Crimea's Tatars pray for peace before referendum

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• published: 14 Mar 2014
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BAKHCHYSARAY, Ukraine, March 14, 2014 - SOUNDBITE (Russian): "Everything that's happening in Crimea at the moment, and particularly the referendum, it's just Russia playing poker to protect its interests." SOUNDBITE 2 (Russian): "The results of the referendum are already known, and we know they will be falsified. The Crimean Tatars won't vote." SOUNDBITE 3 (Russian): "The Muslims only fear one thing, God. Everything that happens on Earth is in accordance with him. Therefore if this referendum takes place, it's God's will." Crimean Tatars gathered Friday for prayers on Islam's holy day, with many voicing fears for the future ahead of a referendum Sunday expected to lead to closer ties with Moscow. At the main mosque in Bakhchysaray, the biggest Tatar settlement in Crimea, the Muslim ethnic group was urged to resist "provocations" ahead of a planned anti-referendum protest later on the outskirts of town. A similar demonstration was planned on Friday in Simferopol, the capital of Crimea, under the slogan "No to the illegal referendum!" -- following a decision by the Medzhlis, the Tatar parliament. A handful of trucks containing Russian forces were stationed on Bakhchysaray's main road out of the town on Friday morning. The Tatars, who are set to boycott Sunday's vote, are native to Crimea and were once the main ethnic on the peninsula but were deported en masse by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin during World War II. They only started returning after the end of the Cold War in the late 1980s and currently make up some 12 percent of Crimea's mostly Russian-speaking population of two million people. Speaking outside the 16th century Big Khan mosque, Haji Rasim Islam Settar Ogoli said he was praying for stability. "Only Allah knows what will happen -- we just want there to be peace," the 79-year-old said. "Ukrainians, Tatars, Russians are brothers here. We already saw a lot of things because we are old and we want to live in peace." Rasim, 83, said he felt unsafe due to the presence of Russian forces around the town. "How can you feel with armed people around? You don't expect something good," he added. "We're surrounded by the army so what can we do about it?" The mosque's imam declined to speak to reporters, citing safety fears, but people speaking after prayers said he had urged them to remain peaceful. "He said to look out for provocations and take care of our families," said Hasan, 26. "We were told not to follow provocations because this referendum is illegal." Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev urged NATO to intervene in Crimea to avert a "massacre" and called on the Tatars to boycott the upcoming referendum in an interview on Thursday. "If other measures do not work, then NATO should intervene like in Kosovo," Dzhemilev said in a phone interview from Brussels, where he was due to meet NATO's deputy secretary general Alexander Vershbow later on Friday. NATO intervention "usually only happens when there is a massacre, we want it to happen before there is a massacre," said Dzhemilev, currently a lawmaker in Kiev who spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin in a phone call earlier this week. "I told him that we would not wage war against Russia but that we would struggle for the territorial integrity of our country," he said. Dzhemilev also criticised inaction in the West, saying: "We haven't seen any serious steps from the West". In Bakhchysaray, the old Tatar capital of Crimea, a van blasting out a pro-Russian song and emblazoned with a slogan urging people to vote for "peace and prosperity" in the referendum drove past the mosque shortly before prayers began.