Crimean Tatars: Chairman Delivers Speech At Council Of Europe
Mustafa Cemil, chairman of the Majlis of the Crimeant Tatar people, talked at the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe to address the plight of the Roma people in Crimea.
Below is an article published by Crimean News Agency:
The Chairman of the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people, member of the PACE (Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe) Committee from Ukraine, Mustafa Cemil, has addressed a meeting of the PACE Committee on Migration, Refugees and Displaced Persons, which was held in Brussels (Belgium) on March 29 to discuss the legal status of the Roma in Europe, the press service of the Majlis of the Crimean Tatar people has reported.
According to the press service, in his speech Mr. Cemil told about the plight of the Roma in Crimea, who were killed by the Nazis during the occupation in accordance with the racist theory of the “inferior peoples”, but to a large extent have been saved through the efforts of the Crimean Tatars, and then re-subjected to genocide and deportation of the Soviet regime, together with the Crimean Tatar people in 1944.
On the example of Crimean Roma, who almost fully integrated into the Crimean Tatar society, as well as referring to the status of the Roma in Turkey, where they are full citizens and take an active part in cultural and social life, the Majlis Chairman categorically rejected the prevailing European prejudice and pseudo-theory of the alleged genetic commitment to vagrancy of Roma to begging and other similar inclinations.
Following the discussion, the Committee approved a draft memorandum on the status of Roma in Europe, compiled by a member of parliament of Germany Annette Groth. The memorandum condemns the facts of discrimination and various insinuations distributed by the media against the Roma people, as well as the recent increase in the exile of Roma from several European countries, particularly France, Italy and Germany.
Participating in the meeting were also the invited leaders of Roma organizations in Europe.
The Council of Europe Commissioner for Human Rights Thomas Hammarberg said in an interview with the Belgian newspaper ‘EuropeanVoice’ that Europe should acknowledge its illegal violent actions against the Roma and create pan-European special commission to prevent such actions in the future.
