discussion of the question of the violation of the constitutional rights of this people. Meanwhile

“our people, placed in humiliating conditions of national inequality, in the position of a stepson in a large family of equal peoples, nevertheless toils conscientiously in the name of the building of communism”.

The letter concludes with an assurance that the Crimean Tatar people will be persistent in their struggle for the satisfaction of the three fundamental demands [1] of their national movement (this issue CCE 31.13).

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NOTE

  1. Three ‘non-negotiable demands: a) an organized return to the homeland; b) settlement in a coordinated pattern which will guarantee the nation’s existence and sovereignty; c) the restoration of the Crimean ASSR (see “A Statement on the Crimean Question”, 1971 CCE 31.13 and CCE 31.10).
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