Abducted Crimean Tatar, Edem Asanov, Found Dead RFE/RLs Crimean service reports that Edem Asanov, a 25-year-old Crimean Tatar who disappeared on September 29, has been found dead in an abandoned sanatorium in Yevpatoria, Russian-occupied Crimea. On September 29 Asanov had set off from his home in Saky for Yevpatoria, where he worked as a lifeguard. However, as RFE/RL reported on September 1, he never arrived at work. Asanovs sister Feride told RFE/RL that she last saw that him that morning at the bus station in Yevpatoria. Since then she was unable to reach him by phone. According to Feride, Edem was not politically active and had not made any strong statements on social networks as far as she was aware. Writing on the website of the Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group, Halya Coynash said: There is as yet no information as to how the young man died, though natural causes can be excluded. Edem Asanovs funeral will take place on Tuesday. Asanovs disappearance followed the abduction of two young Crimean Tatar men from the village of Saury-Su near Belogorsk on September 27. On October 3, Coynash writes, another young Tatar, 23-year-old Apselymov Eskender failed to arrive at work after leaving his flat in Simferopol. She concludes: It is increasingly difficult to believe in any chance with these abductions or disappearances. They coincide with a major offensive against the Mejlis, or representative-executive body of the Crimean Tatar people and Muslims in the Crimea. Veteran Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemiliev has spoken of 18 disappearances of Crimean Tatars since Russian invaded and annexed the Crimea in March this year. Head of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov recalls chillingly relevant words written by Memorial about the Northern Caucuses. “Abductions are carried out by staff both of the local, and the federal enforcement bodies. A number of the abductions take place according to the classic, “Chechen” scenario, when armed men in masks burst into a home and take the person they want away. However many abductions are carried out very ‘professionally’: a person leaves his home and doesn’t return, or later he’s found murdered.” The almost certain murder of Edem Asanov, the abduction of two young Crimean Tatars and disappearance of a fourth young man of similar age, against the background of all other repressive measures, can only heighten the suspicion that the Crimean puppet regime and those pulling its strings in Moscow want to intimidate the Crimean Tatars and force them to leave their homeland. Elsewhere today Robert Coalson wrote on the ongoing campaign of intimidation being waged against
Posted on: Tue, 07 Oct 2014 12:58:48 +0000