OSCE High Commissioner on National Minorities is asked to protect Bashkort

Our movement adressed to Rustam Minnikhanov, President of Republic of Tatarstan, with a request to provide financial support to family of Danis Safargali, Tatar political prisoner. His wife Guzel is now raising 4 children on her own.

For more than eight months official authorities of Republic of Mordovia have been exploring the issue of building a monument to famous warlord Inyazor Purgaz.

The expiring year seems to become one of most dramatic in newest history of Idel-Ural. Our people lost their right to teach official languages of the Republics as obligatory school disciplines. Without regard to numerous mass meetings and pickets, statements and appeals, Moscow implemented humiliating procedure in our republics: to study Mari or Erzyan language it is necessary to apply special written statements, and even more, in some cases to convince school management that mother tongue of your child should be allowed to study there. 

We are compelled to note that in 2018 the situation with respect of language rights for peoples of Idel-Ural became only worse. Erzyan, Mokshan, Chuvash, Mari, Tatar, Udmurt and Bashkir languages not only did not extend their scope of application – on the contrary, their positions in education have weakened substantially. Russian authorities offer to our people to practice their mother tongues in families, to sing folk songs in villages and to participate voluntarily in humiliating bureaucratic measures, aimed to cover russification with slogans about friendship of nations. We demand the most exdended functioning of our official languages in all spheres of public and private life, from government services to television and radion broadcasting.

Rafis Kashapov, Tatar activist, who is considered to be one of Tatars national movement leaders, and a co-founder of Free Idel-Ural civic movement, was put on BOLO (be on the lookout) list.