{"id":41164,"date":"2015-09-03T17:03:27","date_gmt":"2015-09-03T17:03:27","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/uacrisis.org\/?p=32789"},"modified":"2015-09-04T14:14:05","modified_gmt":"2015-09-04T11:14:05","slug":"32789-buch-annexion-insel-krim","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/uacrisis.org\/en\/32789-buch-annexion-insel-krim","title":{"rendered":"New book Annexation: Crimea Island to be presented at Lviv Book Forum on September 11"},"content":{"rendered":"

WATCH IN ENGLISH<\/a><\/p>\n

Kyiv, September 3, 2015.<\/strong> <\/em>The new book about Russian annexation of Crimea called Annexation: Crimea Island at the Lviv Book Forum on September 11, announced the author of the book, Ukrainian political scientist Taras Berezovets at a press briefing at Ukraine Crisis Media Center co-organized in partnership with Free Crime project. \u201cIt is going to be the first non-fiction book about the Crimea annexation from February 18 until March 18, 2014. The book is a result of documentary work, as processed 704 primary sources,\u201d said Berezovets.<\/p>\n

Many experts worked over the book, including Free Crimea experts Kateryna Pokrovska, Marichka Dupak, Anna Makota and Roman Ostapchuk as well as journalists such as Viktoria Chyrva. Forty exclusive interviews were conducted in the course of work. The interviewees were mainly the people who lived through the events and agreed to share their memories on how the peninsula\u2019s annexation took place: Ukrainian and Russian politicians, foreign experts and military men. Among the interviewed are also joutnelists Sevgil Musayeva-Borovyk, editor-in-chief of \u201cUkrainska Pravda\u201d, Dmytro Tymchuk, MP of the People\u2019s Front faction, Heorhiy Logvynsky, MP of the People\u2019s Front faction and Oleksandr Yankovsky, Head of TV and radio programs at the Radio Liberty\u2019s Krym.Realii [Crimea.Reality] project.<\/p>\n

The book contains a number of materials, which was not previously published, and covers the preconditions of the annexation \u2013facts and tendencies starting from 1991 including intelligence data. Many experts have written their reviews of the book including Akhtem Seitablayev, a renowned Crimean actor, Oleksandra Ryazantseva who lived through abduction and torture during these events, Oleksiy Yankovsky of the Radio Liberty and Oleh Medvedev, Advisor to the President of Ukraine. \u201cFor me it is a book of personal memories,\u201d shared Taras Berezovets,\u201cIt was difficult to remain emotionless as Crimea is my motherland, many people who are dear to me still live there including my childhood friends.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThe main conclusion I made from all those events is that Russian occupants came to the place where is no Ukrainian citizens. Unfortunately, these events showed there was no critical mass of Ukrainian citizens in Crimea,\u201d noted Yankovsky. \u201cThere was a massive resistance, a huge rally organized by Mejlis and other pro-Ukrainian forces on February 26, one day before the Crimean Parliament was seized. But on February 27, a certain anabiosis that happened.\u201d His most vivid impression was the morning of March 1. \u201cI did not believe at first that it was possible that Russian troops had seized the premises of the Parliament and of the Council of Ministers. I had some doubts; I thought Aksionov is playing some game and thus tries to gain more power. Everything fell into place in Simferopol when Russian army combat vehicles started moving along the city in the morning around 6 a.m.,\u201d Yankovsky recalled.<\/p>\n

Sevgil Musayeva-Borovyk was covering developments on the peninsula since the first days. \u201cI got scared when events by the Parliament started. I remember how we were calling one another with Tamila Tasheva and Rustem Maalimov. Nobody understood what was going on,\u201d she said. \u201cI do not want to talk about those who became traitors, in general it is a story of help and mutual assistance.\u201d Sevgil confessed that it was still not easy to remember those events. \u201cThe loss of Crimea can be compared to the loss of a dear person when you go through several stages realizing the loss. I would like to read a book and reconstruct this picture once again, because right now everything is too muddled,\u201d she said.<\/p>\n

During the Russian-Georgian War in 2008, Dmytro Tymchuk with his colleagues analyzed whether a similar scenario is likely in Ukraine. According to Tymchuk, there were grounds for serious concern already. \u201cWhen we worked on Crimea events, we were impressed with the scale of work by Russia\u2019s security service. The unit of FSB [Russia\u2019s Federal Security Service produced tremendous destabilization and subversive work,\u201d he said. In December 2009, Ukraine asked to withdraw this unit from its territory but it was restored once Viktor Yanukovych was elected. Tymchuk said that the FSB unit expanded its activities to coordinating activities of Russia-backed organizations across Ukraine\u2019s southern and eastern regions. Tymchuk mentioned Kharkiv-based Oplot militant group as one of such organizations. \u201cUnder Yanukovych, activities of Russia\u2019s special services were not controlled at all,\u201d he said. Thus the Russian intelligence wiretapped the Staff of Ukrainian Maritime Forces in Sevastopol and listened to the conversations of Ukraine\u2019s naval command.<\/p>\n

Tymchuk and his associates created a semi-secret network of agents that allowed controlling activities of Russian special services on the peninsula and follow the illegal movement of the Russian Black Sea fleet. Tymchuk argued that it was clear from the very beginning the annexation of Crimea was a well-prepared operation. He concluded that the main reason why Russian troops seized the peninsula without firing a shot was not due to the lack of clear orders from Kyiv, but because of the unwillingness of military units to resist. Some openly demonstrated their sympathies for the Russian Federation, while others were afraid to take up responsibility. \u201cIf we recall what was happening in the country and society, it was something very similar to anarchy if not anarchy itself,\u201d noted Tymchuk. Top law enforcement officers fled with Yanukovych, the rest were lost after the earlier events in Kyiv. \u201cIt is still a mystery to me why our special services and law enforcers did not provide an official version of what was happening in Crimea,\u201d confessed Tymchuk. He emphasized that it is strategically important to study the operation of the Crimean annexation in detail in order to prevent a similar scenario regarding any other territory in the future.<\/p>\n

Heorhiy Lohvynsky, MP of the People\u2019s Front faction, who was Advisor to Mustafa Dzhemilev during the annexation. As a lawyer, he started an active campaign to defend the rights of the people in Crimea and sue Russia for annexing peninsula. \u201cOn the one hand, the takeover of Crimea is unique, but on the other there is a lot of typical things. If we had analyzed deeper what was happening, the annexation would have probably not happened. The book that is out today is a sort of a Bible that we can use today to make conclusions and realize how we should have resisted,\u201d he noted. \u201cI am convinced that the Crimea story is not over, it may develop both from the standpoint of continued annexation and from the the one of regaining control. The return of Crimea depends on how we are able to defend our territory today, make the right steps and develop a proper strategy,\u201d said Lohvynsky.<\/p>\n