Two Crimean Tatar political prisoners – Osman Arifmemetov and Server Mustafayev – recently became laureates of the literary award “Krymsky Inzhir” (“Crimean Fig”), with Mr. Arifmemetov’s prize for a text poignantly titled “My Deportation.” The awards in Kyiv were handed out by Ukrainian filmmaker and former Kremlin political prisoner Oleh Sentsov, who was forced to pass them to the men’s representatives just as once his prizes were accepted by his cousin and lawyer while he remained imprisoned in Siberia.
As journalist Taras Ibragimov noted in an acceptance speech on Mr. Arifmemetov’s behalf, the award demonstrated that “Osman Arifmemetov is a journalist by vocation who has not ceased his work even after his arrest and imprisonment. Osman is a modern example of the dissident movement of Soviet times.”