Letter of Seventeen

1968 open letter urging Crimean Tatars to continue living in Central Asia

The "Letter of Seventeen" (Russian: «Письмо семнадцати») was a wildly unpopular^[1] open letter to the exiled Crimean Tatar community in published in Lenin Bayrağı in March 1968 condemning desire for right of return among other Crimean Tatars. It was often dubbed "the letter of seventeen traitors."

In the middle, it claimed the September 1967 "rehabilitation" decree "radically solved their national question"; however, in reality, the widely despised decree, which initially confused some Crimean Tatars into thinking they were allowed to return to Crimea, only for them to be deported again, merely labeled Crimean Tatars as rehabilitated on paper without right to reparations or return and in addition to normalizing use of the despised terminology of "citizens of Tatar nationality who formerly lived in the Crimea" instead of the proper ethnonym of "Crimean Tatar". At the end, it painted return to Crimea as a romantic desire that one should suppress for the greater good and was subsequently co-signed by 17 relatively accomplished but not widely known members of the community who towed the party line and did not publicly desire right of return.^[2]^[3]

Reception

Crimean Tatar civil rights activist Yuri Osmanov referred to it as the "letter of national traitors". The condescending letter opened with downplaying their major struggles and discrimination in Asia, urging their fellow Crimean Tatars to accept the situation and take root in Central Asia rather than supporting the right of return to Crimea that many Crimean Tatars dreamed of. In the middle, it claimed the September 1967 "rehabilitation" decree "radically solved their national question"; however, in reality, the widely despised decree, which initially confused some Crimean Tatars into thinking they were allowed to return to Crimea, only for them to be deported again, merely labeled Crimean Tatars as rehabilitated on paper without right to reparations or return and in addition to normalizing use of the despised terminology of "citizens of Tatar nationality who formerly lived in the Crimea" instead of the proper ethnonym of "Crimean Tatar". At the end, it painted return to Crimea as a romantic desire that one should suppress for the greater good and was subsequently co-signed by 17 relatively accomplished but not widely known members of the community who towed the party line and did not publicly desire right of return. After Crimean Tatars were allowed right of return to Crimea decades later, the letter was republished in Avdet on 15 March 1991 with commentary discouraging people from betraying their people in dire times like the signers of the letter did.^[3]^[2]^[4]

Signatories

Seit Izmailov
Seit Tairov
Mustafa Cholakov
Mustafa Chachi
Shevket Atamanov
Anife Alchikova
Abduraim Appazov
Yagya Ablyakimov
Liban Appazov
Akhtem Mustafaev
Kurt Sametdinov
Riza Memetov
Gulver Asanov
Shevket Kadyrov
Meryem Kovaleva
Isa Azizov
Memet Molochnikov

^[5]

References

^ Guboglo, Mikhail (1998). Языки этнической мобилизации (in Russian). Языки русской культуры. p. 654. ISBN 978-5-457-45045-5.
^ ^a ^b Guboglo, Mikhail (1992). Крымскотатарское национальное движение: Документы, материалы, хроника (in Russian). Russian academy of Sciences. pp. 188–189.
^ ^a ^b Bekirova, Gulnara (2005). Крым и крымские татары в XIX-XX веках: сборник статей (in Russian). ISBN 978-5-85167-057-2.
^ Национального движения крымских татар. "Об участниках программы "Мубарекская и Крымская зоны"". НДКТ (in Russian). Retrieved 2021-01-08.
^ Smoly, Valery (2004). Кримські татари: шлях до повернення : кримськотатарський національний рух, друга половина 1940-х-початок 1990-х років очима радянських спецслужб : збірник документів та матеріалів (in Russian). Ін-т історії України. pp. 180–182. ISBN 978-966-02-3285-3.