Legendary dissident Ayşe Seitmuratova dies in Crimea
Ayşe Seitmuratova, a veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement, has died in occupied Crimea at the age of 88.
Source: Head of Crimean Tatar Mejlis Refat Chubarov on Facebook
Quote: "Again, sad news has come in from Russian-occupied Crimea which I do not want to believe – the legendary dissident, political prisoner during the Soviet era, journalist, historian and veteran of the Crimean Tatar national movement Ayşe Seitmuratova has died at the age of 88."
For reference: Ayşe Seitmuratova was a Crimean Tatar public figure, human rights activist, member of the national movement of Crimean Tatars, political prisoner of the Soviet regime, journalist and publicist in exile.
In 1964 she joined the Crimean Tatar national movement in Samarkand Oblast in modern Uzbekistan. She participated in meetings with representatives of the Soviet government, in particular in the Central Committee of the CPSU. In 1966, she was arrested on charges of "inciting national hatred" and put on probation for three years. In 1971, she was again arrested and sentenced to three years in prison for "spreading deliberately false ideas that defame the Soviet state and public order." She served her sentence in Mordovian camps.
After her release in 1974, she continued her human rights activism. In 1978, she emigrated to the United States, fearing forced psychiatric treatment.
There she worked as a journalist for the Voice of America, Freedom, BBC and Deutsche Welle radio stations, covering the problems of the Crimean Tatar people, the history of their repression, Russification and assimilation.
Ayşe Seitmuratova became a symbol of the struggle of the Crimean Tatar people for their rights, dignity and return to their homeland.
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