In Crimea, Time for Pressure, not Acceptance: Why we cannot lose sight of the Crimean Tatars

Abstract

Misguided calls within Germany for tacitly accepting - or even legalizing - Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea are diverting attention from the situation there on the ground. Disregarding Russian promises made to the Crimean Tatar community, authorities are now cracking down on Tatar political and media organizations, under the pretext of the fight against "political extremism." As a result, Crimean Tatars have once again become a vulnerable minority under Russian rule - in the only place they call their homeland: the Crimean peninsula. Germany and the international community must therefore pressure Moscow to concede the same basic human and minority rights to Crimean Tatars that Russia has demanded for the region's Russian-speaking population.