The rise to power of a group of politicians whose bulk of support is drawn from the more nationalist-leaning Western Ukraine has ignited alarm among ethnic Russians in the south and east of the country.
Complicating matters, Tatar representatives have come out in support of the incoming regime, setting the stage for tensions inside the Crimean Peninsula.
Police forces appeared to be having trouble controlling the crowd, and a RIA Novosti reporter saw people who seemed to have been involved in a brawl with bloodied faces.
An online live feed from the spot showed dozens of people waving Ukraine’s national blue-and-yellow flag as well as the tricolor of the autonomous Crimea republic and the standard of the Crimean Tatar people, which is electric blue with a yellow seal in the top left corner.
Developments on the ground will be monitored closely by neighboring Russia, which has spoken forcefully about the need to protect the interests of ethnic Russians in Ukraine. Moscow has reacted with concern to proposals under consideration in Ukraine’s parliament that would severely downgrade the status of the Russian language.
In Simferopol on Wednesday, different parts of the crowd at the Crimean Supreme Council, the regional parliament, competed to drown out one another with cries of “Ukraine” and “Russia.”
A sit-in outside the building began Tuesday amid calls for local authorities to reject the rule of the erstwhile opposition, which has taken hold in Kiev since the ouster of President Viktor Yanukovych over the weekend.
- People at the sit-in have demanded the restoration of Crimea’s 1992 constitution, which envisioned the republic as having its own president and autonomously determining its foreign policy.
Crimea has long-standing ties with Russia.
Until Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev in 1954 transferred the territory to what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, Crimea was officially a part of Russia.......................................http://en.ria.ru/russia/20140226/187912058/Tensions-Rise-in-Ukraines-Crimea-as-Russians-Tatars-Clash.html
26/2/14
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Ukraine Crimea: Rival rallies confront one another...
ReplyDeletePro-Kiev and pro-Moscow protesters have scuffled in Ukraine's Crimea region, as tensions increase following last week's ousting of President Viktor Yanukovych.
One person was crushed to death during the face-off outside parliament in Simferopol, the BBC confirms.
Only a police cordon separated the rallies - one pro-Russian, the other involving Crimean Tatars and people backing Ukraine's change of government.
A new cabinet is due to be unveiled in the capital Kiev in a few hours' time.
It is widely expected that a number of activists from Kiev's main protest camp, the Maidan, will be offered ministerial roles......................http://www.bbc.com/news/world-europe-26354705
26/2/14
Russia refuses to attend UN Security Council’s informal meeting with pro-Kiev activists...
ReplyDeleteUNITED NATIONS, April 01, /ITAR-TASS/. Russia stayed away from an informal meeting of UN Security Council with pro-Kiev activists - journalist Valentyna Samar and the former president of the Mejlis (Council) of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev.
Russian Federation’s mission at the UN issued a statement dismissing the event organized by Lithuania as a ‘propaganda show’ that did not have anything to do with the Security Council’s activity.
“We categorically refuse to associate with the Security Council the propaganda show sponsored by Lithuania and involving odious personalities,” the mission said. “A get-together of this kind cannot a priori provide whatever unbiased information on the situation in Crimea, a constituent territory of the Russian Federation.”
“Quite naturally, the Russian delegation will ignore this tasteless undertaking,” the report said.
The meeting with the activists bolstering the regime in Kiev was held under the so-called Arria Formula, which envisions free discussions between diplomats and the representatives of civic society and nongovernmental organizations. The Russian mission’s statement noted a misuse of the format.
“It was devised for confidential discussions of knotty political issues but it used at times as a tool for self-advertising in front of the mass media […], and this undermines the Security Council’s reputation,” the statement said.
The Lithuanian delegation to the UN peddled the informal meeting as an open one but half an hour after its start when, reporters were asked to leave the hall Mustafa Dzhemilev was delivering his anti-Russian speech.
“This is a wish of the Lithuanian delegation,” a worker of the UN Secretariat taking part in the event told Itar-Tass.
Le président russe Vladimir Poutine a annoncé lundi avoir signé un décret sur la réhabilitation des Tatars de Crimée en tant que peuple réprimé sous Staline. Par cet acte, il pose un geste médiatique en faveur de cette minorité musulmane qui s'est montrée hostile au rattachement à la Russie. ...
ReplyDelete"Je tiens à vous informer que j'ai signé un décret sur la réhabilitation des Tatars de Crimée, des Arméniens, des Allemands, des Grecs, de tous ceux qui ont souffert sous la répression stalinienne", a-t-il annoncé au début d'une réunion gouvernementale.
Les Tatars de Crimée, qui représentent environ 12% de la population de la péninsule située au sud de l'Ukraine, ont largement boycotté le référendum du 16 mars qui a abouti au rattachement de la Crimée à la Russie.
Cette communauté se méfie de Moscou depuis que Joseph Staline, qui les accusait d'avoir collaboré avec les Allemands, a ordonné leur déportation en masse de la Crimée vers l'Asie centrale à la fin de la Deuxième Guerre mondiale.
Ils n'ont été autorisés à retourner en Crimée qu'après la perestroïka, à la fin de l'époque soviétique. L'Ukraine n'a jamais adopté de loi sur leur réhabilitation, et les Tatars sont toujours confrontés à des questions de propriété de la terre notamment.
La Russie a adopté en 1991 une loi de réhabilitation des peuples réprimés, qui accorde le droit à des indemnisations.
Vladimir Poutine s'était engagé à faire des gestes en faveur des Tatars de Crimée, communauté forte aujourd'hui d'environ 300.000 personnes, à la suite du rattachement de la péninsule à la Russie en mars.
Belga
http://www.rtbf.be/info/monde/detail_vladimir-poutine-rehabilite-par-decret-les-tatars-de-crimee?id=8252230
21/4/14