Feb 19, 2015

Crimean Tatars: Mejlis Member Warns his Colleagues about Giving in to Russian Pressure


Mr Ilmi Umeroy, a member of the Crimean Tatar’s representative body the Mejlis, has warned his fellow colleagues to resist Russian pressure aimed at gaining control over the organization. He pointed out that the authorities are trying to regulate the appointment of a new head of the Mejlis and stressed that if this were allowed to happen, the current Mejlis would become known for betraying the very people it is meant to represent.

 

Below is an article published by the Crimean News Agency:

 

Mejlis [the Crimean Tatar’s representative body] member Ilmi Umerov has called on his colleagues to stand their ground and not negotiate with the authorities on the issue of changing the Mejlis’s head, Umerov wrote on Facebook.

According to him, Crimean authorities are working on making Remzi Ilyasov the head of Mejlis—Crimean Tatar representative body.

Umerov noted that “Crimean authorities, including Crimean Tatars in the government, are putting the most intense pressure ever on the Mejlis”, adding that Mejlis members have recently met with the authorities.

“The authorities are proposing to hold an urgent session of Mejlis to cancel Mejlis’s previous decision to withdraw Remzi Ilyasov-- deputy head of the Crimean Parliament, Zaur Smirnov--head of the State Committee on Interethnic Affairs and Deported Citizens and Teyfuk Gafarov-- deputy mayor of Simferopol-- from the Mejlis. And what is the most cynical is that they want to appoint Remzi Ilyasov the Mejlis head”- Umerov stressed.

“I call on all the Mejlis members: stand your grounds and do not sell yourselves, or we will go down in history as the Mejlis, who betrayed its people”- Umerov summed up.

To recall in Sept, 2014, head of Crimea Sergey Aksyonov said "there is no such organization as the Mejlis as it has never been properly registered".

Aksyonov said he would “expel from Crimea anyone who incites ethnic hatred”, as two Crimean Tatar leaders, as well as Mejlis advisor on relations with Turkey, have been barred from the peninsula since its unification with Russia on the grounds of inciting ethnic hatred.