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| Version 1 | Version 2 |
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| Russia Shuts Down TV Station Serving Crimean Tatars | Russia Shuts Down TV Station Serving Crimean Tatars |
| (about 17 hours later) | |
| MOSCOW — Russia pulled the plug on the last independent television station serving Crimean Tatars on Wednesday, continuing what members of the Tatar minority called a pattern of discrimination because of their opposition to Russia’s annexation of the Black Sea peninsula. | |
| The station, ATR, had been broadcasting under a Ukrainian license that expired on Tuesday. Its four applications for a new, Russian license were rejected by Roskomnadzor, Moscow’s media regulator, according to the channel’s managers. | The station, ATR, had been broadcasting under a Ukrainian license that expired on Tuesday. Its four applications for a new, Russian license were rejected by Roskomnadzor, Moscow’s media regulator, according to the channel’s managers. |
| “We will do everything to obtain all necessary documents to resume the broadcast,” Elzara Islyamova, the station’s general director, said at a news conference in Crimea that was posted on YouTube. The main point is to try to preserve a channel run by Tatars, for Tatars, she said. | |
| Meydan FM, a Tatar radio station owned by the same organization, also went off the air. | Meydan FM, a Tatar radio station owned by the same organization, also went off the air. |
| Lenur Islyamov, ATR’s founder, said the station had received an offer to sell that sounded more like a threat, as the proposal mentioned the scores of businesses that had been confiscated recently by the local government. | Lenur Islyamov, ATR’s founder, said the station had received an offer to sell that sounded more like a threat, as the proposal mentioned the scores of businesses that had been confiscated recently by the local government. |
| Petro O. Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, posted a picture of himself on Twitter with Tatar leaders whom Russia had expelled from Crimea, along with a note saying, “You can turn off the TV, but you cannot stop the Crimean people’s pursuit of freedom and the truth.” | Petro O. Poroshenko, Ukraine’s president, posted a picture of himself on Twitter with Tatar leaders whom Russia had expelled from Crimea, along with a note saying, “You can turn off the TV, but you cannot stop the Crimean people’s pursuit of freedom and the truth.” |
| Crimea’s prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, accused the station’s management of salting its applications with blunders in order to lose its license and foment sectarian divisions. The problems were created “intentionally,” Mr. Aksyonov said at a news conference on March 24, “in order to fan the conflict surrounding that channel.” | Crimea’s prime minister, Sergei Aksyonov, accused the station’s management of salting its applications with blunders in order to lose its license and foment sectarian divisions. The problems were created “intentionally,” Mr. Aksyonov said at a news conference on March 24, “in order to fan the conflict surrounding that channel.” |
| Crimean Tatars will continue to have access to the news media, he added. | Crimean Tatars will continue to have access to the news media, he added. |
| There are about 300,000 Tatars, who are Muslims, among the two million people in Crimea, and local officials openly accuse Tatars of working against Russian interests. | There are about 300,000 Tatars, who are Muslims, among the two million people in Crimea, and local officials openly accuse Tatars of working against Russian interests. |
| “The West, through Ukraine, tried to tear off Crimea from Russia through the Crimean Tatars,” Vladimir A. Konstantinov, the speaker of Crimea’s Parliament, said at a recent news conference in Moscow. “They were used as a fifth column.” | “The West, through Ukraine, tried to tear off Crimea from Russia through the Crimean Tatars,” Vladimir A. Konstantinov, the speaker of Crimea’s Parliament, said at a recent news conference in Moscow. “They were used as a fifth column.” |
| Tatar schools, mosques and political organizations have been raided repeatedly by law enforcement officers since the annexation of Crimea a year ago. | Tatar schools, mosques and political organizations have been raided repeatedly by law enforcement officers since the annexation of Crimea a year ago. |
| One Tatar leader, Nariman Dzhelalov, wrote on Facebook that representatives of the Crimean prosecutor’s office had visited him at home on Monday to read aloud a warning not to participate in any demonstrations about the television station’s closing. | One Tatar leader, Nariman Dzhelalov, wrote on Facebook that representatives of the Crimean prosecutor’s office had visited him at home on Monday to read aloud a warning not to participate in any demonstrations about the television station’s closing. |
| The Tatars were deported en masse from Crimea under Stalin and allowed to return only in the last years of the Soviet Union. Many, but not all, supported Ukraine’s joining the European Union because they believed that it would best ensure their rights as members of a minority. |