Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar: part 2
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Date: Thu, 3 Dec 1998 19:43:25 +0200 (EET)
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Subject: Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar: part 2
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Original sender: Alexander Ossipov <[email protected]>
Meskhetian Turks in Krasnodar: part 2
MESKHETIAN TURKS IN KRASNODAR TERRITORY IN 1998: NO PROGRESS, NEW
PROBLEMS
Newsletter No.3, (continuation)
Alexander Ossipov,
programme manager,
The 'Memorial' Human Rights Centre,
Moscow, Russia
4. Evictions to Turkey
In May the Krasnodar regional government launched the campaign aimed
at resettlement of the Meskhetian Turks to Turkey. Those who declare
their willingness to emigrate and submit respective applications to
the local authorities, are being allowed to sell their dwellings to
the local authorities (which receive funds for that from the Federal
Migration Service and later resell the houses) and to obtain Soviet
external passports which enable their holder to leave Russia. These
passports are being issued with significant violations of the law,
their term of validity is 1 year (instead of 5 years, envisaged by the
law), they have stamps which certify that passport holders are not
Russian citisens. To get them Turks have to yield their internal
passports and other personal documents. Thus, everything is being done
to prevent these persons from return back to Russia.
We discovered that this operation had been approved by the federal
MIA. This ministry in 1993 in accordance with governmental decree
elaborated and implemented a mechanism which enabled Russian
authorities to get rid of those whom they considered to be illegally
residing stateless persons without documents. I.e., police received
the right to determine who was a non-citizen, who was a stateless
person and then to resettle them 'voluntarily' abroad. This mechanism
was used in this case.
At least 20 Meskhetian households left the Krymsk district of the
Krasnodar Krai for Turkey in July 1998 and another 70 households have
been announced to do so shortly. There are no agreements between
Turkey and Russia on this matter. The Turks enter Turkey with tourist
vouchers, and when the latter expire (in 1 month) they virtually
become illegal immigrants. Fortunately, the Turkish government does
not persecute migrants of Turkic origin, and they have a perspective
of getting residence permit and later citizenship.
Needless to say that this resettlement cannot be considered voluntary.
Authorities create unbearable conditions of leaving for the
Meskhetians: they have to pass through frequent and humiliating
registration procedures and to pay large sums of money for that, they
are subjected to regular and also humiliating 'passport checks', they
have to pay different fines, they cannot be legally employed, they are
not allowed to officially register and thus purchase or sell dwellings
and vehicles, their marriages are not officially recognised, they are
not protected by police from racially motivated violent actions, they
live under strong psychological pressure etc.
5. Strange manoeuvres of the regional administration
The governor adopted the Decree No. 511 of 10 September, which allowed
Directorate of Internal Affairs to provide the Meskhetians with
residence permits (propiska) for 1 year. If it had been carried out
into practice, it would make the life of Meskhetians a bit easier. On
24 September this decision was abolished by the Decree No. 555 of 24
September, and no one Meskhetian got this one-year registration. The
both decrees were not officially published.
What were the reasons for this performance? There are at least three
versions: the Krasnodar governor wanted to calm down the Prosecutor
General the day before a large meeting of the regional public
prosecutors devoted to the migration-related matters; it was a
demonstration of good will to the revived governmental commission on
the Meskhetian Turks; it was a demonstration to the Hague
international consultative meeting on the Meskhetian problems (see
below) which took place on 7-10 September, that means that the
Krasnodar administration confused the dates. Anyway, this episode had
no consequences.
Simultaneously, some new methods have been used against Meskhetians
within the last two months. Usually those Turks who had their personal
documents (passports, drivers licenses) damaged, lost or stolen, were
not allowed to restore them. According to the information of the
'Vatan' society, within the last two months some Meskhetians got some
'Temporary Certificates of Non-citizens', i.e. police is actually
using the right to determine who is Russian citizen and who is not. A
Moscow newspaper 'Komsomolskaya pravda' (12 November) told about one
man, a resident of Yaroslavl (a city in the central Russia) and
Russian national, who had received such certificate after being left
in Krasnodar without personal documents. The 'Memorial' Human Rights
Centre was also told by 'Vatan' that some Meskhetian parents received
birth certificates for their newly born kids with the 'non-citizen'
stamps. Even if one admit for a second, that Meskhetians are stateless
persons, certificates of this kind would be a rigid violation of the
Russian law on citizenship (save Convention of Children Rights).
(to be continued)
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