Muslims defending their right to build a mosque in “Buki” block of Mamut-Sultan (Dobroe) Village council stopped the traffic at the Yalta Highway for 15 minutes. They called their action “a civil disobedience event”. It’s been a week since the Muslims warned the local authorities, having settled an ultimatum, namely to clean the land meant for building a mosque, from the “boutiques”.
A piece of land of 20 acres at the Yalta highway became a battlefield between the people and authorities. It was initially meant for building a mosque, but then someone brought and settled trailer-like “boutiques” on the eve of Qurban-Bayram. People demand to return their land and let them, finally, build a mosque there.
“We addressed to every official possible, but no one seems to have heard us. No one wants to listen to us today either. We want our mosque here, and if the authorities stay idle – we’ll be looking for a solution on our own,” – Mr. Jelil Ibrahimov, a local man, comments.
Nothing changed during a week, so the people had to stop the traffic on the Yalta highway. When they came to the place, the police, firefighters and “Berkut” were already there. People crossed the road for many times on a pedestrian cross, not letting the cars pass, until the road police officers organized a detour through the agricultural market.
Mr. Davlet Aliev, a local man, says: “We only stopped the traffic to be heard by the local authorities. Mr. Mogilyov promised to solve our problem but hasn’t done anything ever since. Stopping the traffic is the only option we have to make them hear us. We’ll block the Ministry if this doesn’t work – this was just a warning.”
Mr. Zaur Smirov, the Crimean Tatar Mejlis Deputy Head on Land Issues, came to the event and proposed to solve the problem at the negotiating table, having promised to gather all the parties in the nearest future. “We’ll close the door and won’t leave the room until the matter is solved. I think your supporters are ready for this as well.”
Local activists say that they won’t let them take away their land to establish a market there, and they don’t want no compromise by building a mosque on the former chemical depot territory. Muslims proposed an alternative, which is to share the territory between the mosque and the market, having divided them by a children’s playground.
We can do nothing but hope that this matter will be solved in the nearest future and Muslims will finally start the construction works.
Ms. Elzara Yunusova, Crimea.
