Suleiman Asanov

Suleiman Asanov was born on March 2, 1977 in Uzbekistan, in the city of Bekabad. At birth he received the name Marlen (from Marx and Lenin), later he changed it. In 1980 Suleiman and his parents moved to the Crimea. He received a higher education as a philologist, teacher of Turkish and Crimean Tatar languages and literatures. In 1999-2003, he worked as a teacher of Crimean Tatar language and literature at the secondary school in Golubinsk. During the lessons he popularized the history of Crimean Tatars. In 2002, he received the title of "Teacher of the Year".In the same year, he married Ayshe. They have four children. Suleyman Asanov founded the caravanserai "Salanchik" in Bakhchisaray, a cultural and ethnographic center for recreation of passers-by and guests. He was actively involved in social life of the city, held and organized celebrations during the Muslim religious holidays - Kurban and Oruza Bayramov. He dreamed of becoming a professional photographer, in 2014 he participated in the competition "Bakhchisarai in the lens".

After the attempted annexation of the Crimean peninsula by Russia, he actively helped the families of political prisoners. He attended all court hearings on politically motivated cases. He published videos of searches on his YouTube channel.

Many people told him, "Get out of Crimea. They can come to you too, because you are everywhere". That is, someone has a search - he's the first to go. And then he did not ask who they came to, why they came, he just got up, took his phone, got dressed and ran away early in the morning. - tells Ayshe Asanova.

Crimean Solidarity meetings were often held in his caravanserai. On May 12, 2016, the FSB conducted a search in "Salanchik". On the same day, four local residents were detained in Bakhchisarai. Asanov was not among them. But he was then brought to administrative responsibility for "violation of public order" and fined 5 thousand rubles.

On October 12, 2017, a search took place at Suleymanov's home. He was arrested on charges of terrorist activity. On September 16, 2020, Asanov was sentenced to 19 years in a strict regime colony. The defense filed an appeal.