Nov 07, 2013

Crimean Tatars: EU-Ukraine Agreement Right Way Forward


Picture@President of the European Council

In a recent [4 November 2013] interview, Refat Chubarov, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, expressed the full support of the Crimean Tatars for an EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, likely to be signed at the upcoming Eastern Partnership Summit in Vilnius.

Below is an article published by ForUm:

The Crimean Tatars deliberately do not exacerbate requirements for the Ukrainian government till the Vilnius summit, at which it is planned to sign the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement, chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov said in an interview.

"Today, there are a lot of risks on the way to the Vilnius summit. We believe that responsible politicians should do everything possible to prevent the occurrence of situations, which would doubt the signing. We, the Crimean Tatars, consciously do not aggravate our requirements for the power, do not react at the moments, which look provocative and in another situation would be subject to retaliatory measures on the part of the Mejlis," he said.

"I really hope that the Association Agreement with the EU will be signed," Chubarov said.

According to him, the signing of the Association Agreement with the EU will become the next Rubicon for Ukrainian leadership.

"If the agreement is not signed, if Ukraine stops the movement towards Europe, then all the block of issues we talk about will be problematic. By the way, the International Forum of the Crimean Tatar people, which is to settle the issues, has already been supported by all EU member states, while the government of Ukraine keeps silent," chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people added.