Crimean Tatars: Russian Opposition Leader Promises Crimea Will be Returned to Ukraine
During a meeting with Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev, Russian opposition politician Mikhail Kasyanov, who served as PM in the early 2000s, promised that Crimea will be returned to Ukraine if he rises to power. This statement, released by Dzhemilev’s press service on Twitter, follows a Council of Europe meeting in Strasbourg in which both leaders took part. This week, the Tatar leader also laid the foundations for a collaboration with the Turkish government to create an international group aimed at working towards Crimea’s de-occupation.
Below two articles published by UA Today and Interfax.com:
Crimean peninsula, which was annexed by Russia in March 2014, will be eventually returned to Ukraine. These were the words of former Russian PM and currently opposition politician Mikhail Kasyanov addressed to the leader of Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev.
Dzemilev and Kasyanov met in Strasbourg, where Kasyanov took part in a meeting of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), dedicated to the assassinated Russian opposition leader Boris Nemtsov.
"Please accept my assurances that Crimea will eventually be freed and returned to Ukraine,"Dzhemilev's press service is quoting Kasyanov as saying.
Earlier Russian opposition leader said that the so-called referendum in Crimea was illegal and stressed that only the Crimean Tatars have the right under the UN Charter to raise the question of self-determination of the peninsula.
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Presidential envoy forCrimean Tatars' affairs Mustafa Jemilev has discussed with Turkish Foreign Minister Mevlut Cavusoglu the establishment of the special group to deal with the Crimean de-occupation issues at a meeting in Strasbourg.
"At a meeting [the parties] discussed a proposal to set up a special international format of cooperation that will ensure a possibility to work closely for de-occupation of Crimea. On our side we propose to create an international group, which will include countries, signatories of 1994 Budapest Memorandum, along with Turkey, as one of the influential Black Sea states," Jemilev wrote on his Facebook account.
He stressed that Cavusoglu has supported the establishment of the mentioned group. "This issue is to be discussed in detail in February this year during the visit of Ukraine's Foreign Minister to Ankara," presidential envoy said.
The meeting was also attended by Ukraine's MP, member of Ukrainian PACE delegation Heorhiy Lohvynsky and delegate of the Crimean Tatar People Kurultai Rustem Umerov.
