Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has appointed Crimean Tatar leader, Ukrainian MP Mustafa Dzhemilev, his representative on Crimean Tatar affairs.
Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko has appointed Crimean Tatar leader, Ukrainian MP Mustafa Dzhemilev, his representative on Crimean Tatar affairs.
Veteran Crimean Tatar leader and Ukrainian MP Mustafa Dzhemilev has been appointed Presidential Commissioner on Crimean Tatar Affairs. The relevant presidential decree was signed on Wednesday, with a brief report on the president’s official website explaining that the post has been established in order to preserve and develop the ethnic, cultural, linguistic and religious identity of the Crimean Tatar people within Ukraine.
Said Ismagilov, Mufti of the Religious Administration of Muslims of Ukraine, called the appointment a good move, but said that one must not stop with this. “He can do much more. A person who challenged and lived through the inhuman Soviet system which deported his people has encountered the reincarnation of its deranged corpse. This time it has already deported him. But they should not have done this. It would be difficult to imagine anything more stupid than banishing a person who has devoted his whole life to regaining his homeland.”
In April Russia and its Crimean government banned 71-year-old Mustafa Dzemilev from entering Crimea for five years.