The TV Network of the Crimean Tatars ATR should not be closed!

The Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN), The Society of Threatened Peoples (STP), the Youth of European Nationalities (YEN) and the Institute for Caucasica-, Tatarica- and Turkestan-Studies (ICATAT) are firmly against the imminent shutdown of ATR, the only TV Network of the Crimean Tatars. “As an international human rights organisation working for ethnic and religious communities we know that the media are an essential and very important voice for minorities worldwide”, says STP-Secretary General Tilman Zülch. “The media make that minorities are heard and seen. This is an invaluable contribution to the preservation and promotion of their languages. To outlaw their media, which also convey the culture and history of the minorities and which stand for diversity and openness in society, that is a chicanery!”

The ATR Network broadcasts in Russian, Crimean Tatar and in Ukrainian. Especially in the last few years it has become the most important media outlet of the Crimean Tatars. Now it is on the verge of shutdown. Already four times the Russian Media Supervisor denied re-registration of ATR. Unless a miracle occurs, the network will have to close down on 1 April. According to the Society of Threatened Peoples this would be another step in a long series of oppression and discrimination of the Crimean Tatars since the Crimea peninsula was annexed by Russia in March 2014.

FUEN President Hans Heinrich Hansen supports the protest against the immanent closure of the ATR Network: “as the largest European umbrella organisation of the minorities, we know that only words are not enough, where it comes to minority protection. The authorities of Crimea and in Russia may have pledged that they respect the rights of minorities in Crimea and that they support the minorities, but they also have refused the leadership of our member organisation Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People entry into their home country for a period of five years. Now they try to make it impossible for the ATR Network to do its job. That is inacceptable.” Matic Germovšek, President of YEN, adds that minority media have a role in integration: “they reflect tradition and contemporariness, they show the past, present and future and make this exchange come alive for the minority.”

Together with FUEN, YEN and ICATAT, the Society of Threatened Peoples demands that ATR should not be shut down! After collective deportation under Stalin in 1944, in the process of which 44 percent of the Crimean Tatars lost their life, and after many decades in exile the Crimean Tatars should finally have the chance to preserve and foster their language and culture.

This declaration will be published during the on-going “TV Marathon”, with which ATR is raising awareness for its imminent shutdown. The action is aimed at winning over as many people to support the network.