President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko has said it is necessary to design a road map to develop the national autonomy of the Crimean Tatar people.
“We need to think about the future, when the occupied peninsula will come back to Ukraine’s bosom. A road map on the development of national autonomy of the Crimean Tatars, which really, was needed even in early 1990s, must be worked out. Lost chances of closer cooperation with Crimean Tatars, neglect of their vision of Crimea’s development cost a high price for Ukraine,” Poroshenko said while delivering a speech to mark the Day of the Protection of the Rights of Crimean Tatars, and the 71st anniversary of deportation of the Crimean Tatars, in Kyiv on May 18.
According to Poroshenko, the Crimean Tatars have proven to the whole world that people, which “are fighting for truth and justice, for the right to live on their land, speak its language and to pray to its God, are invincible”.
“I’m proud of the courage of the sons and daughters of the Crimean Tatar people, who in their times, sometimes in inhuman conditions, preserved a national identity and fidelity to their parents’ traditions. I express my deep respect to those Crimean Tatars, who today didn’t submit to the aggressor and fight for our common home, for our common European future,” Poroshenko added.
