Only last Wednesday, thousands of Tatars living in the Ukrainian region of Crimea turned out, chanting "Allahu akbar" in a show of loyalty to the new authorities in Kiev and in opposition to separatist demands by the region's Russian ethnic majority.
But now, with Moscow's military forces having unexpectedly seized control, the indigenous Muslim people of the isolated Black Sea peninsula have all but vanished from the public square, keeping their heads down to avoid being sucked into war.
"If there is a conflict, as the minority, we will be the first to suffer," said Usein Sarano, 57, as the midday call to prayer rung out from the 16th-century stone minarets of Bakhchisaray, once an ancient Tatar capital.