Poroshenko asks to step up pressure on Russia for violating rights of Crimean Tatars

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko calls on the European Council to step up pressure on Russia for violating the rights of Crimean Tatars.

The President said this during a meeting with Thorbjorn Jagland, the Secretary General of the Council of Europe.

“The President drew attention to systematic violations of the rights of Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians in Russian-occupied Crimea, in particular to the arrest of Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis Ilmi Umerov,” the press service of Petro Poroshenko reports.

The President of Ukraine noted that the state relied on the creation of an international trust, which would be aimed at helping the country recover from the Russian aggression.

As known, Russia has consistently denied its involvement in the conflict in eastern Ukraine.

As reported, the Russian Ministry of Justice put the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People on the list of extremist organizations this April. Ukraine is preparing a lawsuit against the Russian Federation with the European Court of Human Rights in response to that.

Earlier, the International Federation of Human Rights (FIDH) stated that the decision to ban the Mejlis might provoke a massive wave of persecution against the Crimean Tatars, for whom the Mejlis was a symbol of the fight against long-term reprisals.