UKRAINE….

It is fifty-five years since Stalin deported the Crimean Tatars to Central Asia. Some 270,000 survivors and dependents have now returned to Crimea, mainly from Uzbekistan. Though most returnees live in squalid conditions, another 200,000 Crimean Tatars seek to return. Last week 40,000 Tatars rallied in Simferopol in support of cultural, economic and political rights, including the right to naturalization. Bureaucratic resistance in Ukraine and obstacles in Uzbekistan have kept many returnees in Crimea from obtaining Ukrainian citizenship.