Faizel Patel, Radio Islam News, 2014-03-04

Muslim Tatars in the autonomous Republic of Crimea in Ukraine are voicing concerns over separatist demands by the region's Russian ethnic majority, fearing a return of 1944’s exile.

Thousands of Tatars took to the streets in a rally to stress that Crimea shall not be divided.

Tensions escalated after clashes erupted between rival groups rallying next to one another, with people wielding Russian, Ukrainian, Crimean and Crimean Tatar flags getting involved in clashes.

The rival groups protested for and against the new national authorities in Kiev, with some supporting autonomous Crimea’s independence from Ukraine while the local Muslim community of Crimean Tatars expressed support for the new Ukrainian authorities.

As war drumbeats increase and Russia flexes its muscles threatening a looming intervention in Crimea, the fears of Muslims escalated, watching cautiously the dramatic developments in Ukraine

“If there is a conflict, as the minority, we will be the first to suffer,” 57 year old Usein Sarano told Reuters.

“We are scared for our families, for our children. This could be a new Yugoslavia.”

“Putin's a power-hungry madman,” said Rustem, a Tatar pensioner. “He's been stirring up differences here for a while.”

The Tatars, who have inhabited Crimea for centuries, were deported in May 1944 by Stalin, who accused them of collaborating with the Nazis.

The entire Tatar population, more than 200,000 people, was transported in brutal conditions thousands of miles away to Uzbekistan and other locations. Many died along the way or soon after arriving.

The Soviets confiscated their homes, destroying their masjid’s and turning them into warehouses.

One was converted into a Museum of Atheism.

It was not until perestroika in the late 1980s that most of the Tatars were allowed back, a migration that continued after Ukraine became independent with the Soviet collapse in 1991.

More than 250,000 Tatars now live in Crimea, about 13 percent of its population of 2 million people.

The Tatars’ return has repeatedly touched off legal clashes over restitution of land and property, much of which is now owned by ethnic Russians. – Agencies

(Twitter: @Faizie143)