Persecution of Crimean Tatars, 1979 (53.22-1)

<<No 53 : 1 August 1979>>

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The Expulsion of Delegates from Moscow

In mid-March delegates from the Crimea came to Moscow once again, this time over 200 of them: in December 1978, 23 had come; in January-February about 120 (CCE 52.9-2).

They brought with them a ‘National Protest’ against the continuing harsh persecution in the Crimea, signed by 3,988 Crimean Tatars (living in the Crimea, the north Caucasus and southern Ukraine) and an appeal for the release of Mustafa Dzhemilev (1,927 signatures).

On 14 March the delegates went to the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet to request a hearing.

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On 15 March the Crimean Tatars again came to the reception room of the Supreme Soviet Presidium and began a two-day hunger-strike, announcing it in the following telegram addressed to Brezhnev:

‘Crimean Tatars and their families in the Crimea are being subjected to inhuman treatment. Many of our compatriots are in prisons and camps, banished or in exile.

‘Mustafa Dzhemilev is in danger of death, The fate of Seidamet Memetov is unknown. Ebazer Yunusov is being illegally detained in Simferopol Prison. Aishe Usmanova has been groundlessly convicted, her small children have been forcibly taken away from her and placed in a hospital for infectious diseases.

‘Criminal charges are being fabricated against Lyutfi Bekirov, Seiran Khyrkhara, Izzet Usta, Yakub Beitullayev, and Gulizar Yunusova.

‘Dozens of families have been evicted from the houses they bought and left to a cruel fete. Forcible evictions in the freezing cold are continuing.

‘Cases are being prepared against the families of Enver Ametov, Murat Voyenny and many others.

‘Illegal obstacles are being put in the way of Crimean Tatars wishing to leave Uzbekistan.

‘The Crimean Talar people have often appealed to Party and state organs to stop the tyranny and violence perpetrated against Crimean Tatars, Our people’s numerous appeals have remained unheeded.

‘The 196 representatives of the Crimean Tatar people who are now in Moscow wholeheartedly condemn the practice of terror and express their angry protest against the illegal repressions by staging a two-day hunger-strike, beginning on 15 March at 9 am.

‘We demand an end to national discrimination and the return of the Crimean Tatars to their national homeland.’

At the request of the other delegates, pregnant women, invalids, old people and teenagers did not participate in the hunger-strike.

At 5 pm police and soldiers turned the Crimean Tatars out of the reception area, herded them into buses and drove them to various police stations and sobering-up stations. The following day the majority of those arrested were sent under guard to Tashkent (they were transported in specially designated carriages) and a group of 12, also under guard, were taken to Krasnodar, where they were registered before they returned to the Crimea. Both groups continued their hunger-strike in transit.

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Those delegates who had escaped arrest tried to find out what had happened to their friends.

They were not told anything in the reception room of the Supreme Soviet Presidium, nor at police stations. On 18 March they sent a telegram of protest to Brezhnev (21 signatures):

‘… the arrest of the hunger-striking delegates is a consequence of national discrimination against the Crimean Tatars.

‘…we demand the release of our comrades. We ask you to receive the representatives of our people. Our people are waiting for a positive solution to the national question.’

On 19 March they signed Information Bulletin No. 129 (the two previous ones were mentioned in CCE 52.9-2), and the lists of the delegates who had come from the Crimea were attached to it. As with the earlier ones, this Information Bulletin was sent to the Central Committee, to the Supreme Soviet and to the Council of Ministers.

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Arrests, Searches, Interrogations

In the Crimea searches began on these very days, followed by arrests and other reprisals against those suspected of organizing protests and the ‘processions’ to Moscow. On 14 March searches were carried out at the homes of Mukhsim Osmanov, Zekki Muzhdabayev and Eldar Shabanov in Belogorsk.

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MUKHSIM OSMANOV

Mukhsim Osmanov [1], a Group I invalid — he is blind, was in hospital recovering after a heart-attack. On 14 March he was discharged, although the Head of the Section said that his heart was still weak. He was brought home, where the search was already under way. Soviet publications in the Tatar language and extracts from the Koran were confiscated (this was the seventh search of Osmanov’s home — the first six took place in Uzbekistan, where he lived until 1976).

On 12 May Mukhsim Osmanov was visited by Pavlenko, Deputy Head of the Crimean KGB (CCE 51.13) and Grechikhin, Belogorsk district Procurator (similar visits had occurred previously, CCE 44.23). Osmanov was threatened with a trial and eviction unless he stopped ‘stirring people up’, especially the young. Pavlenko repeated almost word for word several expressions contained in an anonymous letter sent to Osmanov, in which activists in the Crimean Tatar movement were censured for having residence permits themselves and sending others to Moscow, stirring up the young people and exposing them to reprisals. Ebazer Seitvaapov and others had received similar anonymous notes, ostensibly written by Crimean Tatars. Pavlenko also talked to Osmanov about contact with dissidents and the organization of meetings with Western journalists in Moscow.

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The search at Muzhdabayev’s home was carried out in connection with a theft of which his juvenile son was ostensibly suspected. Several statements, lists of people (marked ‘going’) were confiscated. 50 roubles, a watch and a Japanese umbrella were also taken (and later returned).

During the search Usniye Ametova came to see Muzhdabayev. She was searched and 150 roubles were taken from her. After the search she was taken away for a ‘talk’. Investigator Lugovykh gave her an ultimatum: if she went to Moscow again (she went with the February delegation) she would be deported from the Crimea, where she had already lived for 18 months without a residence permit. If, however, she refused to go to Moscow, she would be given a residence permit, Ametova did not go to Moscow, but she was not given a residence permit (at least, not by the end of May). Her money was returned to her.

Z. Muzhdabayev has taken part in the national movement since the 1960s; he was one of the 118 signatories of the ‘Appeal to World Public Opinion’ in the summer of 1968 (CCE 2.4). He has lived in the Crimea since 1968; he succeeded in obtaining a residence permit, but has been refused work in his profession (he is a teacher of Chemistry and Biology). He is unable to do physical work on account of his health. He worked for a while as a store-keeper, but is now unemployed, for the third year running.

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The search at Shabanov’s home began in the evening.

Investigator Captain Gashko gave as the reason for it the fact that ‘anti-Soviet material’ had been found at the home of Shabanov’s friend Muzhdabayev. When asked to hand over voluntarily ‘texts defaming the Soviet political and social system’, Shabanov replied that he did not have such texts. As a result of the two-hour search, a notebook containing some addresses and two separate pages with the address of A. D. Sakharov (the old one and the current one), a prayer, two private letters (one addressed to Shabanov’s wife) and a text entitled; ‘To the Poets Robert Rozhdestvensky and Yevgeny Yevtushenko’ (four copies) were confiscated. Two weeks later E. Shabanov was arrested and charged with ‘malicious hooliganism’ (for his trial, see below).

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After the searches, rumours circulated in Belogorsk that weapons, radios and a lot of money had been found in the Tatars’ possession. A teacher at the local school told the older pupils about this and warned them not to go out at night, because the Tatars would be prowling and might kill them.

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On 15 March searches were carried out at the homes of Ebazer Seitvaapov in Simferopol and Gulizar Abdullayeva in Zuya (Belogorsk district). Photographs of the funeral of Musa Mamut (CCE 51.13) and photocopies of several Soviet publications were confiscated from Seitvaapov (CCE 44.23, CCE 51.13). On 25 April Seitvaapov was ‘sorted out’ during a meeting at his place of work. He was censured for ‘anti-Soviet activities’. The charges included ‘contact’ with dissidents (Pyotr Grigorenko and Alexander Lavut were named) and with other Crimean Tatar activists (Eldar Shabanov). Seitvaapov was even reminded of his participation in ‘May demonstrations’ (the last time was in 1970). One of those present said: ‘Stalin did well to deport the Crimean Tatars’.

A watch was put on Seitvaapov’s house. His brother, Remzi Seitvaapov, who got married and moved to a village near Simferopol (the two brothers had previously lived together) is not being allowed to legalize the purchase of his house or to obtain a new residence permit; he is threatened with eviction.

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Gulizar Abdullayeva (Mustafa Dzhemilev’s elder sister) was in Moscow with the delegation on the day of the search. During the search, statements. Information Bulletins, the Chronicle, private papers and 600 roubles were confiscated. A month later she and other relatives of M. Dzhemilev were evicted (see below).

On 16 March a search was carried out at the home of Mamedi Chobanov in Zhuravki village, Kirov district (on orders from the Belogorsk Procuracy).

Crimean Tatar documents, tape-recordings of Chobanov’s conversations with KGB officials and of his conversation with the widow of Izzet Memedullayev, who committed suicide in November 1978 (CCE 51.13), were confiscated. A Koran belonging to his mother, and Chobanov’s personal savings — 3,000 roubles (he was saving for his wedding), were also taken. A search was carried out at his brother’s home, but nothing was found. On 3 April M. Chobanov was arrested (see below and this issue CCE 53.22-2).

On 3 April searches were carried out at the homes of: Osman Mamutov in Belogorsk (a notebook, the text of a collective protest and tape-recordings of Tatar songs were confiscated); Servet Mustafayev (CCE 38.15, CCE 41.9, CCE 44.23) in Vishennoye village (Belogorsk district); Riza Islyamov and Mukhtar Sofu in Simferopol; Remzi Seitvaapov in Kamenka village, Simferopol district; and Nariman Bekirov in Chistenkoye village in the same district.

On 17 May a search was carried out in Grushevka village at the homes of R. Dzhepparov and Sh. Bekirov.

In the second half of May two searches were carried out in Melitopol (one at the home of Mukhsim Osmanov’s brother), and Enver Seferov’s home in the town of Genichesk, Kherson Region, was searched.

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MUZAFAROV & KOROTKAYA

Professor Refik Ibragimovich MUZAFAROV, D.Sc. (Literature), now works at the Gorlovka Teachers’ Training Institute for Foreign Languages. His wife A. M. Korotkaya is Russian and lives in Feodosia. Muzafarov was refused a permit to live in her flat. In September 1977 he was fined for living in his wife’s flat without a residence permit.

On 3 February 1979, a day after his arrival in Feodosia, Muzafarov was escorted to the police station by a policeman and eight vigilantes, for ‘personal identification’ (on the orders of Lieutenant-Colonel Bulavin). At the police station Muzafarov’s passport was taken away and he was fined again.

Korotkaya and Muzafarov demanded that the Feodosia police officials be brought to justice under Article 66 (UkSSR Criminal Code: “Violation of the law on National and Racial Equality”) for refusing a residence permit and detaining and fining Muzafarov — all solely on account of his nationality. In response to one of Korotkaya’s statements the Feodosia Procurator replied (on 29 May 1979) that there had been no ‘criminal incident’, that Muzafarov had actually lived in Feodosia without a residence permit and had therefore been justly fined (the first fine had been annulled by the Feodosia Court, the second by the Gorlovka Court).

On 2 June a search was carried out in Korotkaya’s flat in connection with Case No, 9516 (as it later turned out, the case of M. Chobanov); it was supervised by N. S. Zmeikina, Senior Assistant to the Crimean Regional Procurator.

The search began at 10.15 pm and lasted until the morning. The witnesses (one was from Lenino village — quite a long way from Feodosia) sometimes left the flat, and at other times by contrast, took an active part in the search, helping Captain Ovsyannikov and Investigator Khrapova. Before the search began Korotkaya was asked to surrender weapons, ammunition, explosives and ‘documents relevant to the case’ (she replied that she had none). There are 131 entries in the search record (some denoting one piece of paper, some a whole file of it). The confiscated items included:

  • Muzafarov’s works on the problems of the Crimean Tatar people, in particular: the outline of an article which had been accepted for publication but never appeared in print, entitled: “The Active Participation of the Crimean Tatars in the Partisan Movement, as Reflected in Documentary and Artistic Literature”; ‘From the Black Sea to Berlin’; and ‘The Crimean Tatars in the Great Patriotic War: Fact and Fiction’ written in conjunction with N. Muzafarov and typed); ‘Their Opinions are Taken from Forgotten Newspapers … ’ (written in conjunction with D.Sc. (History) G. Fyodorov);
  • a complete set of the newspaper Red Crimea for the years 1942-1944 (it was circulated underground); material relating to the participation of the Crimean Tatars in the war; recordings of Crimean Tatar songs and other folk material;
  • books, articles and manuscripts by Muzafarov on linguistics. For example, his book Russo-Turkic Folk Ties (published by Saratov State University, 1966) and material for a Russian-Crimean Tatar dictionary; books and photocopies made in the Lenin Library (Moscow) containing information on the Crimean Tatars and the Crimea in general, for example U. Ya. Azizov’s Medicinal Herbs of the Crimea (Moscow 1941);
  • books and journals; for example, E. Marsov’s Essays on the Crimea (St Petersburg-Moscow, 1904); News of the Tauride Academic Archive Commission (Simferopol, 1897); N. Kravtsev’s The Serbian Epos (Moscow, 1940);
  • Muzafarov’s and Korotkaya’s correspondence with official bodies about the harassment they were experiencing and also about the criminal charges against Kondranov, Director of the Crimean Regional Party Archive, under Article 66 (UkSSR Criminal Code);
  • the text of this Article of the Criminal Code (copied out). Korotkaya complained to the USSR Procurator-General about the actions of the investigators and demanded the punishment of those responsible for carrying out a groundless search at night and making illegal confiscations; she also demanded the return of the confiscated items, which were indispensable to her husband in his professional work.

On 8 June Muzafarov and Korotkaya were interrogated by Zmeikina. Only when they stubbornly persisted in asking did she tell them that Case No. 9516 was that of Mamede Chobanov (with whom neither of them is acquainted). Zmeikina asked Korotkaya; who visited them at home? What language did they speak? Did she know the Crimean Tatar language? Had her husband ‘prepared slanderous material’? Was he her first husband? Muzafarov tried to argue that the questions being put to him had nothing to do with Chobanov’s case. Zmeikina spent a long time questioning Muzafarov about his article The Active Participation which had been confiscated during the search.

On 16 June a search in connection with Case No. 9516 was carried out in Muzafarov’s own flat in Gorlovka. His own works (including published ones) were again confiscated, as well as other documents concerning the Crimea. At his trial in Omsk in 1976 Mustafa Dzhemilev asked that Muzafarov be summoned as a witness on the question of the state of the Crimean Tatars’ language and literature (CCE 40.3, where his first name is given incorrectly).

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The Arrest of Reshat Dzhemilev

On 4 April in Tashkent, following searches in his house and his relative’s house, Reshat Dzhemilev [2] was arrested. During the searches, articles and statements written by him, including the one about Musa Mamut (CCE 51.13), and other documents on the situation of Crimean Tatars and the national movement were found. Two typewriters were also confiscated.

Initially his arrest was officially called ‘detention’ and it was not until 7 April that Zera Dzhemileva was informed that her husband was being charged under Article 191-4 (Uzbek SSR Criminal Code = Article 191-1, RSFSR Code). R. Dzhemilev is being held at the KGB Prison, although his case is being handled by the City Procurator’s Office; Mustayev is the investigator.

Mustayev told one of the witnesses that because R. Dzhemilev had been meeting Western correspondents, this time he would not get three years (as he did on his previous arrest in 1972) but up to seven years; but no official information about the charge being changed has been forthcoming [3].

Both Dzhemilev’s wife and his middle son Nariman (20 years old) were called as witnesses. Nariman refused to testify and proceedings are being initiated against him.

By the end of May the investigation was drawing to a close and Zera Dzhemileva intended to engage a lawyer from Moscow. On 4 June she was, however, detained at the airport before boarding a plane for Moscow. The people who detained her (one was in police uniform) told her that she had no right to leave Tashkent while her husband’s case was under investigation. (She had not of course been required to give a signed statement to the effect that, as a witness, she would not leave town, as there is no provision for this in the Criminal Procedure Code.)

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In April searches were conducted in Uzbekistan at the homes of activists of the movement, a movement which has been growing over the last two years on the basis of the ‘Appeal Statement’ to Brezhnev (CCE 47.7, CCE 51.13). Rollan Kadiyev (CCE 51.13) and Idris Asanin (CCE 51.13) in Samarkand, and Yusuf (Yury) Osmanov (CCE 2.4) in Fergana, had their homes searched.

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On 18 May, the 35th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars from the Crimea, leaflets commemorating the date appeared in Tashkent.

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Deportations from the Crimea

Elip Ablayev (b. 1914; he served in the Army from 1938 to 1945, fought at the front) bought a house in Bogatoye village, Belogorsk district, and in December 1978 moved there with his wife and eight children. His efforts to get a residence permit took him to Moscow.

On 21 December the general who interviewed him at the Soviet Committee of War Veterans promised to do what he could for him and advised him to approach the Presidium of the USSR Supreme Soviet. On 2 January Ablayev received a letter from the Supreme Soviet saying; ‘The Regional Soviet executive committee will inform you of the decision reached.’ On 16 January the Regional executive committee informed him: ‘Your letter has been passed on to the Belogorsk OVD.’ The Chief of the district OVD, Chernikov, replied orally: ‘Leave of your own accord, it would be awkward for me to have to evict you.’ E Ablayev went to Moscow again and this time got a straight answer at the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet: ‘You have no reason for being in the Crimea.’

On 21 March Ablayev was told that his residence permit had been approved and that all grown-up members of his family had to be at the district police station at 8 am the following morning. When they got there, the chief of the passport department, Pisklova, told them to fill in a registration form, while Major Chernikov led a detachment of 40 policemen and a large number of DOSAAF* trainees and started the work of eviction, assisted also by local leaders and vigilantes. [*Voluntary Society to Assist the Army, Air Force and Navy.]

‘Drunk and in the pouring rain they loaded our belongings on to open lorries, with no concern for the trouble taken in acquiring these belongings. Party organizer Sidorov, vigilante chief Ruban and carpenter G. M. Minin distinguished themselves in particular, breaking doors and windows with axes and crow-bars in order to get the furniture out, destroying our family home. There were valuables among these belongings: money, documents and a gold ring.

‘While all this was going on — actions unworthy not only of the honour of a communist, but of the very principles of Soviet society — the following rash words were thrown at me, a war veteran, like a spit in the face: my medals and certificates, which I earned with my blood, were not real, but false. After this comment, my family and I were put in the Belogorsk detention cells with jeers of all sorts.

‘In the afternoon, we were put in a police van and without the Procurator’s sanction taken to the Special Detention Centre in Simferopol where, with scant regard for our civil rights, we were held until 11 am on 23 March. That day we were put on the train and expelled under escort from the Crimea.

‘I appeal to you to set up a commission to examine all these amoral deeds, to restore my honour and my wrecked family home. I trust that you will look into this and assist me in my misfortune.’

This is what Elip Ablayev wrote to Brezhnev on 27 March.

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On 25 March, in the same village of Bogatoye, Refat Muzhdabayev and his family of four were evicted.

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On 28 March in Kurskoye village, Belogorsk district, two evictions were carried out; Enver Ametov (CCE 52.9-1) and Murat Voyenny (CCE 52.9-1).

A Russian family was moved into Voyenny’s house (it was difficult to find people willing to move in; the first family it was offered to refused). Ametov’s house, a low, pre-war Tatar mud house, was demolished.

A few days before the eviction, Alexander Isayev, the collective farm electrician, refused to cut off the electricity from Ametov’s house. For this he received a Party reprimand and was demoted to fitter. The demolition operation was prepared as an important political campaign. Even before it got under way the management of the ‘Put Ilycha’ collective farm held a meeting of the tractor brigades, at which chief agronomist Zatolokin stated: ‘The government made a mistake in letting them into the Crimea.’ Chief engineer Maksimov explained what had to be done to the tractor drivers and said that he himself would be responsible for the demolition of the house, and their business was to carry out orders. Tractor driver Malkhanov stated that he would not demolish the house, even under threat of dismissal. Driver Chernov demanded an explanation of why the tractor brigades were obliged to do it. The management threatened that a refusal to demolish the house would be punished in the same way as a refusal to do routine work, and named those who were to do it. Anatoly Rogozhin refused and a few days later was dismissed from the Komsomol.

On the day of demolition Enver himself was not at home; he had gone to see his five-year-old son in hospital. His wife and two-year-old daughter and his sister were at home. The police took them away, then threw out all their belongings, packed them into containers, then started to demolish the house. The next day, a bulldozer was brought and everything was completely flattened.

In 1976, shortly after E. Ametov moved to the Crimea, the house of which he had bought half turned out to be ‘scheduled for demolition (CCE 40.11). The house in Kurskoye had also been due to be demolished as early as August 1976, when his family was evicted for the first time (also in his absence), but at that time the neighbours had prevented the demolition order from being carried out (CCE 42.7). At that time the chief of the Belogorsk KGB, Ilinov, told Ametov that he would never be allowed to live in the Crimea,

The Ametov and Voyenny families, deported from the Crimea, are now living on the Taman Peninsula.

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On 31 March Amet Abduramanov and his wife, both old age pensioners, were evicted from the town of Stary Krym. In the 1960s Abduramanov (at that time he lived in Angren, Uzbekistan) used to travel to Moscow as a representative of his people and was subjected to searches and arrests (CCE 31).

In May 1978 he was sentenced to four years’ banishment from the Crimea under Article 196 of the Ukraine SSR Criminal Code (CCE 49.12).

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On 3 April in Lgovka village (Kirov district) Reshat Emirov was evicted (in CCE 49.12, Rashid).

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DZHEMILEV RELATIVES

In the middle of April relatives of Mustafa Dzhemilev were deported from the Crimea: his parents Abduldzhemil (81 years old) and Makhfure (69 years old) Mustafayev, his elder sister, Gulizar Abdullayeva and her husband and two children, and his younger sister Dilyara Seitveliyeva (she also has a family). Before their deportation they were held for 24 hours at the Simferopol Special Detention Centre.

These three families came to the Crimea, to the Belogorsk district, in 1976-1977, since when they had received many ‘warnings’ and fines (CCE 46.15 [9], CCE 47.7). Riza Seitveliev, after his banishment (CCE 49.12), registered for residence in the Krasnodar Region. They all settled there after the deportation.

When Gulizar Abdullayeva received the containers with her belongings, which had been packed by the police without the owners present, there were a lot of them but none of them was full. Apparently this was done solely with a view to increasing the cost of transport, which the deportees themselves have to pay.

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On 19 May in Lesnovka village, Saki district, the family of Mamut Emirveliyev (b. 1907) was evicted. Valuables were lost during the eviction and many things were ruined.

In June, in Stary Krym, Amet Abduraimov and Aishabla Asanov were evicted.

On 23 June in Lenino, a district centre, at 3 am ‘several vehicles’ including fire-engines, drove up to Zubeir Kalafatov’s house; there were about 100 policemen and vigilantes in the vehicles. But nobody was at home’ so the eviction did not take place.

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Private plots of land are being taken away from unregistered persons (and ploughed up or given to neighbours). In Kurskoye village, where in March eleven unregistered families lived (there are only 22 Crimean Tatar families there in all), the management of the ‘Put Ilycha’ farm ordered their private plots to be sown with oats. Anatoly Puzyrev refused to do this and was dismissed as a result.

In Belogorsk a new system of paying for electricity has been introduced: the account has to be certified by the housing administration or the street committee. In this way unregistered people become defaulters and their electricity supply can ‘legally’ be cut off. This has already been done to nearly all the 35 unregistered families. In Belogorsk district a list of 280 families whose electricity is being cut off has been drawn up. Those whose houses also have a mains water-supply have this cut off as well.

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In the newspaper Trud on 5 May 1979 there was an announcement: the state-owned ‘Vinogradny’ farm-factory (Kolchugino village, Simferopol district) required workers with various skills. Several Crimean Tatars applied. The director talked with one of them, Ennar Ibragimov. He said openly: ‘We need workers very badly, but your affair has not yet been settled. If Crimean Tatars are allowed to live in the Crimea, I’ll take you on willingly. But for the time being I can’t.’

*

In April-May registered Crimean Tatars were called to the district Soviet executive committee for a special kind of census: how many in the family? Who is working and where? It is known that a similar kind of census of Crimean Tatars (maybe a spot-check) was conducted in Uzbekistan.

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In March or April, seven families in the Kirov district were promised residence permits.

Since last winter, sentries have been on duty at points of entry into the Crimea, in particular on the Crimea-Caucasus ferry, to check whether home-grown produce is being carried (and perhaps to check whether Crimean Tatars are travelling?) On roads the police frequently stop buses, and suspicious passengers are asked to get off for their^ papers to be checked. If the passenger turns out to be a Crimean Tatar he is questioned about his route and the aim of his journey.

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The resolutions of the administrative commissions of district or Town Soviet executive committees concerning a warning or fine for living without a residence permit have, since October 1978, started to be written out on a special printed form: ‘Form 32 concerning point 92 of the Instruction” (which instruction is not mentioned). The text has a reference to ‘USSR Council of Ministers’ Resolution No. 700 of 15.08,78’ (without its title or contents). In March-April ‘offenders’ were no longer handed these resolutions or even shown them. Apparently, Resolution No. 700 (CCE 52.9-1) has become more secret,

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At the end of March, in view of the forthcoming official visit by French President Giscard d’Estaing to the USSR, a group of Crimean Tatars wrote him a letter (without signatures).

They write about the tragic situation of their people, especially about the persecutions of recent months resulting from the Decree of the USSR Council of Ministers, and ask the President to intercede for them in his meeting with Brezhnev, A. D. Sakharov handed this letter to the French Embassy, together with a note from himself, vouching for the authenticity of the letter and adding his plea to that of the authors. He was told that the letter would reach the addressee. There has been no further reply.

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NOTES

  1. On Mukhsim Osmanov, see //CCE 13, CCE 31.19, CCE 42.7, CCE 44.23, CCE 47.7, CCE 49.12.
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  2. On Reshat Dzhemilev, see CCE 8.5, CCE 9.10 [6], CCE 31.2; CCE 27.4, CCE 31.2, CCE 48.14-2, CCE 51.13 and Name Index.
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  3. In December 1979 R. Dzhemilev was sentenced (CCE 55.1.2) to three years in strict-regime camps under Article 191-4 of the Uzbek SSR Code.
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