SIMFEROPOL - The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People believes that the closure of independent Crimean Tatar media outlets would be a violation of the rights of the Crimea Tatars and has appealed for "the protection of essential human rights and law of nations together."
This is according to a statement released by the Mejlis on their fears about the closure of independent Crimean Tatar media in Crimea, which was posted on March 30 on its official Facebook page.
“Establishing an independent Crimean Tatar media, created during the return of the Crimean Tatars back to their motherland, was down to huge efforts of thousands of people, those understanding the special role of media in a mother tongue during the process of rebirth, preservation and development of the Crimean Tatars language, culture, national traditions,” reads the statement.
According to the Mejlis, the only reason for the closure of ATR TV Channel, Lale TV Children’s Channel, Maidan radio station, Avdey and Qirim newspapers and others, and the QHA information agency is the authorities refusing to reregister them.
“Executives and creative teams of the mentioned media repeatedly filed documents for reregistration to the addresses of authorized agencies but received ungrounded refusals for the continuation of their activities. Such discriminative actions by the authorities, leading to mass closures of the independent Crimean media, caused a massive outbreak of anger among the Crimean Tatars,” reads the statement.
The authors of the statement said that the protest “Do Not Kill ATP” was not only held in Crimea, but also in other countries where the Crimean Tatar diaspora live. They said several famous human right activists, journalists and community leaders in Russia made a stand against discrimination over the feared closures.
The Mejlis said that discrimination against Crimean Tatar media has become an international topic, in particular, the issue was discussed with members of the European Conservatives and Reformists Group, the United Nations Human rights Committee, Astrid Thors, the High Commissioner on National Minorities of the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), the President of Turkey Recep Tayyip Erdogan during his visit to Ukraine, and at special hearings of the Subcommittee on Security and Defense of the European Parliament.
“According to Article 16 of the UN Declaration on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples, which states that “indigenous peoples have the right to create their own mass media in their own languages and get access to all means of mass media that don’t belong to indigenous peoples, without any discrimination,” the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People consider the refusal for the reregistration of the independent Crimean Tatar Media as a violation of the legal rights and interests of the Crimean Tatar People. The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People appeals to citizens and Crimeans of different nationalities to protect essential human rights and the law of nations, together,” reads the statement.
