In a Sept. 9 statement, Latvia's Foreign Minister Edgar Rinkevics accused Russia of carrying what is "in essence the ethnic cleansing" of the Tatar people from annexed Crimea. Mustafa Cemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatars who has been banned from his homeland by the Russian authorities, added that Russia's FSB security agency has been raiding the homes of Tatar leaders in an effort to intimidate them into fleeing Crimea, accusing Moscow of "the systematic violation of human rights on the peninsula." Russian authorities banned Cemilev from his homeland for five years after the annexation of the peninsula, and he took refuge in Kiev. But he said in an interview that Russian authorities have called for him to appear for an interrogation, and he fears he would be arrested if he appears. (EuroMaidan Press, Sept. 9)

Crimean interim prime minister Sergei Aksyonov oversaw a conference this past weekend, "On the State of Crimean Tatars in Today's Crimea," where he urged Tatars to vote in Crimea's upcoming elections and pledged funds for the renovation of several mosques in the Tatar areas. He also promised development of the traditionally marginal Tatar areas, noted that of 263 Crimean Tatar villages, fewer than 100 are currently equipped with proper gas infrastructure. But members of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatars' highest ruling body, asserted that the conference was little more than a ploy to gain pre-election popularity points. In June, the Mejlis called for Tatars to boycott the elections, which the group considers illegitimate in light of what they see as Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea.

Refat Chubarov, the leader of the Mejlis, who has also been banned from Crimea, claimed via Facebook that organizers of the conference had refused to let any representatives of the group speak. "The suggestion to let Akhtem Chiigoz, deputy chairman of the Crimean Tatars' Mejlis, speak to participants of the conference" was met with a "categorical refusal," Chubarov wrote, referring to the event as "the latest attempt to sow discord and opposition within the Crimean Tatar community."

The Mejlis had hoped to raise the subject of Chubarov's five-year ban from his homeland at the conference, as well as the authorities' ban on a rally by the Crimean Tatars to mark the anniversary of the group's 1944 deportation in early May. Russian prosecutors said the bans were issued over "signs of extremism." (Moscow Times, Sept. 8)