Mustafa Abdulcemil Kirimoglu

(Mustafa Cemiloglu or Jemilev)

picture of Kirimoglu The leader of the Crimean Tatar National Movement, Mustafa Abdulcemil Kirimoglu was born in 1943 as Mustafa Cemiloglu. In May l944, the Soviet troops rounded up the entire Crimean Tatar population, consisting mostly women, children, and elderly (about 250,000 people) iand deported them to Central Asia. Men were taken directly from the front and sent into exile. Like all Crimean Tatars, the Cemiloglu family lived under tight police surveillance until l955, when some restrictions like the curfew were relaxed.

In l96l, Cemiloglu joined the underground "Union of Crimean Tatars Youths," and became one of the most active dissidents in the Soviet Unions. He would eventually lead the only sustained mass movement in the history of the Soviet Union, the Crimean Tatars' fight for their most basic civil right to return to their homeland from which they were forcibly deported.

For his activities, Cemiloglu was expelled from Tashkent Hydroelectric Institute, and in 1966 sentenced to prison for a year and a half for refusing military service in the Soviet Army. While in prison, he was accused of anti-Soviet propaganda and went on his first hunger strike. After his release from prison, he established contact with dissidents throughout the Soviet Union, and in l969 he co-founded, with Andrei Sakharov among others, the "Initiative Group in Defense of Human Rights in the USSR."

The same year, he was arrested again for anti-Soviet propaganda and sentenced to prison for three years. From l972-l974, he lived under KGB surveillance in Uzbekistan, while working on a state farm. Rearrested in l974, he was sentenced to a year in a hard-labor camp for attempting to hand President Nixon a petition on behalf of the Crimean Tatars. The authorities transferred him to prison for distributing alleged anti-Soviet propaganda among the prisoners. It was there that he went on one of the longest known hunger strikes in the history of dissidence -- 303 days. In April l976, Cemiloglu was again sentenced for dissident activities to hard-labor camp, and later deported to Tashkent where he remained under KGB surveillance. He was rearrested in early l979, and sentenced to five and a half years in prison. In November l983, the Soviet authorities arrested him for the sixth time and sentenced him to three years in a camp in the Magadan region.

While still in exile, Cemiloglu was elected to the Central Initiative Group of the Crimean Tatars in l987. Two years later, he moved with his family to Bakhchisaray in Crimea, leading a movement that resulted in the return of 250,000 Crimean Tatars to their homeland. In l99l, and again l996, Cemiloglu was elected as the chairman of the Crimean Tatar National Mejlis (governing council or assembly). In 1991, at a national gathering (Kurultay) he was given the name of Kirimoglu (son of Crimea) to honor his exceptional courage and leadership in the Crimean struggle for civil rights. About 250,000 Crimean Tatars still live in exile in Central Asia.

CREDITS: The above biographical information about Mustafa Kirimoglu was provided by Irena Lasota of IDEE, Washington, DC.
Digital photo by Inci Bowman, Washington, DC.