President of International PEN-Club Mr John Ralston Saul Visits Crimean Tatar Mejlis

18 June 2012

On June 17, 2012 the Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Jemilev and the President of the World Congress of Crimean Tatars Refat Chubarov met with the President of the International PEN-Club Mr John Ralston Saul. The meeting was held in Mejlis’ office.

The meeting was also attended by the member of the Board of the International PEN-Club, the President of Korean PEN-Club, well known Korean poet Mr Li Gil Von and the President of Uigur PEN-Center Mr Khayser Abdurasul Ozgun – the organizer of the 4^th Ural-Altay Pen-Club International Conference in Crimea (VIUral-AltayPEN-birliğiKonferansı).

Mejlis was also represented by the Head of the Department on information policy and relations with the public organizations Shevket Kaybullaev, Head of the Secretariat of Mejlis Zair Smedlyaev and Head of the Department of foreign relations Ali Hamzin.

The Leader of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people expressed hid deepest gratitude, addressing the President of the International PEN-Club Mr John Ralston Saul, the world famous international organization PEN-Club that unites more than 140 national PEN-Centers from 101 countries for choosing Crimea to hold the 4^th Ural-Altay Pen-Club International Conference.

During the meeting Mustafa Jemilev and Refat Chubarov told and answered many questions of the guests. They made a special emphasize on the disastrous situation with Crimean Tatar language that was even listed among the endangered languages by UNESCO. The special attention was given to the disastrous situation with the development of the national education of the Crimean Tatar people in Ukraine, the obstacles, put to its development by the representatives of the official authorities, violating the Constitutional rights for the development of the native language and education. It was also underscored that the modern development of the native language and education is made exclusively due to the public initiative and enthusiasm of Crimean Tatars themselves and their public organizations.

Mr John Ralston Saul told about the structure of the International PEN-Club that unites more than 140 national centers today and is formed in accordance with the linguistic principle. According to him, the membership in PEN-Club is open to every professional writer, irrespective of the nationality, language, race or religion. “The main activity of the Club is the protection of the rights of writers, combat for the freedom of speech and personal freedom, as well as the combat against the censorship,”- Mr Saul said.