The Permanent Representative Tamila Tasheva took part in the conference “Crimean Tatars after February 2022” at the European Parliament in Brussels, organized by the ZMINA Human Rights Center with the support of the Mission of Ukraine to the European Union.

The first panel of the conference, dedicated to the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide, was moderated by MEP Anna Fotyga. The first panel was also addressed by the Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov, First Deputy Minister for Foreign Affairs of Ukraine Emine Dzhaparova, EU Special Representative for Human Rights Eamon Gilmore and Representative of Ukraine to the European Union Vsevolod Chentsov.

The Permanent Representative thanked Anna Fotiza, who is also a mentor to Server Mustafayev, illegally imprisoned by the occupiers, for the opportunity to speak at this event. Tamila Tasheva reminded that out of 181 political prisoners, 117 are Crimean Tatars. She drew attention to Ukraine’s actions to protect the indigenous people, in particular, she spoke about the adopted Law “On Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine” and the development of a draft law on the status of the Crimean Tatar people.

Tamila Tasheva emphasized that when developing reintegration measures for the Crimean peninsula, Ukraine also takes into account the interests and legitimate rights of indigenous peoples, in particular when forming a personnel reserve, to which it is important to involve the local population of the occupied peninsula and representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people.

“We need to bring Ukraine back to Crimea mentally. We need to return the values professed by Ukrainian citizens – the values of freedom and the rule of law. That is why we are now working on issues related to the cognitive de-occupation of the Crimean peninsula, and the Crimean Tatars and other indigenous peoples play a leading role here, whose rights we must restore, as well as restore historical justice to them,” the Permanent Representative said.

The Mission expresses its gratitude to the ZMINA Human Rights Center, the Mission of Ukraine to the European Union and personally to MEP Anna Fotyga for actualizing an important aspect of the Crimean issue on such a platform as the European Parliament.