Erdogan: Turkey expects Russia to make a decision to release Ukrainian political prisoners
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Turkey provided the Russian side with a list of Ukrainian political prisoners to be released and expects a successful resolution of this issue, Erdogan stated during a joint press conference with Ukrainian Petro Poroshenko following the Seventh meeting of the High-Level Strategic Council between Ukraine and Turkey in Istanbul, the press service of the Ukrainian head of state reported.
“Earlier, two political prisoners (Akhtem Chiygoz, deputy head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, and Ilmi Umerov – ed.) were given to us, after which they were released… This time we received a longer list which we immediately handed over to the Russian side. I wish we could follow this process and come to a successful resolution,” said the Turkish president.
The President of Ukraine, in his turn, said, "Not only we but the whole world is now concerned about the release of the Ukrainian hostages."
Poroshenko recalled that the issue of releasing Ukrainians who are illegally detained in Russian prisons and in the occupied territories was discussed during the visit of German Chancellor Angela Merkel to Ukraine.
The President of Ukraine said that he would raise this issue during his visits to Finland and France.
“Of course, we will not lose optimism and will do our best to achieve the release of Oleg Sentsov, Roman Sushchenko, Volodymyr Balukh, and other political prisoners as soon as possible. And international support plays a crucial role,” Poroshenko said.
On August 10, 2018, Ukraine filed a lawsuit against the European Court of Human Rights against Russia for violating the rights of Ukrainian political prisoners. The lawsuit describes the violations of 71 political prisoners.
In August, Ukraine also handed over to Turkey a list of the political prisoners of the Kremlin. According to the leader of the Crimean Tatars, Mustafa Dzhemilev, Erdogan did not mention any date when he would speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the release of Ukrainian political prisoners.