Crimean news 82.
(Mass Media review for 30 October - 4
November 2000).
Articles
are abridged.
Cross
on the Kamatra mount: to be or not to be?
Peoples'
"friendship" gets more and more tense.
Religious
leaders call to keep calm.
Ukrainian
parliament has considered the law draft about deportees' rehabilitation.
The
population in Crimea is dropping.
Seminar
for school principals.
Politics.
Cross on the
Kamatra mount: to be or not to be?
Crimean
peninsula dwellers have had an opportunity to observe the establishment of
monumental constructions like the symbol of Orthodox - the worship cross - in
many towns, villages and often just along the roads of Crimea.
Such a
wide-scale campaign is motivated by the significant Christian holiday - the
2000th anniversary of Christ's birth. In accordance with the Constitution,
Ukraine is a secular country, its government must not give a spur to the
dominants of one religion over others. Establishment of crosses everywhere in Crimea is taken by
representatives of other confessions as an attempt to thrust their religious
ideology on them. This was the reason for Crimean Mufti's leave from the
Inter-confessional council "Peace is the God's gift" in July, 2000.
But disputes continued.
On December 21,
1999, the executive committee of Kapskhor (Morskoye) village council passed a
decision to establish a memorial cross in honor of the 2000th anniversary of
Christ's birth. On October 25, 2000, a nine-meter long cross was established at
noon on the Kamatra mount near village Kapskhor. It was dismantled at 5 p.m.
That is how the opposition of one village residents began.
On October 26,
they held a meeting there. It accounted for 400 representatives of different
confessions. They elected representatives from Moslem and Christian religious
communities to prepare an address to the session of village council for
resolving this conflict.
On October 30,
they held a widened session of the village council. The address from the Moslem
community of Kapskhor village was promulgated. It, in particular, says that
"the cross established on the Kamatra mount is nothing but a way to cause
the fall out of religious people, and a wish to emphasize one religion but
neglect the other and ultimately, using peoples' poor knowledge of religion
make a kind of enemies from them. This is used to demonstrate that Crimea is
the cradle of Orthodox church… The Cross must be put over the temple".
Moslem community
has addressed to the village council asking to cancel the decision to establish
the cross on the Kamatra mount, calling to solve religious problems together in
order to avoid this kind of problems in the future. It believes that it is
necessary to put forward this issue to the discussion of Crimean Mufti*** and
Crimean eparchy of the Ukrainian Orthodox church of Moscow patriarchy****.
Later, father
Valentine read an address on the behalf of orthodox community, proposing a
compromise variant - to establish a symbol of Moslem religion next to the
cross.
Speeches, made
in the course of the session were of different character. They stated that
people who had dismantled the cross caused a considerable impact on feelings of
Christians. Others blamed Mejlis for all that happed. Some people demanded that
the guilty should be strictly punished. And still, there were some people
calling for peaces and agreement.
The village
council session has decided to temporarily stop the previous decision until
November 20 and find a compromise on this issue.
Leylya Alyadinova,
"Golos Kryma" ("The Voice of Crimea"), #45 (364), 3
November 2000, p.1.
Our information: * See "Crimean news
67" on this issue.
**Kapskhor village
(currently - Morskoye) is located near Sudak.
***Organization that unites
the Crimean Moslems.
****Organization that unites
the Orthodox Christians of Crimea and that is under the command of Moscow
patriarchy.
Peoples'
"friendship" gets more and more tense.
Outrage upon
memorials and sacred places still continues. We start to believe that someone
kindles interethnic opposition on a religious ground on purpose.
The Orthodox
Christians have lost their sacred thing in Kirovskoye: a wooden Worship cross
has been stolen. It is not possible to name the thief now due to lack of
evidence.
Though this is
not the only example of destroying a sacred place: unknown bandits broke 11
grave memorials in a Moslem graveyard a couple of weeks ago. A week later,
someone spilt a car oil on a stone sign, established near the train station.
Authorities are planning to build a memorial devoted to the victims of
deportation near this train station.
Criminal cases
have been brought against the bandits that caused the above-mentioned facts.
Svetlana Sergiyenko,
"Krymskaya Pravda" ("The Crimean Truth"), #202 (226165), 3 November
2000, p.1.
Religious
leaders call to keep calm.
On October 31, a
meeting devoted to the interethnic situation in Morskoye village was held in
the Council of Ministers of Crimea.
The meeting
conference participants have reached a mutual agreement that was necessary to
solve interethnic problems by means of law, by respecting current legislation
and peoples' religious traditions. They also stated that it was necessary to
find compromise solutions when necessary.
As to the
problem of a practical way out in village Morskoye, Simferopol and Crimean
archbishop Lazar* and the Mufti** of Crimean Moslems have reached a mutual
agreement that it was necessary to call people to keep calm and prevent
extremist actions. They will have to work out a decision (with participating of
Crimean state power representatives) that would take into account all the
Crimean peoples' traditions in order to avoid further flouting of sacred
places.
"Krymskoye vremya"
("The Crimean times"), #205 (1072), 3 November 2000, p.3.
Our information: *The head of Orthodox
Christians of Crimea.
**The head of Moslems of
Crimea.
Ukrainian
parliament has considered the law draft about deportees' rehabilitation.
Verkhovna Rada
of Ukraine has considered the governmental law draft "About rehabilitation
and providing rights to the national minorities that were deported from
Ukraine". It determines Ukraine's responsibility for providing rights of
above-mentioned people.
The project
proposes to rehabilitate all of these people and consider all the deportation
documents as unlawful. The document blames the actions of state organs of
former USSR which caused deportation of the Bulgarians, Armenians, Greeks,
Crimean Tatars, Germans, Polishes, Romanians and Hungarians from Ukraine.
Those who were
deported from Ukraine are given a right to return to the places they lived
before being deported.
The deportees
will have an opportunity to take part in the state-enterprise privatization
consistent with the law that will be asserted by the Cabinet of Ministers.
The document
envisages compensations for the losses they experienced during deportation.
In accordance
with the law about State budget-2000, 40 million grivnas have been envisaged
for this purpose. And a major part of that money is directed at measures
related to the returning of the Crimean Tatars to Ukraine.
Interfax-Ukraine,
"Krymskiye Izvestiya" ("The Crimean News"), #204 (2208), 3
November 2000, p.2.
Demography.
The
population in Crimea is dropping.
According to the
data provided by the Crimean statistics administration, the population of
Crimea (excluding Sevastopol) for October 1 made up 2104,1 thousand people. The
number is by 13,6 thousand smaller than it was nine months ago. And the
death-rate has reached an unbelievable number - 77,2%. The rest of people have
left Crimea for various reasons.
The birth-rate
has remained on the last-year level - 7,2 children for a thousand of dwellers
during the period from January to September. And the death-rate has increased
from 12,5 to 13,8 thousand people.
I.Kravchenko,
"Krymskaya Pravda" ("The Crimean truth"), #199 (22612), 31
November 2000, p.2.
Culture, education.
The history of
Crimean Tatar culture, depicted in the biographies of writers and poets of
different times is introduced in the book entitled "Kyrymtatar
edepleri". The collection - the result of a many-year work done by the
writer Zakir Kurtnezit - includes information about lives and activities of 134
literature activists.
The book begins
with the names of poets -Kefeliy, who lived on the threshold of the 10th
and 11th centuries, Mahmud Kyrymly (13th century), Gazaiy (16th
century)… Big gaps of time between them are empty. Their ancestors will make a
full research about all the rest of writers and poets in the future. The book
finishes with the names of contemporary writers and poets.
The collection
includes the names of not only writers and poets but journalists, i.e. those
who have contributed to development of the Crimean Tatar literature.
This is the
first time such a collection of Crimean Tatar literature has been released. And
it is not only aimed for students but for a wide range of readers as well.
Gulnara Useinova,
"Golos Kryma" ("The Voice of Crimea"), #45 (364), 3
November 2000, p.3.
Seminar for
school principals.
A seminar
devoted to the Crimean Tatar national schools' principals was held in Bulganak
Crimean Tatar national school on October 7-8. The principal of Bulganak
(currently Kolchugino) national school, Seitdzhemil Ibraimov came out with
information about his school.
After speeches
school principals shared their opinions and discussed the issues of education.
The Club of
school principals has recently been created for providing help to national
schools in resolving administrative problems. One of the main Club's goals is
to develop advices and recommendations of organization in the field of studying
process, and bringing-up process for national schools.
This seminar was
held owing to the material help of non-governmental organization
"Renaissance of Crimea" and its leader - Lyutfi Osmanov.
They are
planning to hold similar seminar for the assistants of school principals. It
will take place in Karasubazar (currently Belogorsk) Crimean Tatar national
school.
N.Reshitov,
"Kyrym" ("The Crimea"), #49 (597), 4 November 2000, p.8.