In 1988, I returned to the land of my forefathers, to the settlement of Azovskoje in Crimea. I was full of energy and new ideas. My nation had been humiliated and insulted. Our culture, customs and political rights needed to be reestablished and I wanted to participate in this process. It took me several months to negotiate the bureaucracy and to be approved as a teacher of Crimean Tatar language and literature. Finally, on 2 November 1988, the day I turned thirty, I was employed as a teacher. I remember my first class. When the children saw me with textbooks in my hands they shouted “hurray.” Initially I couldn’t believe I was to teach the once forbidden Crimean Tatar language in my homeland.
There were no textbooks. We had to build everything from scratch. Problems were unavoidable. The first difficulties appeared while we were building our settlement. One of our neighbors didn’t want us to have the parcel of land we had been given by the local council. We were forced to sue in order to obtain what was rightfully ours. It took eight months. Despite the difficulties we managed to move from the previous apartment to our new place in 1990.
At that time we came up with the idea to build a new school where our mother tongue would be taught. We had already established the first Crimean Tatar class. A few teachers had been working in schools in Azovskoye and Mayskoye.
However, we lacked teacher-specialists. Moreover, most teachers didn’t teach their subject. Our tasks involved finding an adequate building and teachers as well as, perhaps most importantly, parents who would cooperate. Therefore, we first organized a meeting of parents. Fortunately, the majority of the parents supported our idea and promised to give us some help.
Every year we added new classes and the number of children wanting to attend our classes increased. Therefore, we decided to join all the classes and create a common school.
In 1993 we applied to the local council with a request to assign a piece of land for our school. We were very upset when the request was rejected. For several years we were the subject of offences and slander. For example, the Russian school organized an exhibition of Crimean Tatar history.
The history presented by the Russian teachers was completely distorted. The main goal of the exhibition was to show that the Crimean Tatars had contributed nothing to their homeland. On the contrary, they were responsible for plundering other nations and were involved in the slave trade. After some disputes with the administration it was decided to close the exhibition. Nevertheless, the damage was done. We had to spend a considerable sum of money fighting this form of discrimination which also has its effect on the children.
Let’s consider this question. If our ancestors had been so sordid, how is it that we can now enjoy the beautiful mosques in Bahchysaray or Old Crimea? We are proud of the famous Crimean Tatar scientists and poets, such as the great educator Gasprinski and the poet Umer.
In the spring of 1994 we applied to the regional executive committee with a request to assign a partially abandoned building to us for use as a school. A portion of the building was used by the Officers’ Training Corps. There were five large rooms in the building but they needed major repairs. Some teachers, parents and students decided to help us. At that time we wanted to improvise our classes in the old school and start ordinary teaching activities. Unfortunately, it turned out to be impossible. Our request remained unanswered.
Parents, teachers and students picketed the regional executive committee building. The demonstrators held banners, among others reading: “We want to restore Crimean-Tatar schools!” “Legal status for the Crimean-Tatar language.” The authorities rejected our request. They tried to justify this decision claiming they were going to manage the building for their needs or close it down. In addition, we were castigated at a trade union meeting with such statements as: “Why do you need this school? “Earn the money and build a new school”, “The headmaster of this school will incite the nation”, “We should suppress their parliament and we’ll get rid of the problem,” etc. We used all possible arguments to make the authorities respect our rights. It made no difference to them that in pre-war Crimea, the Tatars could boast of having national high schools and universities.
At present, the building we wanted to occupy is abandoned and going to ruin. After many persistent demands, in the 1994/95 academic year we managed to acquire some space for our classes in the Russian school. We were given the worst part of the school which had poor lighting and small rooms. We also achieved the right to have our own representative who was simultaneously the assistant manager of the headmaster.
During fall and winter the ceiling leaked so we had to repair the roof. The representative of our classes had to assume the responsibility for building a new school. It is obvious to everyone that a teacher is not a builder. Nevertheless, our teacher was saddled with the normal teaching duties and with the responsibility for arranging the construction work (applying to various institutes and offices). It took a great deal of time, energy and nerves to fulfill this task.
In September 1995 we started to build the Crimean-Tatar elementary school. The Crimean authorities allotted approximately $2,500 for this goal. With these funds, we managed to lay the foundation of the building. We then had to stop. There was no more money and we couldn’t find any sponsors. But that was not the end of our difficulties. The administration of the Russian school tried to prove that our representative was incompetent and threatened to expel him. In order to defend himself our manager had to prepare a detailed report on his work during the academic year.
Moreover, we were forced to suffer further humiliation and discrimination. For example, we couldn’t meet any other teachers at the school without the permission of the headmaster.
The regional state administration of the Djankonskij region dissolved six Crimean Tatar classes during the 1996/97 academic year: 1 grade – 13 students; 2 grade – 18 students (in the Mayskaya school); 1 grade – 21 students; 6 grade – 22 students; 7 grade – 22 students (in the Azovskaya school). In spite of the order we decided to fight to preserve our classes. First, we held a parents meeting and decided to apply to higher authorities. The president of the administration advised us to find financial means. We applied repeatedly with a request for assistance to the Crimean Minister of Education. He promised to help but, in fact, did nothing. The question of our school remained unresolved at the end of September.
The situation again forced our teachers, parents and students to picket the regional state administration. It was a gray rainy day but nobody decided to leave. We sent some telegrams and we made an appeal to the president of Ukraine. Some journalists from Crimean TV and the newspaper Crimea interviewed us.
We managed to defend and preserve our classes. We also managed to acquire some financial resources that had previously been unattainable. The president of the regional parliament (Mr. Kurtseitov) assumed the responsibility for our administrative matters. At that time we also conducted negotiations with the president of the collective farm “Russia” in regard to purchasing the abandoned Kindergarten Number 2 for our Crimean Tatar school. When the president of the administrative authorities learned that “Russia” was ready to sell the building for 470,000 Ukrainian grivny, he just shrugged his shoulders and said: ”It’s their property.” We tried to explain that the children of the kolchoz employees would study in this building. We wanted them to reduce the price, as it was just impossible to find that much money. This was probably precisely what they believed. Even the regional administration requested that they give us the building free of charge.
In October 1996 we came up with an idea to solve our problem by paying off the approximate 400,000 grivny debt that the state farm owed to the government. The vice-president of the Crimean government (Mr. Umerov) and a Crimean deputy (Mr. Arifov) repeatedly tried to put the matter to rest, even writing an official letter stating that all the debts would be cancelled. After a few months, in February 1997, our request concerning the deserted building was rejected during the general meeting of state farm workers.
We didn’t give up. Having collected more than 800 parents’ signatures, on 17 February, we again applied to the president of the regional state administration asking for assistance. He was very reserved. It was obvious to us that we wouldn’t achieve anything in peaceful negotiations. In the meantime the number of classes and students had increased. There were 320 students in 14 groups. The classes were organized in corridors, the children were using broken tables and chairs. We continued our efforts in the spring of 1997, visiting many public officials and holding meetings with parents. Most parents supported our aspirations. We couldn’t act legally. There seemed to be two alternatives: we could occupy the abandoned building without permission or block trains travelling between Djankoy and Kerch.
On 25 May I was sent on holiday. Because of my leave the headmaster of the Azovskaja School was rebuked. Nobody could have predicted what would happen next.
The first vice president of the regional state administration threatened to file suit against us. The district constable and the president of the Mayskoye village council charges us with organizing illegal mass meetings. Afterwards, we received summons to appear in court for violating social order.
On 11 June, we organized a meeting and, after some discussion and hesitation, we decided to occupy the building. Some 50 parents stayed overnight.
We are very grateful for the support we received from the president of the workers’ education association in Crimea (Ms. Kadjametova) as well as from some deputies. The Crimean and Ukrainian mass media were informed about the events. We also sent telegrams to the Crimean Cabinet, Crimean and Ukrainian Ministry of Education and the administration of the Ukrainian president. Some predicted we would block the railroad lines but we decided not to do it.
On 12 June, the police occupied the yard of the kindergarten. The war alarm was rung in the region and the police surrounded our building. The special services applied psychological pressure on teachers and parents, trying to force them to surrender. On 13 June, the Crimean government announced that, in light of the situation, a special meeting would be held. On that day, an agreement was signed in which the kindergarten building would serve as the seat of our school after financial assistance was arranged for repairing the Russian school. We were promised financial assistance to repair the kindergarten before 1 September. Having approved the decision, it was agreed to vacate the building.
Time passed and nothing changed. Some people
began wondering just what it was we had achieved.
Repairs began on the Russian school at the
end of July but the matter of our school remained unresolved. After discussions
with the teachers, we entered the building again at the beginning of August.
All the equipment inside the school had been broken. There were no lavatory
pans, the sinks had been taken, the pumps in the boiler room were missing
and even small plates were gone. Moreover, they tried to force us to leave
the building. We were threatened by drunken farmers. Tensions increased
daily.
At last on 8 August the decree concerning the establishment of our school was approved. It took 9 days for the authorities to transfer the building from the state farm to the regional department of education. We finally received the keys to the building on 20 August.
The authorities thought we would be unable to prepare the school for a new academic year. They tried to convince us we shouldn't start our classes without an official document concerning the right to utilize the building. They pointed out that the document said “to establish,” not “to open” the school. They encouraged us to return to the school we had left and to start our classes after the capital repairs were completed and the building was furnished with some equipment. This meant staying one year or even more in the old schools.
We didn’t have any desks, blackboards or the
equipment necessary for teaching. We visited many schools requesting help.
Only the school in Azovskaya pitched in, giving us 15 desks. We had only
one week to clean the building inside and out, collect the garbage, clean
the windows, connect the water and tidy up some details.
On 1 September we entertained guests who came
for the Day of Knowledge. They were astonished when they saw there was
no places for the students to sit. For a few months the children had to
sit on the floor. At the end of September we found some new desks for the
elementary grades in the cellar of one of the regional schools. We receive
permission to take them. In October we received the initial allotment of
money for equipment and reconstruction.
In this way we were able to start the 1997/98
academic year in our own longed-for school.