MINELRES: RFE/RL: Tatars Form National Front in Bashkortostan

[MINELRES moderator]

Original sender: RFE/RL <listmanager@list.rferl.org> 


RFE/RL Russian Political Weekly
Vol. 3, No. 22, 4 June 2003

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TATARS FORM NATIONAL FRONT IN BASHKORTOSTAN. The Tatarstan
National Front was created on 1 June in Ufa, Bashkortostan, at the
congress of Tatar organizations, RFE/RL's Ufa correspondent
reported. According to the correspondent, the organization will seek
to protect Tatar rights in the republic of Bashkortostan and organize
Tatar votes for this year's State Duma and republican
presidential elections, both of which are scheduled for December.
Also discussed at the meeting was the possible re-examination of the
results of the census conducted last year, in which a large number of
ethnic Tatars were reportedly identified as being Bashkir,
"Izvestiya" reported on 2 June (see "RFE/RL Newsline," 11 October and
6 December 2002). According to the 1989 census, 28.4 percent of
Bashkortostan's residents were Tatars and 21.9 percent Bashkirs.
JAC

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