“Qırım” Newspaper has financial problems every year, it even stopped publishing in 2011 because of the lack of Money. Today the State Treasury froze assets of UAH 150,000 meant for its funding.
“Qırım” is a modern newspaper in Crimean Tatar language; it has been the first state published edition in this language since the Crimean Tatars stated repatriating in 1989.
Ministry of Social policy budgeted UAH 320,000 this year for funding this newspaper. The publishing house received half of the sum, and the rest of the money got hung up.
The “Qırım” Editor Mr. Bekir Mamut stated at a press-conference of November 28 that “the State Treasury has our UAH 150,000 since june when Kyiv transferred it. Out accounts and work completion reports remain useless. They say they won’t transfer anything until they get direct instructions “from the higher ranks.”
The quality also bows down because of the lack of funding; the journalists with their minimum fixed salary can’t travel around Crimea in order to make their reports.
“We’d lose everything if we lost the paper,” - Mr. Yuri Palkanov, Head of the Association “Qırımqalaylar” research council. “It unites us, so we hope everything will be alright.”
The newspaper is supported by the public figures and all the Crimean people. Ms. Zarema Islyamova (returned from deportation in 1986) say “I’ve been this newspaper’s subscriber for 13 years already. The whole family reads it, as it’s written in out mothertongue. We can’t let it disappear.”
The newspaper management asks the Government to not only transfer the frozen assets, but also increase funding in the future.
