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Russian Forces Detain Crimean Tatar Women, Children and Teachers in Coordinated Morning Raids
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![Photo of Vlad Litnarovych]( "Photo of Vlad Litnarovych")
On the morning of October 15, Russian occupation forces in Crimea detained four Crimean Tatar women and transferred them to Simferopol, to the so-called “FSB Directorate for the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol,” according to Refat Chubarov, head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.
Earlier that day, the human rights group Crimean Solidarity reported searches at the women’s homes.
“In the village of Kholmovka, Bakhchysarai district, a search is being conducted at the home of Nasiba Saidova. In the nearby village of Dolynne, another search is taking place at the home of Elviza Aliyeva,” the group said. A third search was underway in the village of Orlivka, at the home of Elyanora Osmanova. The first to be detained was Esma Nimetulaieva, the wife of political prisoner Remzi Nimetulaiev.
“If earlier, searches were seen as something exceptional, since 2022 many have come to view them as part of everyday life. Such normalization teaches people to see violations of privacy as an inevitable evil — especially when no justice follows,” wrote Crimean Solidarity activist and Graty journalist Lutfie Zudiyeva on Facebook.
She also described how Esma Nimetulaieva was detained.
“They told me: ‘You’ll stay with the grandchildren as their grandmother—you can apply for guardianship. If there’s no guardian, the state may take the children.’ I said, ‘I will never give my granddaughters to anyone.’ During the search I felt unwell, Esma gave me a pill, and the children were calmed down. I asked them: ‘Why are you doing this? You’re making children orphans while their parents are alive. What have they done to you? They only practice their faith,’” Esma’s mother recounted, as quoted by Zudiyeva.
Esma Nimetulaieva is a mother of five and the wife of political prisoner Remzi Nimetulaiev, who was detained by occupation authorities on August 23, 2023, as one of the defendants in the so-called “fifth Bakhchysarai group.”
According to Crimean Solidarity, Nasiba Saidova is a student at a pedagogical college and works with toddlers at a kindergarten.
“Fevziye Osmanova and Elviza Aliyeva are unmarried young women—we still need to learn more about their families,” Zudiyeva added.
Earlier, Russian occupation authorities imprisoned two Crimean Tatar brothers, Rustem and Bekir Gugurik, in cases that human-rights monitors describe as lawless and emblematic of abuses in occupied Crimea.
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