Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Archive photoSIMFEROPOL, Apr 2The head of the regional national and cultural autonomy of the Crimean Tatars, Eyvaz Umerov, appealed to Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan with a call to influence Kyiv in terms of recognizing the Russian status of Crimea. «We appreciate Recep Erdogan's desire to organize all the conditions for the negotiation process between Russia and Ukraine, but all this is nullified without a real desire of the current Kiev authorities to end the conflict and return peace to Ukraine. We call on the President of Turkey to influence the Ukrainian regime in terms of recognizing the Russian status of Crimea, which will be one of the guarantees for the return of the situation in Ukraine to a peaceful course,» RIA Novosti said. Dead.
The State Duma called the refusal of the Kiev authorities to recognize Crimea as their «personal grief» In his opinion, the Turkish president has the opportunity to go down in history as the head of state, who, unlike his Western counterparts, honors democratic values and respects the will of other peoples. «We, Crimean Tatars, we live at home, in Russian Crimea, and we will be grateful to the President of Turkey if he listens to our voice, and not to extremists and radicals from Ukraine,» Umerov emphasized. Crimea became a Russian region in March 2014 following a referendum after a coup d'état in Ukraine. In the referendum, 96.77% of voters in Crimea and 95.6% in Sevastopol voted for joining Russia. Ukraine still considers Crimea its own, but temporarily occupied territory, many Western countries support Kyiv in this. The Russian leadership has repeatedly stated that the inhabitants of Crimea democratically, in full accordance with international law and the UN Charter, voted for reunification with Russia. According to President Vladimir Putin, the issue of Crimea is «finally closed».
