The Crimean Islamic Brigade recently broadcast a video clip showing its fighters inside the village of Motygin, west of the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, announcing its liberation from the Russians.
The name of the "Islamic Crimean Brigade" began to surface in the media in Ukraine after the revolution against the pro-Russian regime of Viktor Yanukovych in 2014. What is its story?
Crimean Tatars
1954: During the Soviet era, Crimea joined Ukraine after the Ukrainian-born Soviet leader Nikta Khrushchev gifted it to his original homeland.
1991: After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became part of independent Ukraine, which granted the region an autonomous region.
The Crimean Tatars, with a Muslim majority, represent about 12% of the population of the Crimea, and their number is about 243,000 people out of a population of about two million people in the region.
The population of Russian origin, who represents about 58%, is the largest ethnicity inhabiting the region, which explains the result of the vote in favor of joining Russia (2014).
The Ukrainian population in the region represents about 24%, according to the last population census conducted by Ukraine since 2001.
Women's omens
February 2014: Russian President Vladimir Putin says that "we must begin work on returning Crimea to Russia."
March 2014: widespread unrest in southern and eastern Ukraine, as Russian forces succeeded in controlling the Crimea and installing a local government loyal to it, and a unilateral referendum was held.
March 16, 2014: Pro-Russian separatists declare Crimea's independence from Ukraine.
March 18, 2014: Moscow officially announced the annexation of Crimea to the Russian Federation, which was met with the rejection of Ukraine and the imposition of international sanctions on Moscow.
Ukraine has completely withdrawn its forces from Crimea, after Russia's control of the peninsula has become a fait accompli.
April 2014: The secession of Donetsk and Luhansk regions from Ukraine begins with Russian support.
May 2014: Unilateral declaration of the Donetsk and Lugansk People's Republics.
Establishment Announcement
- Movements resisting the Russian occupation have emerged, such as the Crimean Tatar Islamic Brigade and others, where the Muslim Tatars are among the most prominent minorities that have lived inside the peninsula for decades.
2014: Businessman Issa Akayev established the first nucleus of the Islamic "Crimean Tatar Brigade".
June 2014: The battalion, which included in addition to the Crimean Tatar fighters, Caucasian and Ukrainian fighters, was sent to the areas of conflict with the separatists in Donbass (eastern Ukraine). The battalion also fought other battles to defend Mariupol in the south.
2015: The Crimean Tatar Brigade became one of several Muslim battalions such as the Sheikh Mansour Brigade, the Chechen Gohar Dudayev Brigade, and the Tatar Numan Gilpichan Brigade. It was formed to volunteer to fight alongside the Ukrainian army, to confront the separatist movements backed by Russia, and to repel Russian military intervention Which ended with the occupation of Crimea and the secession of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in the east of the country, in 2014.
Isa Akayev was a businessman running his own company in the Crimean capital (Simferopol), before Russia occupied it in 2014.
After he fled with his family and many of the Crimean Tatars to the Ukrainian regions bordering the peninsula (about 20 thousand), he decided to unite the members of the Tatar minority to fight Russia and the separatists supported by it.
His Islamic battalion was initially self-financed, but later received support and training from the Ukrainian armed forces.
- Isa Akayev said in previous statements to the Crimean News Agency (QHA): "When the Russian forces entered Crimea, we wanted to resist the Russian invaders, and we were discussing what we could do, such as creating our own defense forces to protect our people. With the entry of Russian soldiers in large numbers, we decided We moved our families to Ukraine, and back to Crimea ourselves to organize a clandestine resistance, but unfortunately we didn’t succeed.”
Akayev recounts that his group initially received direct support from a senior general in the Ukrainian army, Major General Igor Gordychuk. Akayev told QHA: “At that time Gordychuk was the commander of an anti-terrorist intelligence unit in the Donbass, and when I explained to him the concept of the Crimean Tatar battalion I loved The idea a lot, and he was impressed with the idea of forming units on the basis of ethnic or religious affiliation, he saw that these units are very effective in battles.
Akayev says that no one took care of his battalion after Major General Igor Gudychuk was badly wounded in one of the battles. "They didn't want to include us as a separate unit within the Ukrainian Armed Forces or the National Guard, they just wanted to divide us into different units within the Ukrainian army," he said.
Battalion "Numan Gilbechan"
There were reports of the unification of the "Crimean Tatars" battalion led by Isa Akayev, under one roof, with the Tatar "Numan Gelpichan" battalion as well, which was established in the city of Kherson, 3 km from the Crimean peninsula, where he commanded the "Numan Gelpichan" battalion. Lenore Islamov, a well-known Tatar businessman and politician, was the former Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea before it fell to Russia.
The "Numan Gelpichan" battalion included hundreds of fighters from the Crimean Tatars. It was named after Numan Gelpichan, the Mufti of the Crimean Tatars and the head of the independent, short-lived Crimean People's Republic. Bolshevik forces executed him in 1918, and threw his body into the sea without to allow a proper Muslim burial, and he is still remembered today as a hero among the Crimean Tatars.
- Islamov stated that his battalion participated for a long time in imposing a commercial blockade on the Crimea, which was occupied by the Russians, and cut off supplies from it, such as power lines and others in 2015, and prevented cars from entering the peninsula, and incited the attacks of Russian ships at sea.
2015: Islamov, the owner of the Crimean Tatar “ATR” channel, the transport company “Sim City Trans” and the “Just Bank” bank, announced the initiation of the formation of his battalion within the strength of the Ukrainian army, and at the same time stated that Turkey decided to support his battalion. .
- December 29, 2015: The Turkish Foreign Ministry denied that Ankara provided any funding for the Tatar battalion in Ukraine, and the ministry said - in an official statement - that reports that Turkey had provided or would provide support to volunteer forces in the Ukrainian province of Kherson bear names such as "Battalion". Crimean Tatars" and the "Numan Gilpichan Brigade" are unfounded.
Ankara's statement added that "Turkey has not and will not recognize the illegal Russian annexation of Crimea, and Turkey will continue its determined efforts to protect the rights and freedoms of the Crimean Tatar people there."
After 2016: the armed groups of the Crimean Tatars merged into the Ukrainian army after it was disbanded, and most of its members joined the Ukrainian armed forces.
Veterans Council
2019: The election of the commander of the Islamic Crimean Brigade Issa Akayev, to be a member of the Veterans Council of the Ministry of Veterans Affairs, representing the occupied Republic of Crimea.
February 28, 2022: 4 days after the start of the Russian military operation in Ukraine, Isa Akayev reappeared with a white beard in a video clip, with fighters from the Crimean Brigade next to him, to announce the participation of his battalion in the defense of Ukraine.
Akayev warned the Russian forces against the continued invasion of Ukraine, and at the same time sent a message to the Muslims of Russia and Crimea, calling on them to refuse to fight in Ukraine. Burial in Ukraine.
- Volunteer leader Akayev stated that the Russian Empire had destroyed the Crimean Muslim Tatars for many years, and he said in the same passage, "Russia has seized our land and all our possessions, and we must restore our dignity."
- In the war, the fighters of the Crimean Islamic Brigade appeared in numerous photos and videos fighting on the fronts in Ukraine, where some videos showed the size and type of armaments that the Tatar Brigade had.
- March 29, 2022: smiling Isa Akayev, along with a group of his fighters, appeared in a video clip in the town of Motigin, west of the capital, Kyiv, and they were talking with some residents who welcomed them, after they regained control of the town that the Russian forces had seized in the recent battles. .
- The battalion said that it carried out an operation to restore the strategic village of Motygin, located south of the E40 and SE highways from Makarev, which is one of the main axes of the siege of the capital Kyiv, with the support of the Ukrainian army forces, and at the same time vowed to inflict losses on the ranks of the Russian army.