Tashkent Ten

The Tashkent Ten were ten Crimean Tatar civil rights activists tried in Tashkent by the Uzbek Supreme Court from 1 July to 5 August 1969.^[1] The trial was sometimes called the Tashkent Process (Russian: Ташкентский процесс).

They were tried under Articles 190-1 of the RSFSR Criminal Code^[2] and similar codes of other Soviet republics^[3] for activities the prosecutor described as "being actively involved in solving the so-called Crimean Tatar issue [sic]".^[4] The case was investigated and prepared by Boris Berezovsky, who had a reputation for specializing in cases of Crimean Tatars.^[3]

In line with standard practice at the time, the indictment and prosecution documents consistently labeled Crimean Tatars referred to in them not as Crimean Tatars but as "persons of Tatar nationality"^[5] and avoided acknowledging Crimean Tatars to be a distinct ethnic group, and consistently referring to the defendants cause as the "so-called Crimean Tatar issue".^[3] During questioning the defendants consistently reasserted that they were of Crimean Tatar nationality.^[6]