Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov urges participants in the Normandy format video conferencing meeting at the level of foreign ministers scheduled for April 30 to discuss the human rights situation in the occupied Crimea.

“In view of the aggravated repressions against Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians in Crimea, which is temporarily occupied by Russia, the outright refusals of Russian occupants to release Crimean political prisoners, and the ultimatum statements of Russian officials that ‘the matter of Crimea is settled’, we call on the participants in the ministerial video conferencing meeting scheduled for April 30 to discuss the human rights situation and the situation of the Crimean Tatar people in the temporary occupied Crimea,” Chubarov posted on Facebook.

According to the Mejlis Chairman, the ban on activity of the highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars is one of Moscow's criminal acts aimed at suppressing the will and unity of the indigenous people of Crimea who have openly opposed the Russian invasion.

“The ban on the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People demonstrated the occupying power’s blatant disregard and violation of fundamental norms of international law, including the International Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination, the Convention for the Protection of Human Rights and Fundamental Freedoms, the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples,” Chubarov stressed.

The politician stated that the Mejlis members in the temporarily occupied Crimea were being persecuted: "The Russian Federation defiantly ignores the order of the International Court of Justice of April 9, 2017, which obliges Russia ‘to refrain from maintaining or imposing limitations on the ability of the Crimean Tatar community to conserve its representative institutions, including the Mejlis’, as well as to ensure provide unimpeded entry and exit to Crimea for the leadership and members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People."

In this regard, Chubarov called on the international community to further strengthen sanctions against Russia "until the restoration of the state sovereignty of Ukraine over Crimea, the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov."

As reported, on April 26, 2016, the Russian-occupation "Supreme Court of Crimea" declared the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People an extremist organization and banned its activities in the Russian Federation.

On September 29, 2016, the Supreme Court of Russia, the highest court of the occupying power, upheld this unlawful decision.

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