Prime Minister of Lithuania Mr Algirdas Butkevičius Receives Mejlis Head Mustafa Jemilev

25 October 2013

On October 23, 2013, the Prime Minister of Lithuania Mr Algirdas Butkevičius met with the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, MP of Ukraine Mustafa Jemilev in the premises of the government building.

The meeting was also attended by the First Vice Chancellor of the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania Mr Remigijus Motuzas and Advisor to the Prime Minister of the Republic of Lithuania Mr Audrjus Bruzga.

The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People was represented by Mr Ali Hamzin, Head of the Department of Foreign Relations at the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Mr Adas Yakubauskas, Head of the Union of Tatar Communities of Lithuanian, representative of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People in Lithuania and Mr Rustem Umerov, financial advisor to the MP of Ukraine Mustafa Jemilev.

In the beginning of the meeting the Prime Minister of Lithuania Mr Algirdas Butkevičius expressed his gratitude to Mustafa Jemilev for acceptance of his invitation to visit the Republic of Lithuania.

In his turn, on behalf of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Jemilev expressed his gratitude to the Government of the Republic of Lithuania for the meeting on the eve of the summit to be held in November 2013 in Vilnius.

“We regard our meetings with the supreme leadership of Lithuania as a sign of attention of the Republic of Lithuania to the destiny of the Crimean Tatar people that testifies to the firm friendship between the Crimean Tatar people and the Lithuanian people for many centuries. Our peoples didn’t take the misanthropic communist ideology of the Soviet Union and together went through the tragic ordeals of the 20^th century, suffering from the crimes of the Soviet empire,”- the Mejlis Head said.

On request of the Prime Minister of Lithuania the Mejlis Head told him about the position of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People as regards to the process of preparation to the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement planned on November 27-28, 2013 at the Eastern Partnership summit.

Mustafa Jemilev also informed the Head of the Lithuanian Government about the results of the meeting of the EU Commissioner Mr Stefan Fule with the representatives of Ukrainian and Crimean government and Crimean Tatars held on September 19, 2013 in Crimea.

Telling about the history of the national fight of the Crimean Tatars for the return to Crimea after the criminal deportation of the Crimean Tatar people committed by the Soviet regime on May 18, 1944 the Mejlis Head noted with regret that even today after 20 years after the proclamation of Ukrainian independence the Crimean Tatars have no guarantees for their full revival and restoration of their national rights in Crimea.

Mustafa Jemilev described the situation with the Crimean Tatar people in Crimea in the whole as difficult and discriminatory. One of the reasons he mentioned was the stable positions of the negative attitude against the Crimean Tatars which were implanted back in the Soviet period among the particular part of the chauvinistic forces in the Ukrainian society, including the authorities.

“At the modern stage the last one thing developed the new complex of negative attitude to the Crimean Tatar actor in Ukraine. This very fact represents itself one of the reasons of non-adoption of the law in Ukraine regulating the issues relating to the return, resettlement and restoration of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people. That is why there is a tension today in the peninsular due to existing political problems. The land, religious, linguistic issues, as well as the effective participation of the Crimean Tatars in the executive and representative state bodies and other problems also acquire the political acuteness.”- the Mejlis Head Mustafa Jemilev explained.

According to M.Jemilev the European Parliament’s position also confirms the fact of the discriminatory situation with the Crimean Tatars in Ukraine and concern for their destiny. On September 26, 2013 it held the urgent special parliamentary hearings in regards of the human rights of the Crimean Tatars.

Returning to the pending ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement in Vilnius, Mustafa Jemilev underscored that the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People fully supports the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement.

“Answering the same question at the meeting with the MPs in Seimas of the Lithuanian Republic and expressing my opinion today dear Mr Prime Minister, I would like to state that the representative body of the Crimean Tatars support the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement without any conditions that should take place at the summit “Eastern Partnership”, – the Mejlis Head stated.

“Taking the opportunity of this meeting with you as the Head of the Lithuanian Government, dear Mr Algirdas Butkevičius, I would like also to address the heads of the EU states and MEPs and its leadership to ask them to provide the political chance to Ukraine to ratify it even if presently Ukraine didn’t fulfill a range of conditions for the ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement,”- the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Mustafa Jemilev said.

Questioned by the Prime Minister of Lithuania about the economic development and investment regime on Crimea and Ukraine in the whole, Mr Rustem Umerov, financial advisor of the MP of Ukraine Mustafa Jemilev provided the detailed analysis of the situation providing indexes of a range of the research centers.

After a brief exchange of opinions on these issues the Prime Minister invited Mr Rustem Umerov to take part in the Business-Forum that will be held during the summit in Vilnius on November 27-28, 2013.

In conclusion of the meeting the Prime Minister Mr Algirdas Butkevičius expressed his gratitude to Mustafa Jemilev personally and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar Peole for such wise, deep and grounded political understanding of the important moment in the destiny of Ukraine being the organic part of Europe and European civilization.

The Head of the Lithuanian Government underscored that ratification of the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement will affect the destiny of the Ukrainian society in the most positive way, including the revival of the deported Crimean Tatar people.

n conclusion of the meeting Mustafa Jemilev presented the Head of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania Mr Algirdas Butkevičius Valery Vozgrin’s book titled “History of Crimean Tatars” and special report titled “Integration of Formerly Deported Persons in Crimea, Ukraine” prepared by the office of the OSCE High Commissioner in August 2013.