PARTICIPATION OF THE CRIMEAN TATAR INDIGENOUS PEOPLE IN THE ELECTIONS TO THE VERKHOVNA RADA OF UKRAINE (1998–2019)

Abstract

After the annexation of Crimea and the outbreak of the Russian-Ukrainian war, the academic community and Ukrainian society faced a number of threats. One of these threats was the policy of discrimination and repression of Crimean Tatars in Crimea. Therefore, there is a need to protect the rights of the indigenous people at the national level. Elections are an effective tool for influencing political power, articulating, aggregating and protecting the interests of different groups of the population. The purpose of the article is to study the peculiarities of participation of the Crimean Tatars the parliamentary elections in Ukraine. In accordance with the purpose, the following research objectives have been formulated: to analyze the political and legal framework for the participation of Crimean Tatars in electoral processes in Ukraine; to characterize the peculiarities of participation of Crimean Tatars in parliamentary elections in Ukraine from 1994 to 2019; to highlight the characteristic features of electoral participation of the indigenous people. The problem of the lack of official status of the Crimean Tatars as an indigenous people, which existed before the adoption of the relevant law, was emphasized. Also, the key characteristics of the participation of Crimean Tatars in the parliamentary elections in Ukraine were highlighted: weak representation, lack of their own political force, search for support in national democratic political forces, unity of representatives of the indigenous people in defending and protecting the interests of the indigenous people, gradual intensification of the participation of indigenous people in the political life of Ukraine, in particular in electoral processes, etc.