Foreign Minister of Ukraine: religious and cultural identity of Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar peoples destroyed in Crimea

Foreign Minister of Ukraine Pavlo Klimkin said that as a result of Russian occupation, the Crimea became a “gray zone”, where “injustice, terror, intimidation, kidnapping and torture reign.” Krym.Realiyi reported him as saying this at a meeting of the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva.

“Occupation authorities provide systematic and widespread violations of fundamental rights and freedoms, wage hidden war against dissidents  and eliminate the manifestations of linguistic, religious and cultural identity of the Ukrainian people and the indigenous people of Crimea - Crimean Tatars,” the Minister said.

He also urged the Human Rights Council of the United Nations to pay more attention to the situation of human rights, fundamental freedoms and the rule of law not only in Crimea but also in Russia. According to him, against the backdrop of deterioration of human rights in this country it has become a normal pattern of behavior and part of everyday life for the present Russian leadership to curtail the space for civil society, independent media and political opposition and unprecedented growth of aggressive extremism, aggressive nationalism, neo-Nazism and xenophobic manifestations.

Previously it was reported that Klimkin told the UN about the need for a permanent presence in Crimea of the representatives of international organizations to monitor the situation of human rights.