Crimean Tatar delegates in Moscow, Dec 1973 & Jan 1974
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Thirteen representatives of the Crimean Tatars (12 from Uzbekistan and one from the Kherson Region, Ukraine) came to Moscow to deliver documents of the national movement to Party and State authorities.
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“Newsletter” 112
is a report by this group of delegates which lists and briefly describes the documents and reports on the persecutions to which members of the group were subjected. In the course of one week, police searched for and arrested eight people in Moscow, amongst them the war veterans Amet Abduramanov, Tair lzmailov, Suleiman Lemanov and Zore Fettayeva (an intelligence officer in the resistance). After the searches and interrogations seven were sent back to Uzbekistan. Shevki Mukhteremov was detained and searched at Samarkand airport, from which he was due to fly to Moscow.
Delegates who avoided being caught delivered the following documents to the CPSU Central Committee on 17 December:
- “Countrywide Demand for Answers” (CCE 31.20) with 6,508 signatures. This document constituted the 201st volume of materials of the Crimean Tatar national movement handed in to the Party Central Committee.
- “Halt the Anti-Socialist Activity of Chauvinists in Law-Making & in the Theory and Practice of Law” (CCE 31.22): 7,238 signatures, volume 202.
- Protests against the conviction of D. A. Akimov: in all about 1,600 signatures.
- Protests against repression of Crimean Tatars in the Crimea and Ukraine: 600 signatures.
- A Newsletter on a republican meeting of Crimean Tatar representatives on 8 November 1973.
The first two documents were delivered to other institutions as well, namely the Procuracy and the Ministry of Justice, to which, as acceptance was refused, they were then sent by post.
The “Newsletter” itself was also sent to Party and State agencies and to the places where the Crimean Tatars currently reside.
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“Newsletter” 113
In January three of the delegates (S. Memetov, A. Abduramanov and Sh. Mukhteremov), who had returned from Moscow, continued their work.
Their report, “Newsletter” 113, says that protests against the coercive acts meted out to Crimean Tatar representatives in December had been delivered to Party and State agencies or sent by post (protests by the victims and also a collective protest with 680 signatures), as well as supplementary signatures to documents sent earlier.
Documents of the Crimean Tatar movement were also sent to the Writers’ Unions and the Party committees of Union (SSR) and Autonomous (ASSR) Republics. “Newsletter” 113 was sent to more than 30 addresses.
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