You're reading: Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry demands to annul Russia’s court decision to ban Mejlis of Crimean Tatars

Ukraine’s Foreign Ministry strongly protests the decision of the Supreme Court of the Russian Federation to uphold the decision to label the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people an extremist organization and ban its activities.

“A ban of the highest representative executive body of the Crimean Tatar people under the false pretext of “fighting extremism” is an explicit affront by the occupying Russian authorities to the rights and interests of the Crimean Tatars… We consider this cynical decision a manifestation of racial discrimination,” the ministry said in a statement spread on Thursday.

“This is an expected step of Russia’s highest court, totally consistent with Kremlin’s current repressive policies aiming at fighting against democracy and freedom and transforming the occupied peninsula into a “grey zone” of terror and lawlessness,” the ministry said.

For two and a half years of occupation, the Russian Federation has not only deliberately and systematically violated human rights and restricted freedoms in the Ukrainian Crimea, but also completely destroyed the independent mechanisms that guarantee and protect these rights, the ministry said.

“Ukraine demands that the occupying state immediately reverses this decision, which is null and void in its essence and judicial nature, and completely ceases the persecution of the Crimean Tatar community in Crimea,” the ministry said.

Ukraine also appeals to its international partners to intensify actions to protect human rights in the occupied Crimea, including to ensure unimpeded access for international and human rights monitoring organizations and their main conventional and monitoring mechanisms to provide for the continuous monitoring of respect for human rights.

Ukraine believes that the definitive end of the persecution of the Crimean Tatars by the occupying authorities as well as other issues related to the illegal occupation of Crimea can only be achieved through the de-occupation of the territory and restoration of the foundations of international law and order therein, respect for international law and for human rights, the ministry said.

“Ukraine will prove in courts the illegitimacy of all of the Russian Federation’s actions connected to the temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, including the decision to label the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people an extremist organization and ban its activities,” the ministry said.