EU slams ban on Crimean Tatar Mejlis

By Hasan Esen

BRUSSELS

The European Union on Tuesday slammed the ban on the Crimean Tatar Mejlis and a top court branding of it as "extremist”, calling the move an “attack” on the rights of Crimean Tatars.

"The decision by the so-called Supreme Court of Crimea to prohibit the activities of the Mejlis, [...] labelling it ‘an extremist organisation’, represents a grave attack on the rights of the Crimean Tatars as a whole," said EU foreign policy chief, Federica Mogherini, in a statement.

Mogherini said the decision set a "further very negative escalation in the human rights situation on the Crimean peninsula since its illegal annexation by the Russian Federation in 2014".

The assembly of Tatar community leaders, known as the Mejlis, was banned by the court following a prosecution application lodged in February.

“The non-government organization Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people has now been recognized as extremist,” said prosecutor Natalya Poklonskaya at the time, as reported by Russia’s government-run TASS news agency.

Mogherini called for immediate full compliance with international human rights standards and other obligations under international law concerning the Crimean Tatar community.

Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimean peninsula in March 2014. Since then, the region’s Tatar minority has complained of repression, including arbitrary arrests and detentions.

*Anadolu Agency correspondent Servet Gunerigok contributed to this story from Ankara.