Strasbourg 5 April 2000 Dear Ladies and Gentlemen! The Autonomous Republic of Crimea is located on the Crimean peninsula within Ukraine. It was and remains one of the few regions in the world, in which various states concentrate (or focus) their geopolitical, geostrategic, economic and confessional interests. Therefore, it seems that regional issues can at any time develop into international, geopolitical problems. Many national groups have lived in Crimea during its centuries-long history. Therefore, "solutions" to national questions among the existing groups in Crimea that give special rights to one or several of them are impermissible and objectively impossible. Such issues include those relating to Indigenous Peoples, national-territorial autonomy, quotas, the status of the Mejlis as the Representative Body of the Crimean Tatars, and others. Crimea is a multinational region in which all the national groups living there are to have equal rights under the bright Crimean sun. During past centuries many migrating peoples passed through or settled in Crimea. It was also the connecting link in historical trade routes between West Europe and Asia. And today, the destinies and cultures of many European and Eastern national groups cross the peninsula. Crimea is already well known throughout Europe by its unique experience in solving the problems of formerly deported peoples and their descendants, when they returned seeking permanent residence in the ARC. First among these has been the Crimean Tatars. The Constitution of the ARC was approved due to the joint efforts of the President of Ukraine and the Parliaments of Ukraine and the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. This constitution states that national autonomy is an integral component of Ukraine. This means Ukraine is founded on the territorial principle rather than on the basis of ethnic nationalities. This includes the principle of equality of all national cultures in the ARC as well. The constitution solved the question of using alongside Ukrainian, as an official language, also the Russian, Crimean Tatar and other national languages. The Constitution takes into account these regional ethnic features by providing for the issuance of all normative-legal acts by the authorities of the ARC in three languages: Ukrainian, Russian and Crimean Tatar. These include official documents verifying the status of citizens. The Constitution of the ARC, as does Article 53 of the Constitution of Ukraine, provides a guarantee of the right for education in native languages in preschool establishments, for study and training in the educational institutions owned by the state, republics and municipalities, or through national-cultural societies, and for study in other institutions defined by order of the legislation of Ukraine and the normative-legal acts of the Supreme Council of the ARC. The Constitution of the ARC provides and guarantees the broadest rights for using and developing national cultures. Actually, the rights for realization of national-cultural autonomy are firmly established. It is my deep belief that the unique legal basis for realizing the national-cultural interests of all citizens of different nationalities has already been established. Thus the State Supreme Legislative Body already solved the more complicated geopolitical problem when it adopted the Constitution of the ARC, which created the conditions for creative activity of Crimeans, and, in particular, the solution of the issue of deportees. We precisely realize that the problems of integration of the repatriates and the situation of international relations are the major factors defining the political and economic stability within the peninsula. Thus we hold the principle that all problems can be solved only on the basis of the Constitutions of Ukraine and Crimea. Currently, about 260,000 Crimean Tatars and 13,000 Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Germans have returned to the ARC. They constitute 12 percent of the Crimean population. Almost 225,000 (85.5 percent) of these formerly deported peoples and their descendants have obtained Ukrainian citizenship. About 30 percent of them live in cities and more than 70 percent in villages. Demographic analysis shows that of the repatriates adults constitute about 68 percent and children of school or preschool age about 32 percent. The state is to increase its attention to repatriates, who are to receive really equal possibilities in the economic and social spheres of life. The action Program of the CIS countries, accepted in Geneva in May 1996, states this. Unfortunately, we should note now that many high-priority issues related to integration of the formerly deported peoples and their descendants into Ukrainian society during conditions of economic transformation remain unsettled. Reclamation of populated territories by the formerly deported peoples has been conducted spontaneously, without appropriate attention to the conditions of their further life or the socioeconomic consequences. The repatriates, living, as a rule, in almost 300 compact, detached communities, frequently suffer increasingly aggravated economic difficulties within the context of general problems. Currently half of them have no housing. Many live in temporary buildings. Over 11,000 families stand in the queue for housing. And 6,500 persons (mainly in resort cities) wait to receive land allotments for construction of individual houses. In addition, the majority of repatriates who began to construct their own houses cannot complete them because of the repeated increases in the price of building materials and other economic dislocations during the last years. The situation in the labour market is serious. Of employable-age Crimean Tatars, about 60 percent are unemployed and cannot compete equally with other nationality groups for jobs. The most serious situation remains in the repatriates' compact settlements, which practically lack a social infrastructure such as roads. Only to finish the public works to provide electricity and water will require state investments in the size of 10 mln, 690 thousand dollars. Due to such difficult living conditions special concern is drawn to the implacable growth of diseases among the repatriates, in particular among children, retirees and invalids. The level of diseases such as tuberculosis crawfish (I don't know what this disease is and will ask my partner for a better translation), and illnesses of the blood and blood organs significantly exceed the average statistics in the ARC. Even partial payment for services and medicines, as introduced by the state, is backbreaking for the majority of families. More recently, acute problems have emerged among the stateless-deported persons in a number of districts and cities of the ARC during land reform and privatization. The collapse of the USSR caused all the complex of problems connected with returning and settling the formerly deported persons and their descendants to be transferred to Ukraine. The Ukrainian state now has to attempt to solve them practically alone, without the financial support of the States from which the formerly deported people and their families are returning. The financial possibilities of Ukraine experiencing a sharp economic crisis are limited. Year in year out, the budgetary allocations on repatriates' settlement are reduced. In 1991-1999 the State allocated only 64,18 mln dollars, for the most important projects (tasks) of housing and municipal construction. As a result, many of these construction projects are not completed. To solve the critical situation of these projects alone it will be necessary to allocate about 20 mln dollars The State budget of Ukraine shows the following financing for the settlement of deportees. In 1996, out of the 6.5 mln dollars planned only 5.1 mln was allocated In 1997, out of the 8.5 mln dollars planned only 6.9 mln was allocated In 1998, out of 3.1 mln dollars planned only 800 thousand was allocated In 1999, out of 6.5 mln dollars planned only 4.1 mln was allocated. In 2000 the plan provides 6.55 mln dollars. And the fact is that this is not due to subjective reasons or the economy. What we lack is a single, purposeful, long-term, conceptual State program for the organized return and socio- economic integration of the formerly deported persons and their descendants into Ukrainian society. At the same time, the concept of a state national policy is necessary for Ukraine today. On this basis it will be possible to solve all the complicated rehabilitation and integration issues of repatriates. In 2000 the republican Program on settlement and socio-cultural development of the deported citizens will be accomplished out of the ARC budget. For the first time in many years 2.09 mln dollars is allocated for these purposes. The program will be fully financed and realized. According to experts' calculations, settlement of repatriates who have already returned to Crimea will require 1.5 billion grivnas or 272.7 mln dollars. The question of international financial support for repatriates remains an extremely acute issue, despite the present positive changes in work toward a solution of their problems and the assistance on the part of UNHCR, IOM, the International Renaissance Foundation, and other NGO's and foundations. Currently the condition of limited resources creates the danger of confrontation and increasing ethno-political tension, first of all, between the non-legitimate Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and its structures and the local autonomous representative and executive authorities and bodies. The leadership of the Mejlis, uses the high potential for opposition of the Crimean Tatar population, and the factor of the insufficient involvement of the repatriates in the active process of state construction to act outside the legal field of Ukraine. Last month it again strengthened the destructive methods of struggle by one-sided demands and the threat of realizing and conducting civil disobedience actions. The realization of these intentions can provoke the next aggravation of inter-ethnic relations and the ethno-political situation in the region. It can create political destabilization and create a threat to the safety of the Ukrainian state as a whole. The existing latent conflict, if it develops negatively, can result in a serious geopolitical crisis. What is written above, in our opinion, rather demonstratively testifies to:
The favorable possibility for a reduction of the ethno-political tension can be created, if the conflicting parties will use international experience and law. I insistently ask the international, including European voluntary and financial institutions, to give concrete and significant financial help for the solution of the socioeconomic problems of the repatriates. I think the calmness of Crimea is the calmness of Ukraine. The calmness of Ukraine is the calmness of Europe. This can be developed in a positive direction or a negative one. In this connection, I would like to express my gratitude to the management of the Committee on Migration, Refugees and Demography of PACE for giving me the possibility to express the opinion of the Supreme Representative Body of the ARC - the Parliament - on the debated issue. Let the slogan of the International Parliament "Everyone's experience is common property" become your and our guidebook. Moreover, this conforms to the slogan written on the Blazon of the ARC: "Prosperity in unity". I sincerely wish prosperity for all of us. Thank you for attention. |
