A prominent Tatar journalist says she was warned by Crimean prosecutors over “extremist” views for writing about the plight of Tatar children whose parents were arrested.
Lilia Budzhurova, deputy director of the Crimean Tatar channel ATR and a contributor to AFP, posted the warning from the Russia-annexed peninsula’s authorities on Facebook on May 31.
Budzhurova spoke out against the increasing arrests of Crimean Tatars and wrote an appeal for children of the detained.
“Soon Crimean Tatars will be caught in the streets, on public transport, and at the markets. We’re less than a step away from being forced to wear a yellow band on our sleeves, to differentiate us,” she wrote on Facebook in April.
She wrote last week that 18 Tatars had been jailed.
“Most of those now in prison have children who are minors,” she said, proposing the creation of a fund to support them.
Crimean Tatars are a Muslim minority on the Black Sea peninsula, a Turkic people who were deported by Russia during the Stalin era.
Most opposed the controversial vote in March 2014 for annexation by Russia. Moscow has overseen the crackdown on Crimean Tatar leaders since then.
