Society - 30 June 2011, Thursday 17:36

 BRUSSELS, BELGIUM, (QHA) – Problems of Crimean Tatars should be addressed at the European level, the Lithuanian politician, member of the European Parliament Leonidas Donskis has stated at a roundtable meeting on the theme ‘Crimean Tatars: A Search for Peace and Justice’, which was held in the European Parliament (Brussels, Belgium) on June 28.
European parliamentarians and experts discussed humanitarian aspects of peaceful co-existence of different ethnic groups in Crimea, according to Deutsche Welle.
Seminar ‘Crimean Tatars: A Search for Peace and Justice’ was organized by the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) and the Lithuanian politician Leonidas Donskis. He underscored that Ukraine inherited the Crimean Tatar issue from the Soviet Union. The deputy is sure that the question should be raised at the European level, and the higher the level, the more opportunities for ways of solution of the totality of Crimean Tatar problems.
Natalia Mirimanova, Project Director, Crimea Policy Dialog, recalled that the root of the Crimean Tatar problem is in the fact that the indigenous people of Crimea deported by Stalin’s order was invited to return home, but remained face-to-face with its problems that can be resolved only by large financial injection. This is the reason why the European experience of solving the problem of co-existence of peoples, which differ not only by ethnicity but language, is studied by the example of countries, in particular, Finland.
Participants of the meeting noted that humanitarian aspect is basic in search of formula of the future for entire Crimea. The main question is whether ethnic groups of the peninsula - Crimean Tatars, Russians, Ukrainians – will be able to co-exist in harmony and treat each other’s languages and traditions with respect.

Europe is ready to learn from Crimean Tatars
The meeting agreed that it is inappropriate to compare the problems of Crimean Tatars with those Muslims living in European countries encounter, because in Crimea Tatars are not newcomers, but, in fact, a nation that return home. One more aspect important to Europe and discussed by European parliamentarians is Crimean Tatars’ non-violence struggle for their rights, for which the leader of Crimean Tatars Mustafa Cemil was nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
According to experts, the discussion gave a start for a search of answers to challenges facing Crimean Tatars.
An international forum on the problems of the indigenous people of Crimea is to be held in Brussels at the end of 2011.


QHA