Armed Russian security officers search houses of Crimean Tatars in Crimea

This morning the officers of the Federal Security Service of Russia (FSB) have conducted searches in the houses of the Crimean Tatars in Strohanivka village and Kamyanka suburbs of Simferopol city.

Journalist of Crimean Tatar ATR TV channel Shevket Namatullayev posted this on his Facebook page.

“They look for another ‘terrorists.’ By the way, the people, whose houses are searched, have recently returned from Hajj. Dozens of riot police officers with machine guns and prison buses are here to intimidate and put psychological pressure! Neighbors and relatives are not allowed to approach the searched houses, officers have their own witnesses,” he wrote.

According to Namatullayev, the mother of a man, whose house was being searched, felt badly after the riot police officers had been pushing her and preventing her from entering the house. Moreover, the officers were long prevented the doctors from an ambulance from examining the woman.

As Zair Smedlyayev, the Head of the CEC of Crimean Tatars’ Kurultai, posted later on his Facebook page, after Rustem Ismailov had been searched, the security forces went to the house of his father.

Currently, Russian security forces do not inform about the reason for those searches.

After Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation, the houses of Crimean Tatars are regularly searched. The representatives of the Crimean Tatar people are often imprisoned on charges of extremism or just go missing.