Petition on violations of human rights of Tatars in Russian Federation

Dear Sir/Madam,

I would like to draw your attention to the unfortunate treatment that Tatars are subjected to by the current government of the Russian Federation.

Tatarstan today, just as is was historically, represents an unique precedent of religious tolerance between representatives of all faiths, stemming from a centuries-long history. Morevoer, it is estimated that about 7% of Tatars both inside and outside Tatarstan are Christians. While most of them were converted under the threat of loss of life, or deprivation of property and status, Tatars in general reject the notion proposed by the Russian government of separating Tatars into separate "ethnic" groups on the basis of religion (an idea that sounds paradoxical even to mention) and to "fix" this with the upcoming census. Along with this "ethnic division by religion", the rest of Tatars are supposed to be split into 4 more groups. We hope for the civilized world to influence Russia to stop such practices that could be called "intra-ethnic separatism". Please refer to http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tatar-l/message/3295 and http://groups.yahoo.com/group/tatar-l/message/3274 for more information on the reasons behind this intra-ethnic separatism and average Tatars' and scholars' reaction to it.

Tatarstan has gone through a democratic, bottom-up nation-building process and has legitimately established itself "as a sovereign state associated with the Russian Federation on the basis of mutually beneficial bilateral agreements". The following constitute the pillars of Tatarstan's statehood: 1. Declaration of sovereignty of 1990 (Idil-Ural democratic republic crushed in 1918 could be considered the predecessor of Tatarstan, although Tatarstan was formed by the communists only on a small fraction of former Idil-Ural, leaving most Tatars beyond the borders of Tatarstan). 2. Constitution of Tatarstan of 1992 (accepted by the democratically elected parliament of the republic). 3. Referendum of 1994 (which was observed by international observers and in which some 84% of population participated and some 63% of population affirmed that "Tatarstan is a sovereign state based on the law system, associated with the Russian Federation on the basis of mutually beneficial bilateral agreements". 4. In confirmance with all of the above, Tatarstan signed a bilateral agreement with government of the Russian Federation on the deliniation of jurisdictions and delegation of authorities (1994).

All these democratic and authoritative events establish Tatarstan as a sovereign state freely associated with the Russian Federation. Unfortunately, the Russian Federation government has been violating the will of Tatarstan's people ever since Putin became president. We hope that the international community could influence Russia so that the will of the multiethnic people of Tatarstan (Tatarstan population consists of Tatars, Russians, Chuvashs, Maris, Udmurts, and representatives of about a 100 other ethnic groups) prevails.

The treatment of Tatars in Bashqortostan, which is happening with the condoning and perhaps even in direct collaboration with the current Russian government (via their representatives), can only arose sorrow. Tatars are deprived of the right to have any social, even non-political, organizations that carry "Tatar" as part of their name. There are explicit attempts to convert Tatars into Bashqorts. This treatment evokes memories of Nazi Germany, communist Bulgaria, and racism in South Africa, condemned by the entire world and the modern governments of those countries. Tatars and Bashqorts are kindred nations and our languages are 95+% the same, and it is with great sorrow that I as a Tatar have to bring this to people's attention.

There have also been reports of beatings of Tatar political activists and prevention of their democratic activity.

Tatars have given the second-largest number of martyrs in the fight against fascism during WW2. Most material blessings bestowed on Tatarstan have been taken away by Moscow rulers (amounts estimated in excess of $100B), with the exception of a 5-year period when the bilateral agreement was observed by the Russian government). Starting from 2002, equivalent of about $10B of Tatarstanis' taxes will be taken away to Moscow annually. And Tatarstani (and Bashqortostani) governments are planning to issue loans to cover the ensuing "budget deficits". Tatar alphabet has been changed 5 times within one century. It was thanked by closing all Tatar schools during communist rule, and by slow cultural genocide leading to almost dead language and culture in general. Even these days, there were attempts by the Russian government to prevent the nation from exercizing such a basic non-political right as the right to choose the nation's alphabet, which went as far as falsifying Tatar dignatories' signitures and producing a fake letter against the switch to Latin alphabet (this fact was established by some of those dignatories rejecting the allegation that they had signed the letter; some were allegedly forced to).

Tatars are one of the nations that suffered the most from injustice over centuries. Self-administration, democracy, and freedom are the deepest dreams Tatars have as a nation. Tatars want to be a free member of a free world.