On Friday, August 18, an online meeting of representatives of the Crimean Tatar people and Lithuanian Tatars took place.
The meeting was attended by Director of the Department of National Minorities of the Government of the Republic of Lithuania, Doctor of Philosophy Vida Montvidaite, Deputy of the Lithuanian Seimas Dalia Asanaviciute, Chairman of the Union of Tatar Communities of Lithuania Motiejus Jakubauskas, member of the Advisory Council on De-occupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Adas Jakubauskas, as well as representatives of the SEFC and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.
In addition, the meeting was joined by the Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, a member of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev, the CTRC manager Liudmyla Korotkykh and the CTRC communications manager Tetiana Savchuk.
The CTRC team demonstrated information and visual products in English that were prepared for the International Day of the World’s Indigenous Peoples: a video, infographics and posters.
“We are trying to systematically conduct such information campaigns dedicated to the issues of indigenous peoples, because we see that even the Ukrainian society is not fully aware of this issue. Someone does not know the difference between indigenous peoples and national minorities, and many Ukrainians cannot understand why the indigenous people of Ukraine are not Ukrainians. Therefore, it is very important to continue working in this direction”,- said Eskender Bariiev.
The expert stressed that the adoption of the Law of Ukraine On the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine is an important step. Thanks to this law, Ukraine has already clearly settled the question: who is the indigenous people of Ukraine and the definition is legally fixed.
“An indicator of the effectiveness of the Law of Ukraine On the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine is the hysterical reaction of Russian President Vladimir Putin”,- he added.
Eskender Bariiev stressed that the adoption of the law is not the final result. It is very important to make this law work. Each article of this law must be clearly spelled out by by-laws.
“On August 23, the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine adopted the first regulatory legal act The procedure for securing the legal status of the representative body of the indigenous people of Ukraine and depriving it of such status”,- he added.
Recall that, according to our data, it is still necessary to adopt about 15 by-laws and amend at least 10 legislative acts of Ukraine.