{"id":7278,"date":"2008-11-15T00:57:36","date_gmt":"2008-11-14T21:57:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/?p=7278"},"modified":"2008-11-15T00:57:36","modified_gmt":"2008-11-14T21:57:36","slug":"mustafa-jemilev-observes-his-65th-birthday","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/2008\/11\/15\/mustafa-jemilev-observes-his-65th-birthday\/","title":{"rendered":"Mustafa Jemilev Observes His 65th Birthday"},"content":{"rendered":"

The recognized leader of Crimean Tatars<\/span>, Mustafa Jemilev observed his 65th
\nbirthday<\/span> yesterday.<\/p>\n

Born in Crimea on 13 November 1943, he was only six months old when his
\nfamily and the rest of the Crimean Tatar population<\/span> were deported by Soviet
\nauthorities in May 1944. His family lived in a special settlement camp in
\nUzbekistan<\/span> until 1956, when tight restrictions were relaxed. At the age of
\n18, he and several of his activist friends established the Union of Young
\nCrimean Tatars. His first arrest came in 1966, when he was sentenced for
\nrefusing to serve in the Soviet Army<\/span>.<\/p>\n

A well-known Soviet dissident, He spent almost one fourth of his life in
\nSoviet prisons and labor camps<\/span>. He is also remembered for staging the
\nlongest hunger strike<\/span> in the history of human rights movement. The hunger
\nstrike<\/span>, which lasted for 303 days (but he survived due to forced feeding),
\ndrew world’s attention to the predicament of Crimean Tatars.<\/p>\n

In 1986, as Jemilev was completing his sixth prison term in a hard-labor
\ncamp, he was charged and tried for anti-Soviet activities once again. During
\nthe summit held by Mikhail Gorbachev<\/span> and Ronald Reagan<\/span>, however, the
\nAmerican President<\/span> asked for the release of five political prisoners<\/span> as part
\nof the negotiations. Jemilev was one of those prisoners and he was released
\nwith the condition that he refrain from any political activity.<\/p>\n

In May 1989, he was elected to head the Crimean Tatar<\/span> National Movement.
\nThat year he returned to Crimea with his family, a move that would be
\nfollowed by the eventual return of 250,000 Tatars<\/span> to their homeland. He is
\ncurrently serving as a member of the Ukrainian Parliament (Kyiv) and as
\nChairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis (Simferopol<\/span>) .<\/p>\n

Jemilev received the Nansen Medal, awarded by the United Nations High
\nCommissioner for Refugees<\/span> for his persistent efforts and commitment to
\ndefend the rights of Crimean Tatars to repatriate. The Crimean Tatar
\nleadership has always sought to solve conflicts by non-violent means. In an
\ninterview Jemilev gave shortly after receiving the Nansen Medal in October
\n1998, he stated that “when violent means are used innocent people die, and
\nno just cause can justify the taking of innocent lives.”<\/p>\n

We extend our birthday greetings<\/span> to Mustafa Jemilev and our best wishes for
\na long, healthy and successful life.<\/p>\n

Inci Bowman, Ph.D.
\nInternational Committee for Crimea
\nWashington, DC<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The recognized leader of Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Jemilev observed his 65th birthday yesterday. Born in Crimea on 13 November 1943, he was only six months old when his family and the rest of the Crimean Tatar population were deported by Soviet authorities in May 1944. His family lived in a special settlement camp in Uzbekistan […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":83,"featured_media":179182,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[783],"tags":[444],"class_list":["post-7278","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-ukraine-eastern-europe-english","tag-crimean-tatars"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7278","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/83"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=7278"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/7278\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/179182"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=7278"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=7278"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.turkishnews.com\/en\/content\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=7278"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}