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DEFIANCE
DISPATCHES FROM CRIMEA
WITH LUTFIYE ZUDIYEVA
As journalists, lawyers, writers, and activists in Crimea continue to face repression and imprisonment, we share monthly updates with Lutfiye Zudiyeva.
Shedding light on the struggle for self-determination and the solidarity that endures under occupation, these dispatches offer insight into the cost of speaking out — and the courage of those who do.
Lutfiye Zudiyeva is a Crimean Tartar writer, journalist and Co-ordinator of the Crimean Solidarity human rights network.
LUTFIYE ZUDIYEVA
Lutfiye’s activism and belief in collective justice are routed in her family history and inspired by her father. She was born in Uzbekistan after her grandparents were deported by Russia alongside 190,000 Crimean Tartars in 1944. Formerly recognised as a genocide by the Ukrainian Parliament in 2015, many Crimean Tartars died during deportation and also due to the harsh living conditions in Uzbekistan. Lutfiye’s family returned to Crimea in 1989 after the collapse of the Soviet Union and Ukraine’s independence. Lutfiye was nine months pregnant with her fourth child when Russia invaded and occupied Crimea in 2014. New laws were introduced that targeted activists, journalists and lawyers. In particular they who were Crimean Tartars were singled out for expressing their language, cultural identity and advocating for their rights facing sentences of up to 15 to 20 years. As independent media was shut down, books banned and mass arrests began, Lutfiye responded by writing and documenting the situation.
ATTACKS, DETAINMENTS
AND INTERROGATIONS
Russia has detained and interrogated Lutfiye three times. In 2019, during Ramadan, the Russian police took Lutfiye off the street near her home. She was detained, interrogated, and fined for her work. Lutfiye saw this as a warning of what was to come if she continued writing, a threat which she chose to ignore. “They wanted to make me scared. But it was exactly the other way around. Surviving this meant I overcame my fear.” Then, on the 22nd of February 2024, the Russian Police from the ‘Centre for Counter Extremism’, entered Lutfiye’s house at 6 am. Early morning raids on the homes of Crimean Tartars are so common that Lutfiye often sleeps in her clothes, in anticipation of arrest. The police took a video register, telephones, a laptop, flash drives, and two books. She was taken to a detention centre called the Center for Counter Extremism, a unit controlled by the Russian Interior Ministry. She was charged with ‘abuse of freedom of mass information’ for Facebook posts dating back to 2021 and later found guilty, resulting in a RUB 2000 fine. Both court decisions were upheld on appeal. On May 6, 2024, a police officer visited her for questioning at the Center for Counter Extremism’s request. The next day, another officer handed her a warning concerning the “inadmissibility of extremist activities” and “law violations during mass events” without specifying details.
MONTHY DISPATCHES
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DETAINED DURING RAMADAN
MARCH 2025
It was back in 2019 and Ramadan had already started. I had invited members of the Crimean solidarity movement to visit for an Iftar dinner. So I was shopping, carrying bags with food when two cars stopped next to me. Unknown men with balaclavas ran out and surrounded me. The men told me I was being arrested. I asked them to give me a few minutes as my children were home alone and I had many shopping bags but they said no. I was really scared for my safety. I managed to tell my husband that I was being arrested. He rushed to me but I was already in the police car and he couldn’t do anything. As we drove away, he followed in his car. This is a good thing to do, as there are cases where people disappear completely after being arrested. I thought they would take me to the local police station but they drove for two hours to the Centre for Counter Extremism. I was detained and surrounded by these men who I didn't know and for sure, these people had previously tortured journalists. They wanted to start a dialogue with me, but I remained silent. I didn't trust them; the more I said, the more they could gather information against me. I was detained and surrounded by these men who I didn't know and for sure, these people had previously tortured journalists. They wanted to start a dialogue with me, but I remained silent. I didn't trust them; the more I said, the more they could gather information against me. I also knew that many of them were traitors - that they were previously working for the Ukrainian Secret Service and then they betrayed their own and started working for the Russians. After seven hours, I was released. The next day, there was a court hearing against me, and the court decided I was guilty. I was not surprised at all because the courts were operating with the police and the security forces. Fortunately, this was only an administrative case, so I was not imprisoned but had to pay a small sum of 2000 rubles. This is a scheme that the court has where they start administrative cases as a way to show activists that they are being watched and to make them stop. But it was exactly the other way around. I had been detained and surrounded by men who I didn't know, which had always been my deepest fear. Surviving this meant I overcame my fear.
FURTHER READING
