Crimean Tatars Ask Putin Not to Pass Education Law

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The draft law on education violates both the Constitutions of Crimea and Russia, depriving Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians of right to the free choice of their language, and potentially destabilizing the situation in Crimea.

Krym.Realii [Radio Liberty’s Crimean service] reports that the Crimean Tatar National Movement sent another appeal to the leadership of the Russian Federation, including to President Vladimir Putin, asking to prevent the adoption of the draft law “On Education”.

The bill will be considered on May 20 by the State Council of Crimea.

The appeal states that “the draft does not account for the equal status of Crimean Tatar, Russian, and Ukrainian as state languages in the Republic of Crimea, and thus violates Article 10 of the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea.” Additionally, the document, according to Crimean Tatars, also violates the Russian Constitution, which states that republics have the right to establish their own state languages.

It is notable that the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea declares three official languages – Crimean Tatar, Russian, and Ukrainian, and education should therefore be carried out in these three languages.

The authors point out that one of the articles of the draft law “deprives Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Crimea of the constitutional right to freely choose their language of communication, upbringing, education, and creative work.” Activists believe that the adoption of the document will be “a source of acute social problems that can destabilize and cause the situation in the socio-political and socio-economic spheres in Crimea to explode.”

The Crimean Tatar National Movement has twice sent similar appeals which have gone unanswered by the occupation government.

An earlier report by the Ukrainian Parliament Commissioner for Human Rights stated that, a year after the occupation began in Crimea, only a sixth of the children who had previously studied in the Ukrainian language continue to do so and the number of Ukrainian-language schools has decreased from seven to two.