Dzhemilev: NATO's response to Russian aggression isn't enough
The Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Mustafa Dzhemilev, doesn’t see military force as the best way to end the occupation of the Crimea. In an interview with the Voice of America, Dzhemilev expressed his opinion that the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) is their best hope for dealing with Russia’s aggression. However, NATO has not been sufficiently decisive. “NATO could show the same determination that they did during the genocide in Kosovo but this doesn’t happen,” Dzhemilev added.
Nevertheless, the People’s Deputy of Ukraine reported that he doesn’t see the de-occupation of the Crimea by military means because it would lead to tragedy, primarily for the Crimean Tatars. “They will just start to kill us,” he said.
Dzhemilev finds the steps on strengthening of NATO’s military presence in the Baltic appropriate but he is concerned about a number of countries voicing the need to ease or lift sanctions imposed against Russia.
“We see liberation from occupation and the restoration of Ukraine’s territorial integrity through strengthening of sanctions. We are concerned about what is happening in a number of countries, particularly in Italy and France, where there is talk of easing or lifting the sanctions that were imposed against Russia for not implementing the Minsk Agreements,” Dzhemilev noted.
Dzhemilev also stated that there is nothing in the Minsk Agreements about the full restoration of the territorial integrity of Ukraine and that if the sanctions are lifted or eased then the prospect of liberating the Crimea will vanish for years.
The Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People already believes that searches, interrogations and criminal persecutions of Crimean Tatars by Russian authorities and military forces are intended to make Crimean Tatars leave the peninsula.