Good afternoon, dear colleagues, organizers and guests of this Round Table.
Today I will partially read the Declaration adopted in 2008 by the Milli Majlis (Parliament of the Tatar People) of the Tatar people, chaired by the Tatar writer, prominent public figure, human rights activist, candidate of historical sciences, well-known figure of the Tatar national movement and political opposition in Tatarstan Fauzia Bayramova, who was repeatedly sentenced to “suspended sentences” for the legitimate defence of the rights of the Tatar people, according to our Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan.
“For four hundred and seventy-three years now, the Tatars have been under the yoke of the most brutal human act – Russian colonialism. During this time, many rulers of Russia have changed in the persons of tsars, emperors, first secretaries, and presidents.
The social system has also undergone changes, including feudalism, capitalism, socialism, and others. Only one thing has remained unchanged: the policy of forced baptism, Russification, inhuman exploitation, and physical extermination of the Tatars through constant and targeted genocide.
If at the beginning of the eighteenth century, according to the census conducted by Peter I, Russians and Tatars were approximately five and a half million people, then at the end of the twentieth century, Russians became one hundred and twenty million, and the number of Tatars remained the same, five and a half million people.
At the end of the nineties, the Tatars, driven to the last despair, rose up to fight Russian colonialism and adopted a declaration of state sovereignty, held a referendum with the participation of foreign observers, during which more than sixty-one percent of the population of Tatarstan spoke out in favour of the state sovereignty of the republic.
In addition, Tatarstan refused to participate in the referendum on the approval of the current constitution of the Russian Federation (RF) and did not sign the federal treaty, thereby declaring its illegitimacy.
There are no agreements between Tatarstan and the Russian Federation on its inclusion in the latter.
The first president of the Russian Federation, B. Yeltsin, agreed that the Tatars would take as much independence as they were able to implement. However, this agreement, as always, turned out to be another trick of the Russian colonisers, aimed at deception and gaining time.
While the Russian Federation was forced to come to terms with the departure of 14 of its colonies from its domination, it categorically refused to recognise the independence of Tatarstan. It took even more cruel measures to destroy the basic rights of its people, including having their own elected body of representatives of the local legislative assembly and the president of the republic, replacing them with a viceroy and his administration appointed by the Kremlin.
Moreover, the Kremlin forbade the Tatars to have their own alphabet, forcibly imposing on them the Cyrillic alphabet, which is unsuitable for their language, and now forbids teaching Tatar children in their native language.”
And in the new reality, I will add to this Declaration:
There is a merciless robbery of Tatarstan’s natural resources. The Kremlin takes 85 percent of the profits from oil sales free of charge, which it uses in the war against Ukraine, and deprives the Tatars of their basic means of subsistence.
National activists and opposition activists are subjected to persecution, repression and imprisonment. The people of Tatarstan are mobilised for war and lured to war by very large payments for contracts, propaganda and lies about the enemies, “Ukrainians”.
But for four hundred and seventy-three years of occupation and daily pressure on the Tatars from all sides, Moscow has not managed to assimilate and enslave us entirely. To this day, we have not lost our identity code and there are those who remember and fight for the restoration of their statehood.
I express my deep gratitude to the analytical centre “Ukrainian Studios of Strategic Research” and the entire team of the Anti-Imperialist Block of Nations for supporting the peoples enslaved by Moscow and for the idea to write a book with true, not fictitious, stories of the liberation struggle of different peoples and regions. The translation of the book into English and its accessibility are an excellent impetus to reveal the true essence of Moscow to our current and potential English-speaking partners. The foundation has been laid, and we will work on the continuation.
Thank you!
For your and ours freedom!
Glory to Ukraine! Freedom for Tatarstan!”
