The armed seizure of the Crimean Tatar channel ATR takes place in Simferopol. The member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariev informs about that on his Facebook page.
“It is according to people. At the given moment masked men surrounded the world’s only Crimean Tatar channel ATR. They conduct a search and can damage expensive equipment,” Bariev writes.
The Crimean field mission on Human Rights confirmed this information. They informed on their Facebook page that law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation were going to conduct a search in the channel’s office. The entrance is watched over and no one is allowed to go inside.
“According to the current data of the Crimean field mission, law enforcement agencies of the Russian Federation are going to conduct a search in the channel’s office. The masked men armed with assault rifles watch over the entrance. There is the abbreviation OMON on their uniforms. No one is allowed to go inside. According to one of the journalists, each cabinet is also watched over by one gunner, they prohibited to make a video and threaten to take away the equipment.”
According to the Crimean field mission, the reason of this seizure is the intention of the Investigation Committee to confiscate videos made by the TV channel near the State Council of Crimea during the events of February 26, 2014.
As a reminder, the ATR TV channel is the only channel that broadcasts in the Crimean Tatar language.
