On Monday, September 27, in the office of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, a meeting was held with the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Kairat Abdurakhmanov. Representatives of Mejlis informed the diplomats about the situation with human rights violations in the occupied Crimea, about repressions against the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and about the demographic and ethnic composition of the peninsula’s population.
The meeting was attended by the OSCE High Commissioner for National Minorities Kairat Abdurakhmanov, senior mission advisor Eleonora Lotti, legal adviser Peter Naderer, MP of Ukraine Mustafa Dzhemilev, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis Ilmi Umerov, Head of the Crimean Tatar Recource Center and the Department of Legal Affairs and Foreign Affairs of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev and members of the Mejlis Riza Shevkiev and Gayana Yuksel.
Representatives of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people informed the diplomats about the situation with the violation of human rights in the occupied Crimea, about repressions against the indigenous people of Crimea and ethnic Ukrainians, about systemic persecution on ethnic and religious grounds.
In particular, the Head of the Board of the CTRC Eskender Bariiev said that over the past two years Russia has been actively making changes to its legislation in order to intensify repressions against the population disloyal to the Russian Federation in the occupied territory:
Decree of Russian President Vladimir Putin banning the ownership of land plots by non-citizens of the Russian Federation on the coastal territory of the occupied Crimea.
Addition to Article 280 of the Criminal Code of Russia of part two – participation in the violation of the territorial integrity of the Russian Federation.
The law on forced evacuation, which can contribute to the deportation of the inconvenient population, especially the Crimean Tatar people.
Speaking about such cases as the so-called Hizb ut-Tahrir case, Jehovah's Witnesses case, Bariiev stressed that this is a tool for combating dissidents, and not a real fight against the threat of terrorism.
“At the international level, it is easy to manipulate the fact that they are not fighting dissent, not freedom of speech, they are not carrying out racial discrimination, but they are fighting terrorism. In the world, terrorism is the number one problem, and it is a tool for manipulation on international platforms, which is what the Russian Federation is doing”,- he stressed.