Russian propaganda seeks to portray Crimean Tatars as a threatening and marginalized group to justify constant harassment, persecution, and violence against the ethnic community, as well as to legitimize its colonialist policies on the peninsula.
How do propaganda media paint an image of the indigenous people of Crimea? What stereotypes and labels are attached to these people? And how are discrediting tactics supposed to work against Crimean Tatars? Let’s take a closer look.
Discreditation is a propaganda tactic that involves attributing negative traits and characteristics to a person or group with the intention of creating a negative image and undermining trust in their reputation. To achieve this, propagandists use a variety of methods, including manipulating images and videos, spreading rumors, devaluing accomplishments, making unfounded accusations, using half-truths, and disseminating other forms of false information.
The portrayal of Crimean Tatars in the Russian media is heavily influenced by prejudice and stereotypes, with propaganda aimed at inciting distrust and hostility towards them. Russian media often depicts Crimean Tatars as a threat to the country’s security and stability, using labels such as “extremists”, “religious fanatics”, “Nazi collaborators”, “Tatar bandits”, and even as those who destroyed the USSR.
The Russian traditional and online media outlets often downplay the historical and cultural significance of Crimean Tatars and portray them as a small and insignificant minority in Crimea. This narrative was used to justify Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014 when Russian military personnel, commonly known as “little green men”, claimed to be protecting ethnic Russians on the peninsula from “radicals”. In this context, Russian media claimed that Crimean Tatars were opposed to the Ukrainian government and supported separatist movements on the peninsula.
The conduct of the Russians is rooted in their extensive record of oppressing the Crimean Tatars, which dates back to the forced expulsion from Crimea in 1944, as well as the repression of their cultural and religious customs throughout the Soviet era. Even today, unfounded allegations of collaboration against the entire group during World War II persist.
Crimean Tatars as religious and political “extremists”
According to the Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, out of the 180 political prisoners currently being unlawfully detained by Russia in Crimea, 116 are Crimean Tatars. The human rights group Crimea SOS has reported that a minimum of one-third of the politically-motivated convictions on the peninsula were carried out after the commencement of the full-scale Russian invasion, with a majority of them targeting individuals alleged to have links with the Islamic political group Hizb ut-Tahrir and the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar volunteer battalion.
As far back as 2012, which was two years prior to the annexation of Crimea, Russian propaganda had leveled allegations against Hizb ut-Tahrir, claiming that the organization was preparing for “an international conflict involving the Russian Black Sea Fleet”. The accusations claimed that the organization aimed to decrease the Slavic population on the peninsula to half a million and force the expulsion of the Black Sea Fleet from Crimea. Such baseless accusations, conspiracy theories, and defamation tactics are standard strategies for discrediting opponents.
Following the annexation of Crimea, the Russian authorities have been aggressively targeting Hizb ut-Tahrir members. News of their arrests, trials, and convictions has been frequently reported in the Russian media since 2014. Such publications emphasize the purportedly unreliable, dangerous, and radical beliefs of the accused individuals. The Russian authorities rationalize the mistreatment of these prisoners by labeling them as “extremists”. Additionally, according to anonymous pro-Russian Telegram channels, Crimean Tatars allegedly collaborate with Ukrainian special services, carry out subversive activities, mine territories, assist the Ukrainian Army in finding targets, and engage in acts of sabotage.
In reality, Hizb ut-Tahrir is an international pan-Islamic political organization whose primary objective is to unify all Muslims in one state that arose in response to the emergence of Israel. It strives to establish a unified Muslim state where the Islamic way of life is restored and Sharia (Islamic law) prevails. Hizb ut-Tahrir promotes non-violent methods of struggle, such as spreading ideas through education, discussions, and brochures. However, some countries accuse the organization of propagating extremist views, and certain members are charged with terrorism. Hizb ut-Tahrir is banned in Russia, China, most Arab and Central Asian countries, and Germany, the only European state that has banned the organization due to its occasional use of anti-Semitic rhetoric, but German members of the group are not systematically persecuted. In contrast, Hizb ut-Tahrir operates openly in countries like the United Kingdom, and it used to operate legally in Ukraine until Russians arrested over 70 people in the Hizb ut-Tahrir case following the annexation of Crimea. The Russian human rights center Memorial believes that the persecution of Hizb ut-Tahrir members is politically motivated.
Russian agitprop frequently accuses members of the Noman Çelebicihan Crimean Tatar volunteer battalion of holding extremist beliefs and engaging in the food and energy blockade of Crimea. Moreover, according to the Russian authorities, Crimean Tatars are regularly radicalized by “information and psychological operations from abroad”, resulting in the emergence of ethnic criminal groups on the peninsula.
The Crimean Human Rights Group has reported that a minimum of 15 people have been incarcerated in Crimea under the pretext of involvement with the Çelebicihan battalion, including Ukrainian citizens abducted by the Russian military in southern Ukraine after February 24, 2022. Several of those accused of participation in the battalion are being forced by Russian forces to adopt Russian citizenship and fight against Ukraine.
According to the Zmina Human Rights Center, the Russian special services perceive the capacity of Crimean Tatars to self-organize, establish volunteer units, or organize blockades as a threat.
“Crimean Tatars oppose Ukraine”
Numerous reports circulating within the Russian media space suggest that Crimean Tatars oppose the Ukrainian government and wholeheartedly support Putin’s policies and the ongoing conflict against Ukraine. Furthermore, anonymous pro-Russian Telegram channels disseminate the message that Crimean Tatars have an “opportunist mentality” and, as a result, “did not protest too much” against the occupying authorities in Crimea. Additionally, the Russians argue that Ukraine should not rely on the Crimean Tatar underground to assist in the liberation of the peninsula.
This message is not only inconsistent with the truth but also contradicts another propaganda narrative from Russia regarding the purported intelligence and subversive activities carried out by Crimean Tatars in support of the Ukrainian army.
“The Crimean Platform is a hopeless project”
In 2021, when the Crimean Platform had just been created, Russian propagandists dismissed the initiative as a “black hole” that wasted time and money and had no practical value. They asserted that the platform’s efforts were invisible, and only a few high-ranking foreign individuals, uninvolved in the Crimean issue, participated in it.
However, in 2022, when the Crimean Platform summit was attended by 60 countries and international organizations, such arguments about insignificance lost their efficacy. Therefore, the Russian propaganda machine introduced new allegations that the Platform “included all US-NATO colonies” who coveted the peninsula due to its strategic significance. Russian propagandists viewed the Crimean Platform’s resolution as legitimizing the return of Crimea to Ukraine by military means. Moreover, they claimed that the Platform did not represent the interests of the indigenous people, as the “real Crimean Tatars” living on the annexed peninsula were not invited to participate. Russia declined to take part, describing the format of the Crimean Platform as “cynically anti-Russian”. Conversely, Ukraine does not differentiate Crimean Tatars into “real” or “fake” and recognizes the Mejlis as the only supreme authorized representative executive body of the Crimean Tatar people. Therefore, Mejlis representatives participated in the Crimean Platform meetings and represented the interests of the indigenous people of the peninsula, making the Russian propaganda’s claims that Crimean Tatars were “not fully” represented seem absurd.
In 2022, the participants of the first parliamentary summit of the Crimean Platform declared that “Russia will not be able to maintain its federal structure; it will be fragmented, and the constituents will assert themselves”. Such rhetoric is obviously likely to anger Russia.
“Jamala’s work is too politicized”
Russian propagandists reacted strongly to the song 1944 by Crimean Tatar singer Jamala and her victory at the Eurovision Song Contest in 2016, unleashing a deluge of slanderous messages. They viewed Jamala’s performance as an attempt to undermine the occupied Crimea and destabilize the situation on the peninsula. The Russians heavily criticized the politicization of art and were furious that Crimean Tatars had accused them of genocide. Propagandists argued that the song should not have been allowed to enter the contest and even suggested that Russia and Poland send one artist each to Eurovision to sing about the Volyn tragedy of 1943. Even after almost seven years since the singer’s performance, propaganda is still trying to discredit the song’s content.
The song 1944 is about the mass deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar population from Crimea during World War II by Soviet troops on Stalin’s orders. Jamala dedicated this song to her “grandmother Nazylkhan, who, along with her five children, was among the quarter of a million Crimean Tatars loaded onto trains like cattle”.
“Russia provides cultural opportunities and democracy in the annexed Crimea, while Ukraine provides only unfreedom and oppression”
Russian propaganda often spreads the message that Ukraine has not given Crimean Tatars as much freedom as Russia. They say that Russia ensures the functioning of three languages on the peninsula: Russian, Crimean Tatar, and Ukrainian. In fact, İlmi Ümerov, deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, says that there are virtually no Crimean Tatar schools left in Crimea because “classes are taught in Russian, and the Crimean Tatar language is taught as a discipline”.
The historical experience of Russian and Soviet rule in Crimea has been one of constant ethnic cleansing, deportation, deprivation of civil rights, violence, and harassment. This partly explains why the majority of Crimean residents voted in favor of Ukraine’s independence from the Soviet Union in 1991. In 2013, the vast majority of respondents in Crimea expressed the opinion that the peninsula should be part of Ukraine. Later, Crimean Tatars strongly opposed Russia’s annexation of Crimea and did their utmost to prevent the “little green men” from seizing the Crimean parliament. For that, they have been and continue to be severely persecuted by the Russian authorities.
Immediately in 2014, the Russians launched a campaign of persecution against the Crimean Tatar community, outlawing the Mejlis, the representative body of the Crimean Tatar people. Additionally, the invaders took down the TV channels ATR and Lâle, the latter a children’s channel which belonged to one of the Crimean Tatar leaders, Lenur Islyamov. Human rights activists recorded numerous human rights violations against the indigenous population of Crimea, including torture, abductions, and violence. Since the Russian occupation in 2014, around 10% of Tatars have fled to mainland Ukraine because they did not want to obey Russian laws. Many of them have settled in the Kherson region, part of which is now occupied and suffers from Russian shelling.
Another example of Russia’s “multicultural policy” is the ban on the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide, which is commemorated on May 18.
“SBU spies on Crimean Tatar leaders”
Russian social media has been spreading a message that the SBU has sent agents into the Crimean Tatar community to spy on the head of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov. He is alleged to have wanted to create autonomy in the Kherson region, and Crimean Tatars are allegedly actively spreading the ideas of autonomy and separatism.
These accusations are entirely unsupported by any evidence or facts. However, it is worth noting that they began to appear after Refat Chubarov’s speech at the First Parliamentary International Summit “Crimean Platform” in Zagreb.
What is Russia seeking?
The belief that “Crimea is Russian” has been imposed for two centuries through a carefully crafted historical myth perpetuated by the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and now Russia. Crimea was indeed one of Russia’s most valuable colonies, with its strategic port of Sevastopol and resort towns. However, under Russian rule, the Crimean Tatars remained a marginalized group, virtually excluded from political, social, and cultural policies. Russia’s ultimate goal today is to completely deprive Crimean Tatars of their voice and push them out of the public space.
Russian propaganda attempts to discredit Crimean Tatars by portraying them as extremists to justify the persecution of this ethnic group. This is a dangerous tactic, as it stirs up tensions between Crimean Tatars and Russians, inciting the latter to direct conflict. Additionally, this propaganda reopens the wounds of the hardships Crimean Tatars have already endured in the past under the rule of the Russian Empire, the Soviet Union, and the Russian Federation.
