Video message from Aida Abdrakhmanova to the Post-Russian Free States Forum in Canada.

Video message from Aida Abdrakhmanova to the Post-Russian Free States Forum in Canada.

I greet all the organizers and participants of the Forum of Post-Russian Free States in Canada. My name is Aida Abdrakhmanova. I am an ethnic Tatar from Tatarstan. I am a member of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in exile. We represent the Republic of Tatarstan and the Tatar people. Our Government in exile was created in 2008 at the Congress of the Parliament of the Tatar People in the Republic of Tatarstan; in today’s updated composition, under the chairmanship of Rafis Kashapov, we have been working since 2023. Our goal is to restore the sovereignty of the Republic of Tatarstan. The basis for the creation of a sovereign state, a subject of international law, are:

1. Declaration of Independence of the Republic of Tatarstan 1990;

2. The referendum of 1992, in which 61 percent of voters were in favor of their own independent state; the referendum results were confirmed by the US Helsinki Commission;

3. The Constitution of the Republic of Tatarstan, adopted in 1992, which clearly states that the Republic of Tatarstan is a subject of international law.

As paradoxical as it may seem, the first country to recognize the Republic of Tatarstan as a subject was Russia. Since the first agreement of the Republic of Tatarstan was signed in 1994 with Russia - “Agreement of the Russian Federation and the Republic of Tatarstan on the delimitation of jurisdiction and mutual delegation of powers between state authorities of the Russian Federation and state authorities of the Republic of Tatarstan.” This treaty gave Tatarstan somewhat more privileges at that time than other republics, but did not give complete independence. But Moscow first unilaterally changed even this agreement in 2007, and did not extend it at all in 2017.

Moscow never honors its treaties and violates its agreed upon commitments. Russia, the Moscow Kremlin, the Putin regime is just a gangster structure with imperial ambitions, which nullifies international law, does not respect the internationally recognized borders of sovereign states, and therefore starts a bloody war in the 21st century in Ukraine, withdrawing from all international conventions to ensure the rights of the indigenous peoples of Russia, since for Moscow we and our resource-rich republics are only a means of personal enrichment and a “consumable material” that Putin uses to intimidate the entire civilized world and to achieve his chauvinistic goals.

In the context of Russia’s state policy of destroying everything “non-Russian” and turning everyone into one common Russian mass without our own identity, without our own language, culture and faith, we, representatives of the nations occupied by Russia, cannot remain silent and accept the fact of our destruction.

Not a single article of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples is observed in Russia! We can give many examples and write many reports to prove this! Therefore, it is legitimate for us to use our right to self-determination, enshrined in international law, since we can only survive as an ethnic group in our own state. We see independent Tatarstan as democratic, civilized, friendly towards Ukraine and all friendly countries!

We are grateful to Canada for the political and military support of Ukraine, for the recognition at the state level of the Holodomor in Ukraine as an act of genocide by the Soviet regime, for the unanimous recognition in 2022 by the Parliament of Canada of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 as an act of genocide by the same Soviet government. And also, important for us, the Turkic Tatar people, is the recognition in February 2021 by the House of Commons of Canada of Beijing’s “treatment” of the Uighurs, Kazakhs and representatives of other indigenous peoples of Xinjiang (East Turkestan) as genocide. Thus, Canada demonstrates its strength and determination against the lawlessness of authoritarian dictatorial regimes and confirms that the individual, his rights and freedoms are the highest value.

In 2023, Russia and China signed a bilateral cooperation agreement, recently Russia and North Korea signed a strategic partnership agreement, and it is also expected that Russia and Iran will sign a partnership agreement in the near future. China supports the Russian economy, acts as a strong ally, thereby helping to maintain Russia’s political balance at the global level. The developing cooperation between Russia, China, North Korea and Iran threatens Europe, America, and the independent future of all of Eurasia. We, Tatars, being part of Russia, are forced to be part of an alliance with dictatorial regimes, but we do not want this, we do not want authoritarian regimes to exert economic and political expansion on the Republic of Tatarstan, we do not want to be satellites of authoritarian countries in which human rights are suppressed and are a threat to international order.

Canada is a state that knows what full-fledged independence means with the adoption of the Constitution of Canada. We, like Canada, want to have our own government and legislation without the need to adopt amendments to the Russian constitution and federal laws, which are aimed only at infringing on the constitutional rights of the Tatar people and our Republic of Tatarstan. Today, Canada is a sovereign state and a member of international organizations such as the UN and NATO. Canada knows that gaining independence was an important stage in the history of your country, and since then Canada has been successfully developing as an independent, democratic and civilized state.

We appeal to all leaders of civilized democratic countries, supporting us, the nations captive by Muscovy and our desire for independence and freedom from Russia, you also support yourself, since you will support the democratic foundations of freedom and justice, and not the ideas of forcible retention and totalitarianism.

Thank you for your attention. We hope for long-term cooperation, we are open to suggestions and discussions.

https://tatar-toz.blogspot.com/2024/11/video-message-from-aida-abdrakhmanova.html