You're reading: The Guardian: Putin tells Crimea’s Tatars their future lies with Russia

The Guardian: Putin tells Crimea’s Tatars their future lies with Russia

By Guardian, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Published May 17, 2014 at 9:19 am

Muslim Tatars leaders attend the Crimean Tatar Qurultai, or congress, in Bakhchisaray, Crimea, on March 29, 2014. Ethnic Tatars from all over Crimea convened in the town of Bakhchisaray for an emergency Qurultai to decide on the fate of the Muslim community of about 300,000 people on the Black Sea peninsula, by holding a vote on whether to push for self-rule in their historic homeland following its annexation by Russia.

Photo by AFP PHOTO / DMITRY SEREBRYAKOV

Vladimir Putin has told Crimea's Tatars that they must accept that their future lies with Russia, on the eve of the 70th anniversary of their mass deportation from their ancestral homeland.

Putin's comments came as the UN warned that the Tatars have been the subject of harassment and persecution since the Black Sea peninsula was annexed from Ukraine in March

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