Mustafa Djemilev, Chairman of the Crimean Tartar Mejlis, warns that the peninsula may well turn into another Chechnya. According to him, Russian businessmen are buying up land right and left; they hire Russian-speaking thugs to assault Crimean Tartar returnees who squat the sold land. “We have come to the brink. We have organized attacks on the Tartars. It is time to form paramilitary units to resist Russian ‘Cossacks’ and other gangs,” Djemilev said in Lviv where he was awarded a local magazine’s prize. He said he had vetoed the Mejlis resolution on forming self-defense units, explaining that it would have led to “another Chechnya”. He warned that the situation might get out of control if authorities do not react to the violence and the Tartars took up arms.

A few days later Djemilev said at a press conference in Kyiv, “It would be wrong to compare the situation in Crimea with that in Chechnya because the Crimean Tartars have never wanted to separate from Ukraine. We have problems with Crimean authorities, not the central government.”

Although the Crimean Tartar leader lays the blame on local authorities, the Mejlis obviously intend to resort to unlawful means in defending the returnees’ lawful rights – namely, by “forming paramilitary units”. The Mejlis had threatened local and central authorities with forming paramilitary self-defense units before, but it was the first time that the decision was passed. Djemilev vetoed it immediately and the Kurultai [national assembly of Crimean Tartars – supreme representative body – A.B.] did not even consider this issue. However, further attempts are very likely. According to some sources, Mejlis leaders are already studying the statutes of Russian Cossack organizations – evidently, in order to set up a similar one. However, if the Justice Ministry denied registration of “a public association founded to promote patriotic education”, it would be proof of double standards.

Crimean Cossack units, registered as public organizations, act as security squads hired by businessmen and politicians for “warranted” seizures of property. They turn up wherever there are clashes with returnees (as in Simeiz, Simferopol, and Bahchisarai). Ataman Sergey Yurchenko, who chairs the Bahchisarai City Council’s interethnic commission, sees no violations of the statute. “We were not wearing the uniform. We were acting as civilian citizens, not as Cossacks.”

Is it right to fight a negative phenomenon by creating its replica? The root of clashes between Crimean Tartar returnees and Cossacks lies in corruption and the desire of certain individuals to disguise their business and political interests in “interethnic conflicts”. Besides, the Mejlis is obviously unable to keep such paramilitary units under control.

On the other hand, Crimean authorities are threatening a new “bulldozer war”. Last week the Crimean government set a date of demolishing houses built on land occupied by squatters in Sudak, but MP Boris Deich intervened and prevented the operation. Crimean Vice Speaker Sergey Tsekov lashed out with an irate statement: “The former leaders of the Crimean Parliament, who are now members of the Verkhovna Rada and have an in with the central government and the presidential administration, try to meddle in the fight against squatters, preventing us from solving this problem by legal means. We state categorically that Crimean authorities will defy such attempts. We will free all land plots occupied by squatters in all parts of the peninsula, and if we have to use bulldozers, we will use them.”

It all began when authorities tried to tear down a house built seven years ago by Pavel Litvinov, an ordinary resident of Sudak whose family was too big for his tiny one-room flat. The house stands on unstable ground and the Sudak mayor insists on demolishing it in order to prevent a grave landslide accident. There are five thousand families queuing up for land plots in Sudak and there are houses built on 165 hectares of land occupied by squatters…

The hysterical reaction of the Crimean authorities proves that the failed demolition of Litivinov’s house was just a part of large-scale plans. Crimean land has become exorbitantly expensive: the market price of a 0.8 ha plot in prestigious districts of Simferopol is $125,000 and plots of the same size where Tartar returnees have built their houses cost $90,000. Despite their vehement resistance, authorities promise to demolish their houses by January.

MP Refat Chubarov insists on extraordinary administrative measures. He proposes to set up a special governmental commission that would monitor the situation in Crimea and deal with violations in cooperation with the Prosecutor Generals Office. However, measures like this can hardly help as long as the price of land – the key underlying reason – keeps growing.

It is still possible to solve the problem without waiting for the central government’s decisions, but first it is necessary to stop scaring people with threats of “another Chechnya” and continue with routine work – exactly what ordinary people need.

In 1989, after authorities lost the first bulldozer war, Crimean Tartar returnees were granted their land property rights. The Crimean government had to legalize land plots occupied by squatters and adopt a state program which provided building cottage settlements in areas of their residence. The measure proved effective at first, but now it does not work. Moreover, this policy is nearsighted, at least because the Tartars who squat violate other people’s lawful property rights. And those who say that there is no other way are wrong.

There is a simple explanation to the problem of squatting: inaction of local authorities. Applications for land plot allotment have been shelved for years. What should people do? The legal way is to file a lawsuit, referring to Article 118 of the Land Code of Ukraine. Daniil Stadnik, department chief of the Crimean Prosecutor Office, says he knows about 500 court rulings in favor of plaintiffs who sued local authorities for delayed consideration of their applications. Some of them even involved land plots in expensive coastal areas. In reply to the question how many suits have been filed by Crimean Tartars against local authorities for non-consideration of their applications, Mejlis members remembered only one.

Of course, the Ukrainian judiciary is far from perfect, but this is a different case: nobody sues local authorities for inaction! Besides, there is the huge and successful experience of the Mejlis and Crimean Tartar public organizations in legal assistance to Crimean Tartar returnees in reinstituting their citizenship. Why not use this experience in defending their rights? Naturally, it is much easier to stage rallies, block roads, or simply occupy land. But if Crimean Tartars acted legally authorities would be disarmed and the general public attitude to the claimants would be entirely different.

There is another important aspect of the matter: impunity of the officials who shelve land plot allotment applications for years. When inspectors find hundreds of unconsidered applications pigeonholed in their offices, they only get a slap on the wrist – a reprimand or some other disciplinary punishment…

Paragraph 367 of the Criminal Code of Ukraine defines negligence in office as “non-fulfillment or improper fulfillment by an official of his/her duties which harms the legal rights, freedoms, and interests of individual citizens, state or public interests, or interests of legal entities”. However, no legal action has been taken on a single official in Crimea under this paragraph.

According to Daniil Stadnik, it is almost impossible to prove in court that an official’s inaction has “harmed the legal rights, freedoms, and interests of individual citizens”. That is why, he says, a person, whose application for a land plot has been shelved for years who turns to a local court, will be turned down. But no one has ever even tried!

The Mejlis complains that there are too few Crimean Tartars in the republican and local bodies of authority. But why measure effective representation by the number of seats? Why hasn’t a single representative of the Mejlis in the Crimean government ever objected to any dubious decision on land issues? Why hasn’t a single Crimean Tartar representative made public abusive decisions passed by local councils? Why hasn’t a single member of a local council held a press conference to disclose the facts of pigeonholing?

While politicians are making loud statements, members of local self-governments, who are supposed to represent and defend the rights and interests of Crimean Tartar returnees and who have access to documents, keep them hidden from public view. It is high time for the Mejlis to start applying legal methods. Otherwise, Crimea may well turn into another Chechnya.