The head of the regional national-cultural autonomy of the Crimean Tatars Eyvaz Umerov called the arguments of the Ukrainian authorities about the alleged persecution and destruction of the identity of Ukrainians and the Crimean Tatar people in the peninsula untenable and unreasonable.
Earlier, Ukraine's permanent representative to the UN, Sergey Kyslytsya, said that the UN General Assembly "has not accepted and will not accept the Russian mantra that the issue of Crimea is closed". According to him, Russian authorities seek to destroy the identity of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars in Crimea by continuing arbitrary arrests.
"Ukraine continues its anti-Russian rhetoric at the UN, playing along with the aggressive attacks of its overseas masters. In the absence of reasonable and valid arguments, they present the fight against radicalism as a fight against the people. The Ukrainian diaspora and the indigenous people of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars, feel much more comfortable in Russian Crimea than their representatives in Ukraine," Umerov told RIA Novosti.
According to him, being unable to find weighty arguments, Ukrainian representatives once again interfere in Russia's internal affairs and try to present the fight against radical currents as persecution of individual representatives of the Crimean Tatars in the light that suits them.
"I recommend that Ukraine's representative to the UN speak about the murder of its citizens, open genocide, severe censorship, and the closure of TV channels, including the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR, which is traditionally on the verge of being closed every year for political reasons. I think these facts deserve more attention at the UN," Umerov said.
Crimea became a Russian region after a referendum held there in March 2014 in which 96.77 percent of Crimean voters and 95.6 percent of Sevastopol residents voted to become part of Russia. The Crimean authorities held the referendum after the coup d'état in Ukraine in February 2014. Ukraine still considers Crimea its own, but temporarily occupied territory. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the residents of Crimea voted democratically, in full compliance with international law and the UN Charter, to reunite with Russia. According to Russian President Vladimir Putin, the issue of Crimea is "closed".
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Photo: SERGEY DOLZHENKO / EPA / TASS
Based on materials from RIA Novosti