Tatar-Bashkir Report: July 1, 2005

Documents On Tatar History Published In Turkey
A book titled �Kazan in Osmanli Documents� was published by the General Directorate of State Archives under the Turkish Cabinet of Ministers and presented to the Tatarstan�s Chief Archives Directorate, Tatar-inform reported on 30 June. The publication includes some 300 previously unknown documents concerning the history of Tatarstan�s peoples and Tatar-Osmanli relations being kept in Turkey�s archives and libraries. The book was prepared for publication under the guidance of General Director of Turkey�s state archives Yusuf Sarynai and is dedicated to the Kazan 1000th anniversary.

Kazan Resident Wins Suit Against Russian Finance Ministry
The Kazan Yanga Savin Raion court issued a verdict on 30 June charging the Federal Treasury�s Tatarstan�s Directorate to pay 62,122 rubles ($2,200) to a female Kazan resident whose name isn�t reported at her request in compensation of a moral harm caused by criminal actions by state bodies� officials, regions.ru reported the same day, citing the Kazan Human Rights Center press service. On 19 December 2003, the woman was detained, struck into her head, delivered to an interior office and searched by Kazan State Traffic Safety Inspection employees Artur Mamatov and Ainur Israfilov. Forensic examination revealed victim�s physical injuries. The policemen claimed that the victim looked like a woman who �uses and keeps narcotics.� The woman sued the interior employees who were sentenced on 7 April 2004 to three years of conditional imprisonment each. The two were also deprived of the right to serve in law enforcement agencies during three years. In February 2005, the woman appealed to the Kazan Human Center that provided a lawyer and helped her win compensation. The court determined the sum of compensation referring to a precedent in the European Court that charged in 1995 to pay a similar compensation to an Austrian resident.

Human Rights Activists Say 90 Percent Of Cases Against Muslims Fabricated
Ninety percent of cases on allegations of extremism and terrorism being filed against Muslims are fabricated, islam.ru reported on 29 June. The data were reported referring to State Duma Deputy Aleksandr Khinshtein during the roundtable on interethnic and interfaith relations held the same day in Moscow. The event was organized by the Human Rights Expert-Analytic Center on Interethnic and Interfaith Issues founded by Moscow Helsinki Group head Lyudmila Alekseeva, Russia�s former ombudsman Oleg Mironov and Islamic Human Rights Center head Ismail Shangareev. Chairman of the Congress of Jewish Religious Communities and Associations, rabbi Zinovii Kogan, human rights activist Sergei Kovalev, National-Bolshevik Party leader Eduard Limonov took part in the forum. Participants condemned persecutions against Muslims in Russia that intensified over the past time, saying it is dangerous for the future of the country as an integral state.

Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova

Bashkir Airlines Sues German Government...
Bashkir Airlines (BAL) has filed suit in a state court in Constance, southern Germany, accusing the German government of failing to ensure the safety of flights in its airspace, resulting in the midair collision on 1 July 2002 between a Bashkir Airlines Tu-154 and a DHL Boeing 757 that killed 71 people, ITAR-TASS reported on 30 June. Before the crash, the jets were controlled by the Swiss air traffic control service Skyguide, which is responsible for flights over southern Germany. BAL claimed that the German government passed control over air traffic to the Swiss company, so it is responsible for the failure of air-traffic controllers and equipment. BAL is seeking $3.3 million in compensation. Relatives of 30 crash victims have appealed to Swiss courts for compensation. Forty-one families who lost their relatives in the crash have received compensation from a special fund formed by the governments of Germany and Switzerland and Skyguide.

...Protests Bankruptcy Verdict
Bashkir Airlines trade union Deputy Chairman Sergei Yeshtokin said on 30 July that the employees' unions plan to hold a demonstration to protest the Bashkir Arbitration Court verdict on the company's bankruptcy (see "RFE/RL Tatar-Bashkir Report," 27 June 2005), an RFE/RL Ufa correspondent reported the same day. The BAL unions consider the position of the republican government of urging the bankruptcy "lobbying interests of big financial groups," in particular of VIM-avia, which in interested in expanding into Bashkortostan.

The BAL unions have appealed to Bashkir President Murtaza Rakhimov to express their concern about the "haste" with which the decision on BAL's bankruptcy was made. The unions said that "the bankruptcy of the airline is deliberate and intentional" and endangers the very idea of the existence of a basic company in Bashkortostan. The unions urged Rakhimov "not to allow the artificial disintegration of the airline" and "to take into account all possible negative factors while making decisions on the future of the republic's aviation." The unions also appealed to Bashkir Prosecutor Aleksandr Konovalov to urge him "to investigate the validity and legality of the bankruptcy procedure."

Authorities Concerned About Growing Immigration
Bashkir Interior Minister Rafail Divaev on 30 June expressed concern about the inflow of illegal migrants into the republic, RosBalt reported the same day. Speaking at a meeting of the public council on observation of human rights under the Interior Ministry, Divaev said between 15,000 and 20,000 foreigners come to Bashkortostan every year to work, while only 10,600 foreigners were officially registered in the republic and only one-third of them have official permission to work. Divaev also said 175 crimes have been committed by foreigners this year. He added that organized criminal groups are formed by immigrants, one of which was recently arrested for trafficking 52 kilograms of heroin. Two-hundred-thirty immigrants have been deported from the republic this year.

Compiled by Gulnara Khasanova