Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People to Receive Czech Diplomats

02 April 2013

On April 2, 2013 the Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of the Czech Republic in Ukraine Mr Ivan Pochukh, during his working visit to Crimea came to Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.

The high guest and the third secretary of the political council of the Czech Embassy to Ukraine Lyubosh Vesely who accompanied him were received by the First Vice Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, Deputy Chairman of Mejlis Remzi Ilyasov and Head of the Department of foreign relations of Mejlis Ali Hamzin.

During the detailed dialogue the participants of the meeting exchanged opinions on the public and political situation in the Autonomous Republic of Crimean and situation with the Crimean Tatar people.

Refat Chubarov focused on the peculiarities of the relations between Crimean authorities and the bodies of the national self-governance of Crimean Tatars – Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and local mejlises, describing them as “extremely strained”.

Among the reasons of such sharp aggravation of the authorities’ attitude to the representative bodies of the Crimean Tatar people, mentioned by Refat Chubarov was the unwillingness of the Ukrainian authorities to solve the problems, related to the restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people radically and systematically.

“Instead the open and fair dialogue with the indigenous people of Crimea, instead of the fruitful and concerned cooperation with the international institutions, aimed at the quickest resettlement of the returned Crimean Tatars the authorities found no better way as to try to split and misorient the Crimean Tatar community. We have such impression that there are attempts to return not only us – Crimean Tatars, but the whole Ukrainian society to the Soviet times, when the major political principle concerning their people was “divide and rule,”- Refat Chubarov noted.

Remzi Ilyasov and Ali Hamzin continued the dialogue, drawing the guests’ attention to the cleansing in the executive and representative branches of Crimean authorities according to the political reasons. In this respect H.E. Ambassador was particularly interested in the latest changes to the composition of the Presidium of the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea.

The participants of the meeting also discussed in details the situation around the holding of the International forum on restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people in their Homeland, ensuring their safety and guaranteeing of their development in Ukraine.

It was noticed that the initiative of Mejlis to hold the International forum, supported by the Crimean Tatar people found the widest support from the authoritative representatives of the member states of the European Union, Canada, USA, Turkey, as well as the international organizations – UN, CoE, European Council, OSCE. The matter depends on the official accent of Ukraine, awaited during one year by all the potential participants of the International forum.

In light of the idea of the International forum the participants of the meeting exchanged a range of propositions, promoting its holding in case of their successful implementation