Turkey should take an active role to save Crimea from Russian annexation, Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev told Anadolu Agency on Wednesday.
"If nuclear weapons are deployed to the Crimean peninsula [by the Russians someday, it] will be directed at Turkey first, which is why Turkey should take an active role," Dzhemilev said in the Lithuanian capital of Vilnius.
He hoped Turkey would impose sanctions on Russia as other European Union countries had done. “But we understand Turkey's situation as well. It has interests with Russia to meet its energy and trade requirements," he said.
The Tatar leader said that the Crimean issue could not be resolved until Russian President Vladimir Putin remained in power.
Recently, a report titled "The Situation of Crimean Tatars since the Annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation" was released, which was prepared by a Turkish delegation that conducted a study in Kiev and Crimea between April 26 and 30, 2015 to gather information about alleged human rights violations against Crimean Tatars.
About the report, Dzhemilev said that it had increased the authority of Turkey and shocked Russians.
"[Perhaps, initially] Russia thought that the report would be in its favor because Turkey had not imposed sanctions [on it like other EU states]," he said.
The report aimed to inspect and evaluate the claims of human rights violations against Crimean Tatars following the referendum held in the peninsula on March 16, 2014 and the annexation by Russian on March 18, 2014.
The Crimean peninsula joined the Russian Federation in March 2014 following a heavily contested referendum. At least 6,417 people have been killed, and 15,962 others wounded in the conflict between Ukrainian forces and pro-Russian separatists since April 2014, according to the U.N.'s latest report.
