Crimea Tatar community votes to seek ethnic and territorial autonomy

[Duckhunter935]

Do you think Russia will recognize the will of the people or not?

The minority Muslim Tatar community in Crimea have taken the first steps toward seeking autonomy. An assembly vote follows Crimea's annexation by Russia.

http://www.dw.de/crimea-tatar-community-votes-to-seek-ethnic-and-territorial-autonomy/a-17530449

3 votes, 0 passes | Time left: Unlimited
	Yes, they will reconize the vote of the people and allow them autonomy from Russia
	1 (33%)
	No, they will vote and Russia will use force to keep that part of Crimea
	1 (33%)
	No opinion or do not care
	1 (33%)
	0 DU members did not wish to select any of the options provided.
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[cthulu2016]

1. Russia is super nice. I'm sure they'll honor the will of just about anybody!

[jberryhill]

2. I reckon I'll have me some of the big'uns

[Douglas Carpenter]

3. being that I have never lived in Crimea and in fact don't know anyone (that I'm aware of) that has

ever lived in Crimea, have absolutely no connections with Crimea nor (as far as I know) know anyone with any connections with Crimea and like more than 99.99% of Americans have never seriously examined from neutral sources the current on-the-ground situation for the Tatar Muslim Community in Crimea - nor have very many people here - I'm sure - I can't see how myself or hardly anyone else here can possibly give an answer to that question

[NuclearDem]

4. Doubt it.

Leaving Russia tends to not work under Putin.

[Douglas Carpenter]

9. the vote is for autonomy - not independence

So, the Russians may see that differently. But I don't actually know anything about it other than that.

[former9thward]

5. The Tatars were Europe's slave traders.

Karma has a way of coming back at you.

Until the beginning of the 18th century, Crimean Tatars were known for frequent, at some periods almost annual, devastating raids into Ukraine and Russia. For a long time, until the late 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East which was the most important basis of its economy. One of the most important trading ports and slave markets was Kefe.[Slaves and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population.
Some researchers estimate that altogether more than 2 million people, predominantly Ukrainians but also Russians, Belarusians and Poles, were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate in what was called "the harvest of the steppe".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars

[Douglas Carpenter]

6. I hope that what any of our ancestors ceased doing 250 years ago no longer caries a Karmic debt

I would hope all people might find redemption and forgiveness for something that ended well more than 200 years ago

[former9thward]

7. The ramifications of slave holding in the U.S. carries on to this very day.

I have no sympathy for the Tatars.

[AngryAmish]

8. Slavery was common in west Africa for millenia

Should we have no sympathy for African - Americans because their ancestors participated in this barbaric practice?

[Douglas Carpenter]

10. call me a bleeding heart - but I don't hold anything against anyone for something they had nothing

to do with - that ended long, long, long before their great-great grandparents were even born.

[NuclearDem]

11. WOW.

Just...WOW.

Condemn an entire ethnic group for what their ancestors did centuries ago, and simply surrender them to their fate at the hands of the country that committed horrific acts against them in the last century.

That bullshit--pointing to some blemish on a race or ethnicity's past--has been used to justify genocide, slavery, and racism for millennia!

God, that is fucking despicable. Shame on you.

[Douglas Carpenter]

12. I have NEVER heard a more rightwing, reactionary retrograde statement ever made on DU!

[JustABozoOnThisBus]

13. If an ethnic group voted for an autonomous region in the U.S. ...

... I'd give it an equal chance of recognition.

Russia will not recognize a minority vote.

[Douglas Carpenter]

14. Autonomous (but not independent) regions are not that unusual of a concept. I honestly don't know

enough about this particular situation to judge if Russia is open to the possibility

[LuvNewcastle]

15. I think we know enough about Russia's history to judge

whether or not they would allow this. Russia itself is made up of many ethnicities, such as the Cossacks. Russia would be harder to control if each of them decided they wanted to have an autonomous region, and I don't think Putin would stand for that. No Russian ruler in the past would have stood for it, either. Nor would we allow it in the U.S.