Editor of Crimean Tatar children's magazine Ediye Muslimova goes missing in occupied Crimea

Ediye Muslimova, aged 61, editor-in-chief of the Crimean Tatar children's magazine Armançıq, has gone missing in Crimea. Both her personal and work phones are turned off, reports the civil society initiative Crimean Solidarity, citing her niece Elzara Muslimova.

"Yesterday, Thursday, November 21, 2024, at 11 a.m. I last spoke with my aunt, Ediye Muslimova. We talked, and she said that she would finish some things at home and leave Simferopol, leave Kyivska St, and travel towards Sudak, to Sonyachna Dolyna village, to visit her mother," Elzara Muslimova says.

Ediye Muslimova / Photo by Mukhamed Ali Sulaymanov on YouTube

According to Elzara Muslimova, Ediye Muslimova's mother is 91 years old. She needs the care of her daughter and assistance from other people. The woman is severely disabled.

“At six p.m., her mother (my grandmother) called me and said that she was still missing. I started calling her on the phone, my grandmother could not get in contact with her since 4:00 p.m., and even as early as 3:00 p.m. her nephews called her, but she was already out of reach. I started calling: she has two phones (for work and personal), both phones were turned off. There is no way to contact her: not on Telegram, not on WhatsApp, not on Viber,” the niece added.

Elzara Muslimova has already filed a statement with the police and is preparing complaints to the Crimea Prosecutor’s Office and the FSB. Ediye Muslimova’s car is still parked near her house.

Crimean Solidarity notes that Ediye Muslimova has been publishing the children's magazine Armançıq in Crimean Tatar language since 2011. She is the daughter of Crimean Tatar activist Refat Muslimov, who came back to Crimea with his family in 1968 despite the hardshi.

As reported by the Radio Liberty project Krym.Realii, in 2019, Muslimova said that the magazine was in crisis and on the verge of closing down.