We were under Russian rule for two hundred years, and we have witnessed nothing but crimes against our people. The Crimean Tatars have encountered many injustices and Russia has never compensated your people for the losses connected with the deportations. For one, houses confiscated from the Tatars are still occupied by Russians and the privatization law permits them to become the lawful owners. Often, they go for large sums and in resort areas bought up by the nomenklatura. Meanwhile, the rightful owners, the Tatars, usually do not have the means to construct new housing and live in dugouts.
Unemployment is rampant among all nationality groups.
We have always understood the danger of ethnic conflict and tried to educate people that our conflict is not with the Crimean government has engaged in multiple attempts to provoke such conflicts. The civilians were put up front, followed by the militia, equipped with truncheons. We, on the other hand, have always tried to convince the local population that we are not their enemies, and many Russians understand now that they were being manipulated by the government. Civilian participants in the l989 pogrom on the tent city in the village of Degiermenkoj, near Alushta, have visited us recently and apologized. We came against you like dogs led on a leash they told us.