18 March 2014, 13:04
Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada, acting President of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov instructed specialized parliamentary committees to urgently examine Address of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and to submit respective suggestions.
The Address of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, to all Ukrainian people – citizens of Ukraine of all nationalities, signed by Chairman of the Mejlis Refat Chubarov, particularly approves recognition of Ukraine as a sovereign and independent country within the existing borders; strongly condemns Russian aggression against Ukraine and a plan on Crimea’s annexation; does not recognize Crimean referendum of March 16, 2014, which “was held in order to change territorial belonging of Crimea”, as legitimate; rejects any attempts to determine Crimea’s future without expression of will of Crimean Tatars.
It was stressed that right of the Crimean Tatar people to self-determination in their historical Homeland should be exercised as a part of sovereign and independent Ukraine.
The Mejlis also addressed the Parliament calling to accede to the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, and assign the status of the Crimean Tatar people as indigenous people by the laws and other legal acts of Ukraine.
The Mejlis calls the Verkhovna Rada and other high bodies of state authority to urgently and jointly with the UNO, the OSCE, the Council of Europe and the EU ensure “free expression of will for exercising an unalienable right of the Crimean Tatar people to self-determination on their historical territory – in Crimea.”