Dear delegates of the Congress of the League of Free Nations! Dear guests!
I represent here members of the League of Free Nations – the Government of Independent Tatarstan in exile and the All-Tatar Public Centre.
The Tatars are a nation with an ancient history and literature and a rich and beautiful language. Tatar statehood is more than a thousand years old. The Tatar people are the founders of the largest states of the Middle Ages – Volga Bulgaria, the Golden Horde, and the Kazan Khanate. Today, out of more than 7 million Tatars living in the world, more than 4 million Tatars live in the whole of Russia, and more than 2 million Tatars in the Republic of Tatarstan.
For 472 years, after the brutal and bloody capture of Kazan by Ivan the Terrible, Moscow never managed to completely assimilate the Tatar people but now we are facing an abyss that could lead to the disappearance of the Tatars as an ethnic group.
Therefore, we see one of our main goals as working to preserve our nation. This can only be achieved by realizing the “right of nations to self-determination” according to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous People. To achieve this goal and gain support from civilized countries in recognizing Tatarstan as a subject of international law, we are informing the international community about the catastrophic situation of the Tatars. We see the creation of an independent national state as the only possible condition for the survival of the Tatar nation.
Let us note the main points of the destruction of the statehood of the Tatar people:
On 30 August 1990, the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Tatarstan was adopted.
On 21 March 1992, a referendum was held on the state status of Tatarstan. To the question “Do you agree that the Republic of Tatarstan is a sovereign state, a subject of international law?” 61.4% of the citizens of the republic who took part in the voting responded positively. The legitimacy of the referendum results in the Republic of Tatarstan was confirmed by the US Helsinki Commission.
Based on the results of the referendum, the Supreme Council of Tatarstan adopted the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan on 6 November 1992. It was the Constitution of an independent state under Article 1 “The Republic of Tatarstan is a sovereign democratic state expressing the will and interests of the entire multinational people of the republic.”
But since 2002, the destruction of Tatarstan’s statehood began. Under pressure from Moscow, the 1992 Constitution of Tatarstan was illegally changed. In Article 1, the words “being a subject of the Russian Federation” appeared. Although changes to Article 1 can only be made through a referendum. That means, the results of the popular expression of the will of the 1992 referendum were destroyed. In fact, a coup d’état took place in Tatarstan. Russia became a unitary authoritarian state, an empire.
In 2007, Moscow unilaterally terminated the 1994 “Agreement on the Separation of Powers between the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tatarstan.” Instead, a decorative Treaty of 2007 was concluded.
In 2010, the State Duma of the Russian Federation adopted a law prohibiting the leaders of republics (states) from being called president.
In 2017, Moscow unilaterally terminated the 2007 Treaty.
In 2022, Moscow liquidated the Constitutional Court of the Republic of Tatarstan.
In January 2023, under pressure from Moscow, changes were made to the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan that allow us to talk about the complete destruction of the statehood of Tatarstan.
As a result of the great-power chauvinistic policy of the Moscow Kremlin to establish the dominance of the only state-forming nation – the “Russians” – there is an intensive reduction in the number of enslaved nations in Russia. So, for example, the number of Tatars in Russia decreased from 2010 to 2021 by 600 thousand people. The number of Tatars who speak the Tatar language has decreased by 1 million between 2010 – 2021. This is facilitated by the “expulsion” of the Tatar language from the social environment of society and the assignment of a “marginal position” narrative to national languages in comparison with the Russian language. Secondary education in the Tatar language has been destroyed. The Unified State Exam (USE) can only be taken in Russian.
In addition, in 2017, Moscow banned the compulsory study of national languages for 200 nations and nationalities, including the state Tatar language in Tatarstan.
According to the provisions of the Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan, Article 8: “The state languages in the Republic of Tatarstan are equal Tatar and Russian languages.” But in fact, one state language dominates in Tatarstan – Russian. Thus, the lack of support from Moscow for the preservation and development of national languages will lead to the complete dominance of the Russian language in all spheres of life and the assimilation of the Tatars into the Russian ethnic group, as has already happened with many nations in Russia.
On 24 February 2022, Russia began a full-scale, aggressive, criminal war against sovereign Ukraine. Every day, hundreds of our fellow Tatars die in the name of satisfying Russia’s imperial ambitions. It is officially recognized that 1,365 natives of Tatarstan died in the war. The true figure is many times higher. We assess this as genocide of the Tatar and other nations of the Russian Federation.
We believe that the Tatar people can be saved from complete destruction only if Tatarstan becomes a state, independent of imperial Moscow, which pursues a policy of forced assimilation and Russification of non-Russian people, unleashing a criminal war with Ukraine and pursuing a policy of genocide of the Ukrainian nation.
As a result of the August Revolution of 1991, 14 nations got rid of the empire and are building their own states. We are confident that the people of Tatarstan will be able to build a modern, inclusive, democratic and legal state. Self-determination of nations and the acquisition of Independence by our Republics is the last chance to preserve our nations and our identity, and ensure a decent life for our citizens in a democratic legal society.
