The history of the Crimean Tatars’ struggle — one of Ukraine’s Indigenous peoples — is filled with examples of courage and resilience. Today, the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemiliev, celebrates his 81st birthday, standing as a symbol of this enduring fight.

Mustafa Dzhemiliev, the future leader of the Crimean Tatars, was born in the village of Ay-Serez (Mizhrichchia) near Sudak during a challenging time for his people. Crimea was under Nazi control, yet even darker days lay ahead.

His parents, Abduldzhemil and Makhfure Mustafayeva, were dispossessed and deported to the Urals by Soviet authorities in the 1930s, though they eventually managed to return to Crimea. However, this reunion with their homeland was short-lived: shortly after the restoration of Soviet power in 1944, Mustafa, his family, and the entire Crimean Tatar population were deported from Crimea.

From the moment of his deportation to Uzbekistan, Dzhemiliev’s life became part of a long struggle for the Crimean Tatars’ right to return home and preserve their culture. By the age of 16, while working as a lathe operator at a factory, he joined the underground youth organization “Union of Crimean Tatar Youth,” composed of students and workers. Soon, the authorities forcefully disbanded the organization, arrested its leaders, fired Dzhemiliev from his job, and placed him under KGB surveillance.

The mid-20th century was an era of global change, uprisings against imperialism and colonialism, and struggles for independence and self-determination worldwide. 

It was during this period that Mustafa Dzhemiliev began his active human rights advocacy. In the 1960s, when any expression of national consciousness was harshly suppressed in the USSR, Dzhemiliev openly opposed Soviet policies, calling for the Crimean Tatars’ return to their historical homeland. As a young activist in protests with a clear political stance, he was expelled from his university. His historical manuscript, A Brief Historical Essay on Turkic Culture in Crimea in the 13th–18th Centuries, which he distributed among students, was deemed “nationalistic and anti-Soviet.”

For refusing to serve in the Soviet Army, he was sent to a labor camp near Tashkent for a year and a half. After his release, he connected with human rights activists across the USSR and informed the world about the plight of the Crimean Tatars.

Dzhemiliev became one of the founders of the Initiative Group for the Defense of Human Rights in the USSR. Shortly afterward, he was arrested and charged with “spreading deliberately false fabrications discrediting the Soviet state system.” The Soviet “court” sentenced him to three years in prison, which became the first of many future sentences.

One of the most infamous cases against Dzhemiliev by the Soviet regime was the so-called “Omsk Trial”—his fourth. He conducted a 303-day hunger strike in protest against charges of allegedly “slandering the Soviet regime,” accusations made just days before he was due to be released from his previous term in the labor camp.

During the entire period of Dzhemilev’s hunger strike, Western radio stations reported daily on his condition, protests, and appeals. Soviet doctors administered injections and infusions to sustain his life. Simultaneously, he was openly threatened and coerced to end his strike. Only after the “court” issued a two-year prison sentence and following numerous appeals from human rights advocates and friends did he finally conclude his hunger strike.

Mustafa Dzhemilev paid a high price for his human rights activism: arrests, camps, trials, and prolonged hunger strikes. Yet, this did not break his will. He became the voice of the Crimean Tatars worldwide, known for his dedication to principles and steadfastness. Dzhemilev laid the foundation for the Crimean Tatars’ national movement, aimed at restoring their rights and returning to their homeland.

In February 1983, after another restriction of freedom, he moved to Crimea. While in political exile in Yakutiia, he met his future wife, with whom he had a child. Upon learning of his return to Crimea with his family, Soviet authorities expelled them from the peninsula. He could finally return to Crimea only in May 1989, following two more Soviet court rulings.

On June 6, 1991, at the national congress of the Crimean Tatar people—the Kurultai—held for the first time since 1917, Mustafa Dzhemilev was elected head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. After Ukraine gained independence, he continued to defend his people’s rights as a member of parliament and the first head of the Mejlis. Dzhemilev stands as a symbol of the Crimean Tatars’ national consciousness revival and a leader striving to secure their rights in a democratic Ukraine.

However, history brought new challenges. In 2014, Russia occupied Crimea, and subsequently, Russian occupiers banned Dzhemilev from entering his native peninsula. He lost the opportunity once more to see his homeland, where his relatives and friends remained. Despite everything, Mustafa Dzhemilev continues to defend his people’s rights, working on legislation and representing the Crimean Tatars in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine. Today, he embodies the ongoing struggle for justice and freedom, reminding the world of the price the Crimean Tatar people pay for the right to be themselves.

His words: “The reign of jackals lasts only until lions rise to their feet,” spoken at the inaugural Crimea Platform summit, resonate with the challenges faced by all who seek to uphold their rights and liberties. Although Dzhemilev cannot yet return to Crimea, his voice remains a steadfast symbol of the resilience of the Crimean Tatar people and their tireless fight for the freedom of their land.