Refat Chubarov: chairman of the Mejlis in exile

2024 Author: Henry Conors | [email protected]. Last modified: 2024-02-12 02:47

Refat Chubarov, whose biography will be described below, is a Ukrainian politician of Crimean Tatar origin, a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada. He built his career on his national origin, headed the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people he created. After Crimea became part of Russia, he began to wage an uncompromising struggle against the occupation, which is why the photos of Refat Chubarov appear among the criminals put on the wanted list by the Russian investigative authorities.

Soviet period

The future chairman of the Mejlis was born in Samarkand in 1957. His family was one of the numerous Crimean Tatar families deported to Central Asia in 1944. In 1968, together with his parents, he returned to his homeland, where he studied at a local vocational school. Having mastered the noble profession of a bricklayer, Refat worked for some time in construction in Transnistria, then served in the army.

In 1977, Refat Abdurakhmanovich Chubarov entered the Moscow State Historicalarchival institute, whose walls he left in 1983. According to the distribution, a native of Samarkand ended up in Riga, where he worked as an archivist at the Central State Archives of the Latvian SSR.

Not the last place in the subsequent dizzying career of Refat Abdurakhmanovich was taken by a successful marriage. The chosen one of the ardent Crimean Tatar was the cold-blooded B altic maiden Ingrida V altsone, whose father held a high position in the republican department of the all-powerful KGB. Be that as it may, Refat Chubarov's biography soon took a sharp turn, he became the director of the republican archive, and during perestroika he successfully entered politics, becoming a member of the Supreme Council of Latvia.

Eternal fighter

At the turn of the nineties, the pragmatic archivist realized that the Crimean Tatar origin could become a considerable political capital in the new realities. He works in the State Commission on the Problems of the Crimean Tatar People, and after the collapse of the country he returns to Crimea.

Since 1994, Refat Abdurakhmanovich Chubarov has become a member of the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, for some time in the mid-nineties he even worked as deputy chairman of the Crimean parliament. However, the main activity of the politician continues to be connected with the problems of deportation and return of the Crimean Tatars.

He chairs the Standing Committee on National Policy and Deported Peoples.

Shadow powerpeninsulas

Being one of the leaders of the Crimean Tatar diaspora, Refat Chubarov did not stand aside from the organization of land squatting on the peninsula. Radical young people blocked roads and arbitrarily surveyed land, placing illegal buildings on them.

A well-organized and cohesive movement did not obey the representatives of Kyiv, unless the regular army could cope with Chubarov's wards. However, it did not come to direct military clashes, the central authorities fawned over Chubarov for the sake of the votes of the Crimean Tatars, and the land continued to be seized, not only for the construction of houses, which would have been at least somehow morally justified, but for conducting commercial activities.

Mejlis and referendum

In 2002, Refat Chubarov, whose photo is known to every native of Crimea, reaches a new level, having successfully been elected to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine from the Our Ukraine party. Here he continues to do what he loves and is a member of the commissions on the problems of national minorities and deported peoples.

In 2009, Refat Chubarov headed the World Congress of the Crimean Tatar people, thus reaching the international level. Returning to Crimea, he again ran for the local parliament, where he worked as a deputy until the well-known events of 2014.

In 2014, Chubarov headed the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, while supporting the actions of the revolutionaries on the Maidan. Accordingly, Refat Abdurakhmanovich is rather coolmet an unexpected initiative of the Crimean parliamentarians on a referendum on joining the peninsula to Russia. The demonstrators, led by Chubarov, almost stormed the parliament building, only the intervention of the military cooled the ardor of the members of the diaspora.

The politician did not recognize the results of the referendum on the entry of Crimea into the Russian Federation, returned to Ukraine and continued his eternal struggle as a deputy of the Verkhovna Rada.