Crimean Tatar national movement veteran Server Karametov was buried in Crimea

Crimean Tatars from all over the peninsula arrived on Server Karametov’s funeral to Stariy Krim on June 24th, 2018.

Crimean Tatar national movement veteran died on June 23^rd in a car crash. Server Karametov and Enver Arabadzhiev were hit by a car on the highway Kerch-Simferopol. Karametov died in the hospital after the accident, and Arabadzhiev got injured heavily. His condition is satisfactory for now.

Funeral took place in Stariy Krim. Crimeans gathered there. Crimean Tatar Mejlis first deputy chairman Nariman Dzhelyal named Server Karametov as people’s conscience at the funeral.

«Everyone was proud of him, watching his actions and believing that they themselves do it. Server-aga was really a free person. He decided not to stay at home. He said that he would fight for his people’s rights and those compatriots’ who are in prisons, for friends’ who are away from Crimea. He was an example for all of us, especially for youngsters for not sitting idle at home and fight within their capabilities», — said Dzhelyal.

Earlier, Crimean Tatars’ Kurultay CEC head Zair Smedlya informed in Facebook about Server Karametov’s decision on a single-person picket on June 26^th, the Day of the Crimean Tatar Flag, in front of the Council of Ministers of Crimea. Afterwards Crimean Tatar planned to visit Kiev for his treatment.

Server Karametov survived Crimean Tatars deportation and in 1967 was one of the first returners to Crimea. He took part in all protest rallies for his people’s rights. Despite the prohibition on holding a traditional mourning rally on the Remembrance Day of Victims of Crimean Tatar Genocide Victims on May 18^th, he went to the central square in Simferopol with the Crimean Tatar flag and his relatives’ photos. Then he was detained by the policemen.

Server Karametov despite his age and Parkinson’s disease always came to the court hearings over the Crimean Tatars and supported the political prisoners’ families. He participated in the meetings of NGO «Crimean Solidarity» and appealed to people not to keep silence and fight for their rights.

On August 8, 2017, 76-year-old Karametov came under the Crimean Supreme Court’s walls with the poster «Putin, our children are not terrorists!». During his single-person picket, police officers detained  Karametov and wrote down two protocols for him. The same evening, Karametov was fined 10,000 rubles for alleged violation of the procedure for holding a single picket.

On August 9, the Railway District Court in Simferopol awarded the Crimean Tatar 10 days of administrative arrest for allegedly resisting policemen during detention. The day Karametov’s liberation dozens of Crimean Tatars met a protester. The invaders provoked his release. Karametov was released two hours earlier without warning anyone and taken to the central bus station alone and without money. Meanwhile, Crimean Tatars were waiting for him at the special detention center, where he was kept before.

On February 22, 2018, Server Karametov started a single-person picket on the Independence Square in Kiev demanding to grant Crimea the status of national territorial autonomy. He spent half a frosty day there demanding a meeting with the Ukrainian President.