BAKHCHISARAI, March 29. /ITAR-TASS/. Self-governance assembly of the Crimean Tatars (which is called the Kurultai in the Crimean Tatar language) has passed a decision to turn to international organizations for rendering support to this indigenous ethnic group’s right for an ethnic autonomy in the Crimean Peninsula.
As many as 212 of the 217 participants in a session of the Assembly, which is broadly viewed as an unofficial parliament of the Crimean Tatar people, voted in favor of the decision.
“The Kurultai of the Crimean Tatars is asking the UN, the Council of Europe, the EU, the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe, the Islamic Organization Organization, the parliaments and governments of other countries to support the right of our people for self-determination in the form of an ethnic/territorial autonomy in Crimea, which is our ancestral homeland,” the Kurultai’s resolution says.
“Commencement of political and legal procedures for setting up an ethnic/territorial autonomy of the Crimean Tatar people in its ancestral homeland, the Crimean Peninsula, is announced hereby,” the document says.