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Crimean Tatars in Turkey equate Ukraine’s blockade of Crimea to IS actions

The actions of radical Islamists and the blockade of Crimea imposed by Ukraine’s extremist Right Sector movement are of concern, the head of the Federation of Crimean Tatar Communities of Turkey says

SIMFEROPOL, October 29 /TASS/. The head of the Federation of Crimean Tatar Communities of Turkey, Unver Sel, told journalists on Thursday that Ukraine’s blockade of Crimea could be compared to the Islamic State’s actions in Syria.

He said that the Federation was deeply concerned with a rift between Russia and Ukraine.

The events that are taking place in Crimea are almost similar to what is happening on the Turkish border with Syria, Uver Sel told a news conference.

The actions of radical Islamist groups and the blockade of Crimea imposed by Ukraine’s extremist Right Sector movement are a source of great concern for us. We do not wish to see this happening, the head of the Federation of Crimean Tatar Communities of Turkey said.

A group of deputies of Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada (parliament) and the leaders of the Crimean Tatar Mejiis, which is unregistered in Russia, Mustafa Dzhemilev and Refat Chubarov, imposed a trade blockade on Crimea on September 20. Activists of the extremist Right Sector movement joined the blockade later. They have been banning trucks with Ukrainian goods from entering Crimea for more than a month.

"The population of Ukraine’s Kherson region was the worst hit. They used to cultivate products, which they hoped to sell in Crimea. Now they are poverty-stricken. They wanted to hold a rally against the Right Sector and its lawless behavior yesterday. But they started receiving threats. The /Right Sector/ activists went from house to house threatening the local people’s families and children. The people could not express their opinion. Now, everybody there is living in fear," Seytumer Nimetullayev, the leader of a Crimean Tatar public organization, told journalists on Thursday.

Crimea’s Prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya said that Crimean law enforcers were studying the activities of those who had imposed a blockade on the peninsula, including their actions to disrupt free movement of people across the border with Crimea. They have also launched probes into attempts to blow up the supports of the power transmission lines leading to Crimea.