“Ensuring lasting peace can’t be achieved by yielding to illegal demands of aggressor and terrorist ” – Mustafa Dzhemilev, Leader of the Crimean Tatar people

Thanks to the courage of the Ukrainian people and the help of their allies, there are prospects to liberate all the occupied territories in the near future. This was stated by Mustafa Dzhemilev, the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, during a speech on the sidelines of the Third Summit of the Crimea Platform.

“The early liberation of Crimea is especially important for the indigenous peoples of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars, because for them it is a matter of survival and further development, or complete disappearance as an original nation”, –  Dzhemilev said.

According to the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, recently, many Western politicians have developed rhetoric about the need to sacrifice certain territories in exchange for peace.

“We consider it a big mistake to think that it is possible to prevent the expansion of the military conflict and ensure long-term peace by meeting the illegal demands of the aggressor and terrorist,” he added.

Mustafa Dzhemilev stressed that he has no doubt that the Ukrainian lands will be liberated, and the hands that will reach out to the integrity of Ukraine will be broken.

Dzhemilev, among other things, recalled that the basis of Russian policy in Crimea since its first occupation 240 years ago, was the displacement of the indigenous Crimean Tatar population, and its settlement by Russians.

“After the occupation of 2014, 90 percent of Crimean Tatars and tens of thousands of Ukrainians were forced to leave Crimea under pressure from the invaders,” he concluded.

The leader of the Crimean Tatar people also recalled that after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the independent Ukrainian state, to a certain extent, contributed to the return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland, but at the same time made many mistakes in its policy.

“Listing all these errors would take a long time. But the main problem is that the national autonomy of Crimea was not restored after the deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944,” Dzhemilev said.

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