CRIMEAN TATAR REPRESENTATIVE DEMOCRACY: SELF-ORGANIZED COMMUNITY AND DIALOGUE WITH THE GOVERNMENT
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Abstract
The article analyzes a socio-political institution founded in 1991 at the peak of the mass return of Crimean Tatars to their historical homeland officially defined as the “executive body” of national assembly of the Crimean Tatars Qurultay. By the Mejlis within this work we understand the whole set of institutions, including the Milli Mejlis defined as the “supreme plenipotentiary representative and executive body of the Crimean Tatar people”, and all parts of the “unified system of elected national self-government bodies of all levels of the Crimean Tatar people” or “local Mejlises” led by the Milli Mejlis according to its Charter. Defined this way, the Mejlis represents the largest modern Ukrainian institute of civic self-organization that has developed in the absence of official recognition by the authorities and outside the current legal framework, in which it does not fit due to the wide variety of its functions, as well as the chara-cter of its political program and the nature of political competition, of which it is a part. The debate on the role and place of the Mejlis in the Ukrainian society is imbued with a spirit of ideological confrontation and powered by meanings dating to decades if not hundreds of years of history. A major setback in this discussion is the ostensible absence of any meaningful attempts at structural and functional analysis of this complex institution that appears to be an essential instrument of self-determination, protection of group identity and ensuring the longevity of an entire ethnic community in the real conditions of its existence. The analysis shows that despite the fact that every ethnic group is unique in terms of its historical experience, the research of Mejlis as one of the most advanced forms of community self-organization in modern Ukraine has a value within a broader context. It helps us better understand the nature of the constraints embedded into the very fabric of the social relations effectively defining the trajectory of complex transformations that the post-communist countries are fated to go through.
