Mustafa Jemilev: Law on Languages Adopted is Unbearable for Crimean Tatars

04 July 2012

The Leader of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, MP of Ukraine Mustafa Jemilev thinks that the Law on the basis of the state language policy, adopted by the Ukrainian Parliament a day before is unbearable for Crimean Tatars, UNIAN reports.

“This law is unbearable for us. We refer ourselves as the indigenous people of Ukraine, and the situation with Crimean Tatar language mustn’t depend on the number (of its speakers),”- Mr Jemilev said.

According to him, if Russian will receive the special status in the regions of Ukrainian then the ethnic Ukrainians won’t have a stimulus to study their native language. “Crimean Tatars won’t have this stimulus as well, because they speak Russian as good as Russians,”- Mustafa Jemilev said.

He also stated that the reference to the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages is not valid, because it is aimed at the protection of the threatened languages. “Nothing threatens Russian language,” – Mr Jemilev said.