The Tragedy on the Arabatska Strilka

Yesterday, the Crimean Tatar community commemorated the mass drowning of all of the Crimean Tatars who were not deported on May 18, 1944.

The reason these Crimean Tatars were overlooked? They lived on the narrow spit of land known as the "Arabatska Strilka"  ("strilka" = arrow) that stretches over 110 km from the Kherson oblast' in Ukraine down to the Azov coast in Eastern Crimea. The best image yielded from my very quick google search is above (we salute you, Wikipedia!) -- it's that little skinny dark blue part that looks like a Photoshop free-draw.

The somber day began with a prayer at the mosque in Generalskoye,

and then a caravan to the beach, where we assembled on a sand bar.


The local imam led a prayer,

and a local Ukrainian Orthodox priest lead a short panakhyda (death mass) in honor of the Slavs who were drowned for witnessing the crime.


Carnations and beans were tossed into the Azov Sea. It was a somber affair.

But day trip from Simferopol ended warmly, with an invitation for dinner (and to break the Ramadan fast for those who had not eaten all day) at a home in Dzhankoy. We watched wedding videos and I got leads on some musicians who I am told need to be recorded. On the drive home, I got to ride shotgun, and had a debate about religion and politics with the driver, a local community leader. It was an inconclusive but exciting debate, and it felt good to achieve a level of exchange almost untroubled by the fact that he spoke Russian and Tatar and I spoke fake Russian and Ukrainian.

Tonight, in honor of the last day of Ramadan, fried food is on the menu. In fact, I have less than hour to report to Milara's kitchen for cheburek duty, and I still need to mail things from the central post office, so this is me bracing for that and signing off. 

Crimean Tatar cookbooks for sale!

Hot off the Bakhchisaray presses, straight from Shevqiye Seytmemetov's family kitchen! Learn to make all your 26 favorite Crimean Tatar dishes, including Qashiq Ash, Chebureky, Sarma, Manty and Qurabiye!

If you'd like to purchase a copy (in Russian or in English) feel free to e-mail me your address and I'll arrange for it. The cost, including mailing from Ukraine, should be approximately $9. 

This is the kind of dinner party you can have, just imagine it:

And here are two photos from the Koktebel jazz fest which took place the past weekend, where we camped with all the Ukrainian hippies and their djembes...

and got to see a late-night fire-dancer even though we weren't VIPs.

Some roads lead to Simferopol

Yesterday afternoon, my first full day back in Simferopol, I sat down for a rest and a snack on a concrete slab on the side of Sevastopolskaya vulitsa and watched the traffic-clogged street move in fits and starts. I'd stopped into a magazin, where the lady in charge regarded me with what appeared to be scorn, and refused to reach for the plain packet of "Cossack's Fun" peanuts, instead offering me chicken or bacon flavored peanuts. I gave up trying for plain and took the chicken.

Oh, Simferopol. I'm easing in, taking my time, since that's the way in these parts. It's been lousy and raining outside, which resulted in a cancellation of my plans for today's meeting in Bakhchisaray. But happily, an invitation to a birthday party came in, and I've convinced a friend to roadtrip tomorrow to Koktebel' to check out the famous jazz festival going on this weekend. I'll miss Richard Galliano tonight, but catch Archie Schepp on Sunday.

And so next week the interviewing begins. I hope to start learning some more songs, take a few lessons in vocal style and maybe accordion if I can find a teacher willing to deal with an accordion-less student.

It's been fascinating to talk to folks here about the South Ossetian conflict, as you might imagine. I had a sense of how different the American and Russian media were spinning the conflict while in the states, but on the ground, the difference is really palpable. Western analyses of the tensions in Crimea about to bubble over seemed alarmist to me while in the US, and compared to how people here have been talking about it to me that feeling seems justified: the consensus from those I've spoken to seems to be that Crimeans aren't looking for war, but they think Russia did right in protecting its citizens in Tskhinvali. For those that opposed the Orange Revolution, Saakashvili's misstep (or response to Russian threats) and the recent (albeit familiar) political turmoil in Ukraine has only hardened convictions about Yushchenko as American puppet, in the same league of incompetence as the Georgian leader. But then, I haven't spoken to politicians here, and some Tatars I've talked to certainly regard Russia's recent meddling with more cynicism than others. Here's some of the latest in the Western press -- more, it appears, of Russia as provocateur. (I keep wondering why there hasn't been more press about the glaring example of Chechnya.)

Let's shift to a bit of good news: the online journal Triple Canopy is going to publish a version of our No Other Home project! So we're working on getting that together for next month's issue. 

No Other Home: The Crimean Tatars, a preview

A long hiatus from the blog, but online today to make sure you know about the preview of the presentation that Alison Cartwright and I are developing.

If you're in New York, please come to the Harriman Institute on Tuesday evening to see a first draft of the presentation:

And if you're in Washington DC, please consider joining us on Friday evening.

My six weeks in the states flew and I'm preparing for my return to Crimea next weekend. Once back in Simferopol, I expect this blog to start up again, so stay tuned.