Turkey, Ukraine, US and EU condemn the ban of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People
Turkey, Ukraine, the United States and the European Union condemned the ban of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. On Wednesday, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Turkey, Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu, and the Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs, Pavlo Klimkin, agreed to coordinate joint actions with international institutions for the protection of human rights in Crimea.
According to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the meeting of the ministers took place in the margins of the Conference on Interaction and Confidence Building Measures in Asia, which is taking place in Beijing. Earlier, the US Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs, Victoria Nuland, condemned the ban on the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. During her visit to Kiev, she voiced her opinion that this outrageous decision violates the democratic rights of the whole historical community.
The European Union called the ban of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People a serious attack on the rights of Crimean Tatars and is evidence of further deterioration of the human rights situation in the annexed Crimea.
“There is an urgent need to ensure full compliance with international standards in the area of human rights and other commitments within the international law, in this case, in relation to the community of Crimean Tatars,” as outlined in the statement of the European External Relations Service.
On Tuesday, the Supreme Court of Crimea, controlled by Russia, recognized the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People as an extremist organization and banned its activities on the territory of Russia.