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Crimean Tatars urge Erdogan to stop ‘destructive’ activity of Mejlis’s former leaders

The former leaders of the Mejlis (assembly) of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev, and Refat Chubarov, are trying at the moment to organize the so-called congress of the Crimean Tatar people

MOSCOW, August 1. /TASS/. Crimean Tatars of Moscow have handed over to diplomats of the Turkish Embassy in Moscow an appeal to Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan, urging him to prevent the activity in Turkey of former Mejlis /assembly/ leaders Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov.

The appeal said the two were engaged in destructive activity in Turkey aimed at destabilizing the social and political situation in Crimea.

Prior to that, some 30 people picketed the embassy in central Moscow under the slogan "the destiny of Crimean Tatars must be decided in Crimea" and "Crimea needs attention and care of all its children".

They also carried a banner showing the flag of Crimean Tatars and a handshake on its background, the hands colored in the colors of Russian and Turkish flags.

One of the activists, Timur Bulgakov, told Tass that one of the aims of the rally was to urge Crimean Tatars in Turkey to visit Crimea for an independent look at the situation on the peninsula.

"Turkey has a very big diaspora of Crimean Tatars, some putting it at about six million people," he said. "We want them to travel to Crimea and see with their own eyes progress that has been reached there," he continued.

Bulgakov criticized attempts to contradistinguish the diaspora of Crimean Tatars in Turkey and in Crimea. "We are all Crimean Tatars. For the sake of Crimea’s interests we must forget about our personal ones and serve our Fatherland," he added.

He also expressed gratitude to Russian President Vladimir Putin for passing "two major laws we had dreamed of - a decree to rehabilitate Crimea Tatars and a decree on the status of Crimean Tatar language as a state one" (signed after Crimea reunited with Russia in March 2014).

The activity of Dzhemilev and Chubarov was earlier labeled as "destructive and inadmissible" at a conference of the Krym (Crimea) civic movement in the Crimean city of Simferopol. The chairman of the Spiritual Directorate of the Muslims of Crimea, Emirali Ablayev, also denounced the activity of certain groups to disunite peoples of Crimea.

The former leaders of the Mejlis (assembly) of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev, and Refat Chubarov, are trying at the moment to organize the so-called congress of the Crimean Tatar people. Crimea’s Deputy Prime Minister Ruslan Balbek told Tass earlier that the congress was illegitimate.

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