Shabanov reports that on 2 July 1969 the people’s court of Belogorsk district convicted him under Article 196 (UkSSR Criminal Code) to banishment from the Crimea for two years (CCE 18.7). Later the same sentence was passed on his wife Zera Shabanova. Attempts to get the sentence revoked had no result.
Eldar Shabanov (1940-2020)
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In 1944, when his father died at the front, Eldar Shabanov was four years old.
On 14 February 1969 Shabanov returned to the Crimea and began his efforts to settle in the Belogorsk (previously Karasubazar) district with a visit to the police, where he was told that he would be registered if he met the sanitary norm of having 13.65 square meters of living space per person.
He was unable to buy a house which was on sale in a village, as the chairman of the collective farm would not give the necessary certificate. He bought a house in the town of Belogorsk (48 square meters) and settled there with his wife, mother and child. The notary Levina refused to register the house purchase, demanding that she first receive their residence permit. Shabanov could not overcome this illegal refusal. In answer to his complaints he received, for example, replies like this:
“In answer to your letter I hereby explain: given the availability of all the necessary documents the notary’s office registers contracts for the sale or purchase of houses.
Deputy head of the Crimean Regional Court Panchenko, 12 May 1969.”
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On 25 April several Crimean Tatars seeking residence permits, amongst them Shabanov, were arrested. In the Simferopol Prison, in breach of the law, he was not allowed to prepare in writing his speech for the trial. Shabanov writes that the charge of evading registration is senseless in relation to a man who is persistently trying to obtain it.
“The very fact of the exculpation of my people gives me the full right not only to return to my native land, but also to maximum consideration and substantial advantages, if humanity and justice really exist in our country….”.
After describing in detail, the actions of Crimean and Belogorsk police chiefs Zhorich, Novikov, Gaidamak and other officials, Shabanov calls these actions a blatant infringement of his elementary human rights.
Shabanov also reports that another 53 families in the Crimea are in a similar position, whilst dozens of other families have been thrown out of the Crimea. He asks the UN Secretary General to empower a commission to investigate the actions of the Crimean authorities in relation to the Crimean Tatars.
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