Crimean Tatars Feel Abandoned by Russian Trade partner Turkey

Crimean Tatars Feel Abandoned by Russian Trade partner Turkey. (EurasiaNet).

Turkey has professed itself the steadfast defender of the Crimean Tatars’ minority rights, but, so far, that mission has not interfered with its interest in trade with Russia, its largest export-import partner.

The declarations of official concern continue, however. On a November 10 visit to Kyiv, Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Çavuşoğlu announced plans to send an unofficial monitoring mission to Crimea to investigate claims of human rights violations against the ethnic Crimean Tatar population.

The move is Ankara’s first concrete step to support the Crimean Tatars, who claim they have been repressed and silenced by the local, de-facto pro-Russian authorities in the months since Russia’s March annexation of the Ukrainian peninsula.

The entire Crimean Tatar population was deported under Soviet leader Josef Stalin to the steppes of Central Asia in 1944; as many as half perished during the arduous journey. About 300,000 returned to resettle in Crimea after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991, and most opposed Russia’s move to absorb the peninsula this spring.

Their opposition has not been tolerated. At least seven Crimean Tatar activists have “been forcibly disappeared or have gone missing” since May, Human Rights Watch said in an October report. Two other Crimean Tatars without apparent political ties have also gone missing and one was later found hanged, “contributing to the atmosphere of fear and hostility in Crimea for anyone who is pro-Ukraine, including Crimean Tatars,” the report said.

Mubeyyin Batu Altan, founder of the New York-based Crimean Tatar Research and Information Center, said that while the news of the Turkish fact-finding mission is welcome, many in the Crimean Tatar community feel abandoned because Turkey, which has long styled itself as the defender of the Tatar people, has not done more.

“We thought that Turkey would be a stronger supporter of the Crimean Tatars, but they do not want to jeopardize their billions and billions of dollars of business with Russia and they are not going to jeopardize this business because of a handful of Crimean Tatars,” Altan said. “And that is disappointing for us.”

In fact, while the United States and European Union have levied steadily increasing sanctions against Moscow for its annexation of Crimea and its support for rebel groups in eastern Ukraine, Turkey eagerly has pursued investment deals in Russian sectors ranging from agriculture to car parts, according to reporting done by this correspondent for Mergermarket.

One week after Russia, announced a one-year ban on Western food products this August, Turkish Economy Minister Nihat Zeybekci described Russia “as an opportunity for Turkey.”

“We should make this opportunity a strong, long-term, permanent and corporate one,” he said.

In September, as part of that “opportunity,” Turkish shoe producer Yakupoğlu Deri Sanayi inked a $100-million contract to provide boots for the Russian military. The same month, a Turkish exporters’ association announced tentative plans to nearly triple food exports to Russia to $3 billion by 2015.

Crimean Tatar activist Altan sees the blockbuster boot deal as a sign of where Turkey’s priorities lie.“Those Russian soldiers are wearing Turkish boots to kick and punish the Crimean Tatars,” he said. “From that point of view, Turkey cannot do anything different for us than the international community [can].”  Hmmmm......I Guess Religion isn't as tick as $ bundles, Islamist Turkey.....Defender of the faith as long money isn't involved. :) Read the full story here.