Refat Abibulaev, a delegate to the World Congress of Crimean Tatars, has died in Crimea

In the temporarily occupied Crimea, Refat Abibulaev, an activist in the Crimean Tatar national movement and a delegate to the Kurultai and the World Congress of Crimean Tatars , died at the age of 73 . He had been ill for a long time before his death. 

This was reported by Eskender Bariev, a member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.

For years, Refat Abibulaev actively fought for the rights of the Crimean Tatars. He participated in protests and events aimed at defending the rights and interests of the Crimean Tatar people, restoring their rights, and facilitating their return to their historic homeland.

Refat Abibulaev was born on May 25, 1954, in the Akkurgan District of the Tashkent Region (Uzbek SSR). He lived in Yangiyul, from where he later moved to Crimea, returning to his historic homeland.

Earlier, at the age of 88, Petro Volvach passed away—a renowned Ukrainian scholar, public figure, researcher of the Symyrenko family, and one of the founders of the Ukrainian national movement in Crimea.

He was one of those who, in the early years of Ukraine’s independence, helped build the Ukrainian cultural and educational community in Crimea. He was instrumental in the founding of the Crimean “Prosvita,” the Ukrainian newspaper “Krymska Svitlytsia,” and the Ukrainian gymnasium in Simferopol.

Alongside his civic activities, Volvach dedicated his life to science. He was an agronomist, an agroecologist, a member of the Ukrainian Academy of Ecological Sciences, and the author of over 300 scientific papers and 18 monographs.

Юлія Калабайда