Rukhiye Asanova

– I was born in Sudak district in the village of Ay-Serez in 1937. I was only seven at the time of deportation.

– How many children were there in your family?

– There were four girls in our family. With our mother four… there were five of us. My father wasn’t home, Dad… in Belogorsk. He left for Belogorsk, worked in a small shop in Belogorsk. Do I have to say that?

– Yes, you do. He went to Belogorsk, he didn’t go to war, did he?

– He didn’t go to war. He was selling fruit in the small shop in Belogorsk collective farm, that belonged to Ay-Serez. He was selling grapes, fruit in Ay-Serez.

– In 1944?

– In 1994, in 1994.

– How were you told about the deportation?

– They came to our house in the morning when it was still dark, what time was it… it was dark. Dark. Three soldiers with guns in their hands knocked on the door, Mom got up and opened the door for them. She opened the door, and they came into the house. Sister…

– Did your sister work as chairman?

– My sister was the chairman in the village council at the time. 

– She was asked for a key: “Give us the key to the village council.”

– When did they ask about it?

– In the morning.

– The same day?

– The day they came in the dark…

– May 18th?

– Yes! That day, they came and took it away. After they took the key from her, they said we had 15 minutes to leave Crimea. When they said that, she thought she was in the village council… Okay, I won’t talk about it.

– Go ahead, go ahead.

– She ran after them and asked: “Is it because I work in the village council, am I only being evicted?” She ran after them and said: “There’s money, documents in the village council safe.” “You don’t need them, go back! In the morning at… in 15 minutes you’re leaving,” the soldiers said. She came home. So that’s how we were evicted. It happened in the morning. She thought that she’s the only one getting evicted. “I’m being evicted. I’m working, so I’m being evicted,” she thought. She thought we’re being evicted, only our family. She thought we’re being evicted, only our family. 

– Then she came and told you about it?

– Then she came back, and the soldiers didn’t come back again. The sister came back, they were getting ready. What can they take with them in 15 minutes? I don’t know what they managed to take in 15 minutes. At first, my mother took only Qur’an.

– Was it in the morning when the soldiers came?

– The soldiers went out, and we started packing.

– When the soldiers came in, did they read you an official document?

– No, they didn’t read anything.

– They told us to give up the keys and that we were being evicted. They didn’t say anything else.

– What time was that? What time?

– How can I know that? In the morning, it was still dark.

– What time could it have been? Five?

– In the dark. It was dark when they knocked on our door.

– Was it dawn?

– At dawn. Let it be at dawn.

– Five, five or six, whatever, at dawn.

– Did these soldiers explain to you why, for what time and where you’re being evicted?

– No, they didn’t explain anything. No, they didn’t explain anything, where they’re going to take us, for how long, what they’re going to do. They didn’t explain anything. They stopped in the villages. They stopped in the village. They came from every town and stayed in the village. They stopped and waited for orders. The day the order came…

– Did you know they were staying here?

– Yes, I did. Everybody knew, that they stayed here. But they didn’t say anything, just stayed here. At the club, at the mosque, wherever we went, they were there. They were sent there.

– How many soldiers were brought there?

– They were standing there.

– How much food and what items were you allowed to take with you?

– You know not much. I don’t know how much exactly.

– You said, your mother took Qur’an….

– Anyway, Mom took the Qur’an first. She took one or two more things and some food.

– What did she manage to take from the food?

– Maybe some bread, she didn’t mention anything else.

– I see.

– As for bedding, I don’t know. There was a blanket, too. She said she had two blankets brought in from Crimea.

– What else did she take?

– A sewing machine. My mother loved sewing on a sewing machine. She took the sewing machine, she took the Qur’an. Then a couple of blankets. There was a blanket, too. She was talking about blankets brought in from Crimea. And some of the food. I don’t know the rest…

– When you were told about deportation or after that, were you or family members abused?

– Violence? Maybe I should tell you that Dad wasn’t there.

– Go ahead.

– Dad wasn’t home at the time. Dad went to Belogorsk to sell fruit from Ay-Serez. Dad was evicted from Belogorsk. From Belogorsk. He was evicted from Belogorsk… I didn’t tell you about Karashay. I am Asan Karashay’s daughter. I should’ve told you about Karashay. Karashay’s daughter, I’m the youngest. Four girls, the youngest is me. When the people of Ay-Serez saw me, they had to know, that I was from Karashay family. That’s what I didn’t say when you were recording it at the beginning. You’re not recording now. Anyway…

– Then?

– That’s how Dad got out of there. All the people, all the people near the tobacco barns… first they were gathered near the tobacco barns.

– Everybody was gathered in the same tobacco shed?

– Yeas, everybody…

– How many people were there?

– I don’t know about that. There used to be 500 yards in Ay-Serez. 500 yards, we had the biggest village. A village of 500 yards, they counted.

– After you were gathered there, how long were you held there?

– How long…? Cars began to arrive. Black cars. Trucks. Black trucks.

– Then how many families were in these cars?

– They started to push people into these cars. Throwing their bags.

– Were they being taken there?

– There. Then if there were extra, if the bags were extra, they were thrown away. They said: “That’s not necessary.” – And threw it away.

– How many people were loaded into the car? As many as they could.

– These black cars were going one by one.

– Do you remember how many people were in those tobacco sheds?

– How many people? All the villagers. The whole village. All of them. There’s no more room. All the villagers.

– How did they treat you?

– We weren’t allowed to go home anymore. They didn’t let us take anything else. Everyone with their bags in hands. With bags. They were pushing us and loading into the cars. They pushed… whether it’s an old man or a child, whether there’s a baby or not.

– After you were loaded into the black cars, what station were you taken to? ‘In black covered cars we were brought to the station in Feodosia. I don’t know how long they kept us there. After that, we were loaded into the freight cars. Black trains, how to say… they have such ugly names… Freight car… Which transported goods… We were put in cars, which transported goods, lice, fleas-everything was. 22 days… And how long did you spend at the station in Feodosia? I don’t know that, I don’t know how long we were held there. When you were on your way there, was the escort there? Under escort, under guard. We were under the escort.

– How many people were deported from your family?

– There were four girls in our family, Mom, Dad…

– Dad wasn’t there, right?

– Dad was somewhere else. My Dad wasn’t there. He was in Belogorsk. Five…

– So, apart from your father, you were all in the same wagon?

– We were all in the same wagon, except for Dad. In the same wagon. I’m the youngest.

– When people gathered or when you were taken away from the stations, were there any dead?

– The dead were in the wagons… No. When people were gathering.

– Were there any dead at that moment? When people were gathered?

– There was no such thing.

– When you were taken from Ay-Serez to the railway station, were there any dead?

– No. I can’t tell you that. I didn’t hear such thing: “This one or that one died…” 

– How many people were there in the wagon?

– How many people were in the wagon? I don’t know how many people were in the wagon. The wagon was full: there were sick people, there were kids, there were newborns, everybody was there.

– Was the wagon clear?

– How could the wagon be clean? It’s all… There was no way to bathe, there were lice and fleas everywhere. There was nothing to change into. There was nothing to eat either.

– What were you fed? What did you get to eat? Did they feed you at all?”

– Should I tell about this, too, what they gave us?

– I don’t know what to say.

– Did mother tell you anything?

– I didn’t hear such thing: “We were fed so-and-so.” There were old people, kids, and woman in labor in one wagon. Hungry, lousy. In lousy wagons… We were there 22 days. We were dropped off in Samarkand region at Katakurgan station. One echelon.

– Did the train stop often during these 22 days?

– It stopped.   

– It stopped at the train stations. It didn’t stop for long. If someone got off the train, it honked. 

– A very loud beep signaled us we’re moving, there were people who couldn’t get to the train, so they were left there. If they could, they ran after the train.

– What did people do when the train stopped, what did they do?

– When we stopped, we tried to cook something: put two stones and then a tin on them. We took two stones, put a tin on them, made a fire and baked bread…

– Where did they get the dough from?

– There were those who took the dough… They probably took it with them. People took something in their bags… flour. They told so. While this bread was being prepared, while we were putting it on this tin, there was a beep, and we took this dough and ran. If you hadn’t run, you’d have stayed there. I was told so.

– Did people die in the train? Were there dead people? 

– They were dying in the wagon. Their bodies were thrown away. That’s what people said, but I can’t tell you how many people died, who died, who was thrown out. The dead were thrown out of the wagons. That’s it.

– How long was the road? 22 days?

– 21, they said … 22-22, something like that. We were taken to the station in Kattakurgan…

– Kattakurgan?

– Samarkand region, Kattakurgan station. We were brought to Kattakurgan Station. Then the people were taken to the bathhouse from there. After we were taken to the bathhouse, the carts were taken from the collective farm with horses and big wheels. How many people were needed in a village, so many Crimean Tatars were taken there. All I know is that it was Borman Village… There is Karadarya n Kattakurgan, in that direction from Karadarya in 40-50 kilometers was the village of Borman. 40 kilometers. We we were taken to that village from Kattakurgan in the cart. With one horse, wheels higher than it. I remember we were taken on this cart, but there were two or three families, I don’t remember exactly. I know that my family was taken there. We arrived there, and there were such big sheds for the farm.This barn had something like a chicken coop, the place where the watchman slept. One door went outside, the other to the barn. They put one board in there: one board as a door to the street, and the other door to the barn, that’s where the watchman slept. I remember we were taken there. We were brought to this place. How long were we living there… I won’t tell you. I don’t remember.

– Did your father find you?

– I told you, Dad found us in the steppes of Kazakhstan. Dad found us, walked on wagons, on trains, called us, shouted, he found us on the road. He found us on the road and came to this village with us on these carts, to the village of Burman. The village was called Burman.

– Was it a long road from Kattakurgan to Burman? How was it going? Once you got there, how did people treat you?

– Not very well. “One-eyed people came, cannibals Tatars came,” people used to say and ran away. For a long time, the Uzbeks were hiding from us, hiding their children.

– What about authorities? How did they treat you?

– Local Uzbek authorities, or the government of Uzbekistan? The Uzbeks on horses beat us with whips. If we said something or didn’t to the job, they beat us. We worked on cotton fields, on cotton fields, together with them we harvested cotton. And they beat us, didn’t treat well. They told us that we had sold our Homeland. We lived like that until the people become stronger. Then we started to become stronger. And now… it is okay, isn’t it?

– How did you adapt in the early years of the deportation?

– Adapted… there were nothing: no food, no water, nothing, no wood, no oven. They brought us there and left us in the chicken coop. Everyone. In the barns, several families in the same barn. What did the people do with it?

– We did everything we could to find something to eat… Many people died, some families swollen with hunger and died, whole families. There was no one to bury them. To bury them, we dug a small hole and threw the body there. And if they were people with some serious illnesses and went to the hospital, they were killed that same night, doctors killed them. The Crimean Tatars were killed the same night. What else can I tell you? That’s all I’ve heard, that’s all I know.

– When did you return to Crimea?

– In 1976. That’s what you are asking, aren’t you? I was 7 years old when I left Crimea and came back to Crimea with seven children. 

– In 1976?

– In 1976 we arrived in Kirovsky district in the village of Zhuravki.

– I won’t tell you what happened before. First, we were looking for a house in Belogorsky district in the village of Bakhcha-Eli for three months. With seven kids, we were looking for a house for three months. Three months later, we got here and settled in. What else can I tell you? We weren’t registered for a year. They didn’t hire us, they didn’t register us. These kids were wandering around and so our days passed. That’s how we lived. And then, after the residence permit, we managed to get a job.

– Did you dream of anything before you were deported when you were seven years old?

– What dreams could I have in deportation?

– What did you want to be when you were a child?

– I don’t remember.

– How do you remember Crimea before deportation? What kind of paintings come to mind? Do you remember what Crimea was like? How did it remain in your memory? Do you remember? What was Crimea like?

– I don’t remember that anymore, Enver…

– You don’t know that. You don’t remember what Crimea was like… You don’t remember what Crimea was like… Do you remember the village of Ay-Serez? I’m sure you remember something about Ay-Serez?

– From what I remember about Ay-Serez… there was a fountain across the street.  We had a big fountain. We went there, washed, drank water, bathed and came back. That’s all I remember. – – Tell me, what songs do you know?

– When grandchildren come, I sing to them, I love my grandchildren.

– What songs do you sing to your grandchildren?

– I don’t know any songs, and I don’t know any fairy tales. When the grandchildren come, I tell them: Home, home, home, in the furnace burning straw, Coffee’s boiling, tea’s boiling, Everyone is celebrating!

– I make them laugh. That’s what I know.

– Well done! You know the tongue twister, the Nogay tongue twister. Could you tell me a tongue twister? 

– Which one? This one?

– Yes. Say it.

– Wait. Is this about the snake that lies curled up?

– About a snake that lies curled up.

– But it’s terrible.

– You tell us.

– When it rains

– Well done!

– That’s what I know. With the name of Allah, the Gracious and Merciful!

Aman, source, native source,

Have you seen Muhammed?

He’s just been doing ablutions here,

I went straight to the mosque.

Aman, mosque, native mosque,

Have you seen Muhammed?

He did the namaz here.

And he went straight to the crypt.

Aman, crypt, native crypt,

Have you seen Muhammed?

He prayed here

And he went to the market.

Aman, market, native market,

Have you seen Muhammed?

He bought a shroud here,

And went to his mother.

Aman, mother, native mother,

I drank your milk,

I’m going to the cemetery

Forgive me.

Aman, the grave, the native grave,

Have you seen Muhammed?

So far, he belonged to you,

And now he belongs to us.

– I think it’s okay now. Amin, Allah, Ya Rabbi! Amin Allah…