On Friday, October 9, representatives of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center met with the Ambassador of Austria to Ukraine Gernot Pfandler and his deputy Sonja Schragen. The interlocutors discussed the situation in the occupied Crimea and the persecution of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. At the meeting, representatives of the CTRC announced a number of initiatives for further cooperation.
The meeting participants were the Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, a member of the Presidium of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev, managers of the CTRC Zarema Bariieva and Liudmyla Korotkykh, Austrian Ambassador to Ukraine Gernot Pfandler and his deputy Sonja Schragen.
Representatives of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center informed Austrian diplomats about the situation with human rights violations in the occupied Crimea, about repressions against the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, about political prisoners who disappeared and died during the occupation of the peninsula. The clickable charts “Victims of the occupation of Crimea” developed by the CTRC, which are permanently available via the organization's website in 4 languages and reflect the actual number of political prisoners, missing and dead people over the occupation period of Crimea.
The manager of the CTRC Zarema Barieva told the Austrian diplomats about the difficult situation of the Crimean Tatar language, since on the peninsula the occupants change the status of national schools to general educational ones, and also create obstacles to the opening of Crimean Tatar classes.
Also, Mr. Gernot Pfandler was given a report on the topic “Influence of the irrational policy of the occupation authorities of Russia authorities on the water balance of Crimea”, which was sent to the OHCHR office. The document contains detailed information about how inexpedient the invaders are using water on the peninsula.
Austrian diplomats were given booklets prepared by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center about political prisoners of Crimea who disappeared and were killed during the occupation of Crimea, a booklet “My dad is a hero!”, A translation of the UN Universal Declaration of Human Rights in Crimean Tatar.
In addition, the Ambassador was presented with the album “Hostages of the Occupation”, which tells about the history of 20 Crimean Tatars families who became hostages of the occupation of Crimea: 10 internally displaced, 10 families who remained on the peninsula. It was proposed to organize a presentation of this exhibition-exposition in Austria in order to attract more attention of the international community to the problems of the Crimean Tatar people and the occupation of Crimea.
The Ambassador of Austria, in turn, recalled his continued support for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and stressed that Austria would never recognize the illegal annexation of Crimea.
CTRC representatives also voiced a number of proposals for further joint cooperation. In particular, the initiative “The Godfather” was proposed, which provides for political patronage over the political prisoners of Crimea and their families.
“Austrian MPs could write on their pages in social networks about their ward, visit them in colonies, prisons on the territory of the Russian Federation, and thus draw the attention of the general public to this problem and prevent the use of torture against political prisoners”,- explained the manager of the CTRC Liudmyla Korotkykh.
Eskender Bariiev urged diplomats to raise the issue of the need to adopt in Austria a law analogous to the Magnitsky Act, which already exists in a number of countries. Such laws provide for the imposition of personal sanctions against human rights abusers in the occupied Crimea.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center handed over a package of documents recognizing the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an act of genocide, which includes: an appeal of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to all the parliaments of the UN member states, an appeal of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center to the President of the Austrian Federal Council, a copy of the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On the recognition of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people”, resolutions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the UN, the European Parliament, PACE, OSCE PA, NATO PA, OSECO PA, governments and parliaments of the countries of the world on respecting the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people and condemnation of violations by the Russian Federation as an aggressor state of rights and freedoms of the Crimean Tatar people”, statements of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia “In memory of the 75th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people and support for the policy of not recognition the illegal annexation of Crimea”, statements of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania “On recognizing the destruction of the Crimean Tatar people by the Soviet Union as an act of genocide”, the legal qualification of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an international crime against the indigenous people.
The Ambassador of Austria stressed that all the proposals of the CTRC could be important components of the international platform for the de-occupation of Crimea. Bariiev, in turn, informed the Austrian diplomats about the activities of the international movement for the de-occupation of Crimea and solidarity with the Crimean Tatar people #LiberateCrimea and about the development of the Movement's Public Diplomacy Strategy, which will soon be presented and will become the basis for the development of an international public platform for the de-occupation of Crimea.
“Only in condition of competent joint cooperation an effective result can be achieved – the de-occupation of Crimea”,- Bariiev emphasized.