The interlocutors of the discussion were Alim Aliev – moderator; Anton Korynevych – Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea; Refat Chubarov – the Head of Mejlis of Crimean Tatar People; Natalya Belitser- the expert of Pylyp Orlyk Institute for Democracy; Julia Tyshchenko – the co-founder of the National Platform “Dialogue on peace and secure reintegration”, Arsen Zhumadilov- the Head of the Board “Crimean Institute for Strategic Study”, Ihor Yaremenko – Deputy Minister on Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine.
During the discussion, Anton Korynevych stressed on the importance for the Mission of a consistent state policy on reintegration and de-occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and support for the Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine, which have historically formed in the relevant territory.
“There are several important priorities for the Mission’s team that we would like to implement during the time we are dealing with this issue. First, it was the Strategy of de-occupation and reintegration of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol. We considered that we should do everything in our power to ensure that Ukraine had the appropriate document.
In order for Ukraine to have a single position document for all authorities on this track. We also wanted to have our own strategy, which would be approved by the President of Ukraine, in order to ensure the institutional stability and capacity of the body, and to give it clear instructions from the Head of State on how it should work, so that it does not depend on personalities or other factors. As long as the temporary occupation lasts, there must be a certain model of work. And, of course, among the priorities for us has always been, is and will be the issue of protection of the Indigenous Crimean Tatar People and we always want to do as much as possible on this track. Here we already have some good things to talk about,” said Anton Korynevych.
The Permanent Representative emphasized that the President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelensky had already signed a number of decrees concerning the de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol and the participation of the Indigenous Crimean Tatar People in these processes. The first is on the Day of Resistance to the Occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol, signed on February 26, 2020, then – On certain measures aimed at deoccupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, signed on February 26, 2021 on the Day of Resistance The Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the cities of Sevastopol, which, among other things, the President instructed the Cabinet of Ministers of Ukraine to develop a Strategy for the development of the Crimean Tatar language. One month later, on March 24, was the third Decree concerning putting into force the decision of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine of March 11 approving the Strategy for De-occupation and Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territory of the ARC and the City of Sevastopol. April 13 – the fourth decree on Crimea – on the priorities of the Mission of the President of Ukraine of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, which approved the Strategy of the Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea.
“I think that all these things contribute to the positive decision on the bill. This bill has already been approved by several committees of the Verkhovna Rada. ” as well as this bill will be considered today by the Committee on Human Rights, De-occupation and Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories in Donetsk, Luhansk Regions and Autonomous Republic of Crimea, National Minorities and Interethnic Relations, so we hope that before the Inaugural summit of the Crimean Platform on August 23, Ukraine will be able to say that it has this law”, the Permanent Representative said.
In addition, he added that the bill, which is being prepared for adoption, has a framework character, is “not a dot, but a comma” “Certainly, we will continue to move in the direction of ensuring the rights of the Indigenous Crimean Tatar People. We have certain ideas and developments, of course, in coordination with the representative body of the Crimean Tatar People – the Mejlis,”Anton Korynevych summed up.
Ihor Yaremenko, the Deputy Minister on Reintegration of the temporarily occupied territories in turn pointed out:
“This framework bill sets a certain trend and describes certain general obligations of the state to Indigenous peoples, to the protection and development of Indigenous peoples in Ukraine. After the arrival of the new team, our Ministry is actively paying attention to the issue of Indigenous peoples. We are working in many directions and in terms of supporting the language of the Crimean Tatar People, for which there was a corresponding concept, and we are working on a plan for its implementation. These are also issues related to the approval of the Crimean Tatar alphabet on the basis of Latin graphics. We usually talk about the support of the Crimean Tatar broadcasting, in particular, this year, for the first time, Lyale TV channel received such support. We launched the website of our Ministry in the Crimean Tatar language. We are working to provide housing for representatives of the Crimean Tatar People, in particular, we have signed a relevant agreement with Turkey on construction. Well, the last one is a marathon, which was launched recently to fill Wikipedia with articles in the Crimean Tatar language. I think that this is a clear realization of what should actually be done for the development and implementation of the bill after its adoption, although we do it without waiting for a vote in the Verkhovna Rada. We hope that the bill will be submitted and voted on soon.”
The chairman of Majlis of Crimean Tatar People, Refat Chubarov, stressed: “We can finally get it, because the law has not been approved yet, and I very much hope that it will be approved, an effective tool for rebuilding Ukrainian society and, first of all, promoting its cohesion into resilient political nation”.
We expect that the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine will consider the relevant bill as soon as possible and approve it.