Latest news with #CrimeanTatarMejlis
Yahoo
15-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Zelensky names formerly imprisoned Crimean Tatar activist as Ukraine's ambassador to Turkey
President Volodymyr Zelensky appointed Nariman Dzhelial, deputy chair of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, to the position of ambassador to Turkey in a decree issued May 14. Dzhelial was released from Russian captivity in a prisoner exchange in June 2024. "To appoint Dzhelial Nariman Enverovych as Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary of Ukraine to the Republic of Turkey," the presidential decree reads. Dzhelial served as the first deputy chairman of the Mejlis, a representative body of the Crimean Tatar people. Following the occupation of Crimea, Russian forces banned the Mejlis in 2016, declaring it an "extremist organization." Dzhelial participated in the first Crimea Platform in Kyiv on Aug. 23, 2021. The platform aimed to build international support for the peninsula's liberation from Russian occupation. On Sept. 4, 2021, Dzhelial was arrested in Crimea and sentenced by a Russian court to 17 years in prison. He was released alongside nine other prisoners in a swap on June 28, 2024. The announcement of Dzhelial's appointment comes the day before Zelensky is set to travel to Turkey for direct negotiations between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15. The status of the talks remains unclear, as Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed at the last minute that he will not attend. Zelensky plans to first meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, and potentially fly to Istanbul afterwards. Turkey has positioned itself as a potential mediator in Russia's all-out war against Ukraine by maintaining diplomatic and economic ties with both nations. Leveraging its strategic position and influence in the Black Sea region, Turkey has facilitated negotiations and grain exports, while expressing willingness to participate in ceasefire monitoring. Read also: Exclusive: Ukraine eyes new sanctions on China, but Kyiv wary of peace talks fallout We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Euronews
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Euronews
Allies asked Kyiv ‘not to provoke Russia' during Crimea annexation, Mejlis leader tells Euronews
ADVERTISEMENT When Russia first invaded Ukraine and Moscow soldiers entered Crimea in 2014, Ukraine's foreign partners were asking Crimean authorities not to "provoke Russia," Chairman of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis told Euronews, rejecting Donald Trump's claims that Ukraine didn't fight for it and "handed over to Russia without a shot being fired" instead. 'All of our partners and allies at the time said that we should not provoke Russia, that they, together with the Ukrainian state, would definitely find forms and ways to resolve this crisis. I am quoting what they told me when I was in the occupied Crimea,' Refat Chubarov said. Chubarov recalled he spoke to the ambassadors of different countries almost every day and nearly all of them told him that they "hoped that the Crimean Tatars would not provoke the Russian military". "Because then there would be pogroms, would be very tragic events, and they would not be able to help civilians," he remembers being told. After the annexation of Crimea in March 2014, Moscow declared the Mejlis — the only authorised representative and executive body of the Crimean Tatar people — an extremist organisation and banned its activities in Russia and Russian-occupied Crimea. Chubarov was forced to leave the Black Sea peninsula shortly afterwards. In 2021, a Moscow-imposed court sentenced him to six years in prison on fabricated accusations of organising mass riots in 2014 and of issuing calls to "violate Russia's integrity" — the wording used by the Kremlin to describe Crimean Tatars fiercely opposing the annexation. 'Those who reproach us for not resisting should recall the cowardly position of their own states, which acted as guarantors of the security of the Ukrainian state under the Budapest Memorandum', he told Euronews, referring to the US as one of the signatories of the memorandum. By signing the Budapest Memorandum, Ukraine gave up its nuclear weapons, hoping that other signatories would protect the country. 'But they were afraid, and now they reproach us for not being able to stand up to a nuclear power, a permanent member of the UN Security Council. They reproach us for failing," he explained. "At that time, it was not only and not so much the Ukrainian state failed, but the world failed to stop the aggression of a nuclear state, which is a permanent member of the UN Security Council.' 'Great disrespect' for those killed Another claim by the US president, which angered and shocked Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, is that the peninsula was "handed over to Russia without a shot being fired". Chubarov calls it "a great disrespect for the Ukrainian military, who were killed in the first days of the occupation." 'In the months following the occupation, in May and June, our young people were forcibly abducted. We later found some of them killed, some of them to this day we cannot find, we do not know where they are," he said. "To say that Crimea was taken without a single shot being fired or without a single casualty is simply to disrespect the people who were in that situation and to admit to their ignorance of those events'. ADVERTISEMENT Meanwhile, Russia has not changed its plans to occupy all of Ukraine, according to Chubarov. However, given that Moscow couldn't achieve it in more than three years since the full scale invasion, "Russia will hold on to Crimea until the very end because Putin needs Crimea as a reassurance to the Russian society to calm down the people, given that Russia couldn't achieve anything else in over three years." Related No decision on Crimea can be made without Ukraine and Crimean Tatars, Mejlis leader told Euronews Zelenskyy hits back at Trump's claims he is prolonging war by not ceding land to Russia 'If the president of the United States somehow officially calls Crimea Russian territory, it would be a great excuse for Putin to get out of the mess he's in, and he would personally present it to Russian society as a huge victory,' he added. This would only strengthen the regime in Moscow, and it would not lead to peace, Chubarov concluded.
