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Ref. DC 075(2016)

Jagland: Ban of Mejlis risks targeting Crimean Tatar community as a whole 

http://bit.ly/1Tuzl9E

Strasbourg, 26.04.2016 – Secretary General Thorbjørn Jagland made the following statement:

“I am very concerned by the decision taken today by the Court of Simferopol to declare the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People an “extremist organisation” and to ban it.

“In a report recently prepared by a Human Rights delegation that I sent to Crimea, the Head of the delegation,  Ambassador Gérard Stoudmann, had precisely warned that a possible decision to ban the Mejlis would indicate a new level of repression targeting the Crimean Tatar community as a whole. The report, recently presented to the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, particularly mentions that qualifying the Mejlis as an extremist organisation would considerably increase the risk of further alienation of the Crimean Tatar community and of isolating it from the rest of the population living on the Peninsula.

Today, following the Court’s decision, this risk is very significant.  I therefore call on the relevant authorities to take appropriate measures to reverse this decision rapidly."

Contact:

Daniel Höltgen, Spokesperson of the Secretary General, Mob.+33 6 68 29 87 51