Refat Chubarov, the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People: “Our position is clear: all foreigners or stateless persons who have settled in the occupied Crimea and other temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine have deliberately committed a crime and must immediately leave Crimea.”

During his speech at the Second Parliamentary Summit of the International Crimea Platform, the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov recalled the beginning of the Russian occupation of Crimea and spoke about the difficulties that the Ukrainian citizens are facing in Crimea: enforced abductions, politically motivated persecution and imprisonment, torture and violations of human rights; forced mobilisation into the Russian Armed Forces, which forced thousands of residents to leave the peninsula. At least 189 Ukrainian citizens have been imprisoned, including 123 representatives of the Crimean Tatar people; with the Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Nariman Dzhelial, who was illegally sentenced to 17 years in prison, among them.

Refat Chubarov emphasised that the main task of the Russian occupiers is to destroy the identity of the Crimean Tatar people and to finally push them out of Crimea – something that Stalin and the Soviet authorities failed to complete in the past. The position of the Crimean Tatars, which they have consistently defended throughout the years of struggle, is as follows: the Crimean Peninsula is an integral part of Ukraine.The Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People also expressed his gratitude to the parliaments of Lithuania, Latvia and Canada for recognising the deportation of Crimean Tatars on 18 May 1944 as genocide and called on the other parliaments of the Crimea Platform member states to support this initiative.