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Poland's oldest Tatar leader dies

PR dla Zagranicy
Jo Harper 06.09.2015 09:41
Imam Mustafa Stefan Jasiński, a senior member of Poland’s Tatar community, died on Friday evening in Białystok, northeast Poland.
Tatar mosque as Bohoniki, north east Poland. Photo: WikipediaTatar mosque as Bohoniki, north east Poland. Photo: Wikipedia

Jasiński was 104. The funeral is being held on Sunday in the north-eastern village of Bohoniki (Podlasie).

He was born in the vicinity of the town of Sokółka and his family lived in Simferopol, Kazan and Vilnius.

He initially served as an imam in the mosque in Kruszyniany (one of two historic mosques of Poland's Muslim community).

In 2011, on the occasion of his hundredth birthday, then President Bronisław Komorowski awarded Jasiński the Knight's Cross of the Order of the Rebirth of Poland for services to the community and the country.

Muslims arrived in Poland in the 14th century, primarily the Tatars, many of whom settled in the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth. The 2002 census showed only 447 people declaring Tatar nationality. According to the 2011 census, there are 1,916 Tatars in Poland (including 1,251 people who declared composite national-ethnic identity, i.e. Polish and Tatar). (jh/rk)

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