6pm UK time, Wednesday 4 November, on Zoom. Hosted by UCU Members for Ukraine and Ukraine Solidarity Campaign
Too often Crimea is referred to as just a location on a map, a strategic location on the Black Sea. At this event, you will hear the lived realities of Crimea’s indigenous people, the Crimean Tatars, their work as activists, researchers and artists, and their struggles under and against Russian occupation. You will hear from historians and researchers specialising in Crimean Tatars’ history and present, and how modern Ukrainian identity includes Crimea.
Speakers:
Martin-Oleksandr Kisly, History Department of National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy
Anastasia Bezverkha, Head of the Identity Programme at Mnozhyna Foundation
Alim Aliev, Deputy Director General of the Ukrainian Institute, founder of the ‘Crimean Fig’ literary project
Emine Ziyatdin, Ukrainian Crimean Tatar visual artist and researcher
More about the speakers below.
Martin-Oleksandr Kisly, History Department of National University of Kyiv-Mohyla academy. Was born in Simferopol, Crimea. A historian of Crimea and Crimean Tatars with a focus on Soviet and post-Soviet periods. In 2021 he defended a PhD dissertation entitled “Crimean Tatars’ Return to the Homeland in 1956–1989”. His research interests include (but not limited to): oral history, memory, trauma, identity, migration and colonialism. One of the authors of Online course “Crimea: History and People”. He is an expert of the council on cognitive de-occupation at the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
Anastasia Bezverkha. As the Head of the Identity Programme at the Mnozhyna Foundation, she focuses on researching and shaping a modern, inclusive Ukrainian civic identity by exploring themes of decolonization, collective memory, and social cohesion. Bringing extensive expertise in strategic communications, human rights, and community development, her professional background includes significant global engagement, notably supporting vulnerable populations through her recent work at the Robert Carr Fund in the Netherlands (2022–2025). Bridging academia and practical advocacy, she holds a PhD in Mass Communications and a Political Science degree from the Kyiv-Mohyla Academy, further enriched by prestigious research fellowships at the University of Oxford as a Chevening Scholar and the University of Toronto.
Alim Aliev, Deputy Director General of the Ukrainian institute, founder of the “Crimean Fig” literary project. Human rights defender, curator of educational and cultural projects, researcher, essayist . Member of PEN Ukraine, co-founder of “Crimea SOS” NGO. Co-author of a book “Mustafa Dzhemilev. Unbreakable” about Crimean Tatars leader, author of essays about Crimea, Crimean Tatars, Ukrainian identity during the war in Ukrainian and international publications. The founder of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar literary project “Crimean Fig”, the initiator of the creation of the digital museum of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars “Tamırlar” . He worked as a program director of the Crimean House and a media and communications consultant of the expert company pro.mova. Participant and speaker of Ukrainian delegations in the Council of Europe, European Parliament, OSCE, UN Security Council, and other political institutions. Awarded the Order of Merit, by the President of Ukraine in 2020. Professionally focused on Ukrainian civil society and multiculturalism, development of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar studies abroad, occupied Crimea and the Crimean Tatar people, decolonization, freedom of speech, international representation of modern Ukrainian culture.
Emine Ziyatdin is a Ukrainian Crimean Tatar visual artist and researcher. She was born in Uzbekistan, where her family was deported by the Soviet regime along with the entire Crimean Tatar population in 1944. In 1990, her family returned to Crimea. Her work explores themes of home, belonging, and collective memory through visual and research-based approaches. She holds an MA in Sociology from Ivan Franko National University of Lviv and an MA in Photojournalism from Ohio University’s School of Visual Communication. Her work has been supported by a Fulbright Scholarship and the Magnum Foundation Emergency Fund Fellowship. Emine’s photography has been exhibited in Ukraine and internationally. She is a Gates Cambridge Scholar and PhD researcher in Slavonic Studies at the University of Cambridge.
