A YEAR AFTER: MAIN VIOLATIONS OF HUMAN RIGHTS IN CRIMEA PART 4 conform than those who have a place to retreat, or those that may rely on external support. 4.6. Persecution of the Crimean Tatar Community The Crimean Tatars are an indigenous people of Crimea. In 1944, the Soviet authori- ties deported the entire people from the peninsula, and only after the fall of the USSR, the Crimean Tatars were able to return to their native land. During the occupation of the Crimea, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people has organized rallies for integrity of Ukraine; many Crimean Tatars refused to take part in the ‘referendum’ on March 16. Intending to suppress the opposition from a large number of the Crimean Tatars, the local authorities, backed by the Russian Federation, started a focused policy of pres- sure and persecution of Crimean Tatar activists. Many of those abducted in Crimea are Crimean Tatars; Reshat Ametov, who was violently killed, was a Crimean Tatar; reg- ular searches are executed in the houses of Crimean Tatars. The Crimean authorities also use other methods to persecute Crimean Tatars and eliminate their activity. Many Crimean Tatars are already comparing these actions with the Soviet government’s re- pressions and call this policy a ‘concealed deportation’. Entry prohibitions In 2014, the Russian authorities prohibited Mustafa Dzhemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, member of the Ukrainian parliament and a Soviet dissident, Refat Chubarov, chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, and Ismet Yuk- sel, chief coordinator of the QHA Crimean News information agency and advisor of the chairman of the Crimean Tatar People’s Mejlis on relations with Turkey to enter the Crimean peninsular. The Russian Federation does not explain the grounds for such prohibitions. All of these people have relatives and property in the Crimea. The occupation authorities took advantage of the departure of the said persons from Crimea and, in fact, ex- pulsed (deported) them from the peninsula. In addition, in January 2015, Sinaver Kadyrov, a human rights activist of the Com- mittee on the Rights of the Crimean Tatar People was brought to administrative responsibility by the decision of the Crimean court and punished with a R ne and ex- pulsion from the territory of the RF. All of these Ukrainian citizens, representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, previously permanently resided in Crimea together with their families, possessed housing and property, and carried out their professional and social activities in Crimea. 89