#Russia: Crimean Tatars’ leader to be honoured instead of disgraced?

On 13 September Rikard Jozwiak, the Radio Liberty reporter posted in his Twitter account: “Mustafa Dzhemilev (pictured) is one of the candidates for this year’s Sakharov prize.”. Jozwiak later said that EPP (European People’s Party) “will also nominate MD (Mustafa Dzhemilev) which means that he stands a pretty big chance of winning”. It looks like Dzhemilev, who has become persona non grata in Russia (including Crimea) is to be a so-called “epoch icon”. Should this happen, it can affect the diplomatic relations of the EU with Turkey as well as with Russia and will cause downturns in Europe, writes Olga Malik in an Opinion for EU Reporter.

So who is Mustafa Dzhamilev? A dissident and an activist, a Ukrainian parliamentary deputy and a member of PACE delegation, Dzhemilev is a self-proclaimed leader of the Crimean Tatar People “Mejlis”. Standing against Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, Dzhemilev “warned” Moscow saying that Crimea would have likely become the next Chechnya for Russia. He later suggested that NATO should immediately send its peacekeepers to Crimea and requested the Turkish President Erdogan to ban Russian ships from entering the Turkish sea channels. Yet, all the efforts of Dzhemilev were in vain and his warnings and activities were largely ignored not only by the US and Turkey, but also by his own supporters, the Crimean Tatars. Having spent the greatest part of his life in the USSR, Dzhemilev frequently broke the law; he was jailed more than 7 times and spent 17 years in prison in total.

Apart from his political and criminal past, Dzhemilev is a professional scammer who has turned Mejlis into a very profitable business. His public speeches and statements against the Russian annexation of Crimea were nothing more than a greedy desire to get more profit. In fact, Dzhemilev made Mejlis his own empire with the only emperor (himself) and it was practically impossible for Crimean Tataras to do business or even buy property without Dzhamilev’s approval. As the President of the non-governmental organization “Fund Crimea” and a senior partner of the “Imdat-Bank”, he was also a prime suspect for pulling funds from them and money laundering. The list of his financial adventures may go on.

Dzhamilev’s name is hardly known and heard in Europe. More than 90% of the EU citizens are not aware of who he is. However, awarding Dzhamilev with the Sakharov prize may cause diplomatic tensions between EU and Turkey and Russia. For example, the support of Dzhamilev by Ankara will not benefit for the Erdogan’s political course and will delay the Russia-Turkey warming up while the EU-Russia relations will again suffer a new crisis because of the Crimean dilemma.

Besides, according to the recent polls, most of Crimean Tatars agree that Dzhamilev is destroying the idea of the unity of Turkic nations. Indeed, he often causes tension between Crimean Tatars with other Turkic nations and set their interests apart. After all, is he really a prime nominee for this prestigious award?

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