The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people strongly criticized the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radoslaw Sikorski, because of his recent statement about the possibility of transferring Crimea under the UN mandate for a referendum. Crimean Tatars consider this proposal "unacceptable and cynical", noting that it does not correspond to the interests of Ukraine and the Crimean Tatars.
This is stated in the statement of the Mejlis Presidium regarding the statements of the head of the Polish Foreign Ministry, which was published by the Mejlis Chairman Refat Chubarov.
According to the Mejlis, in fact, Radoslav Sikorsky publicly suggested that in order to stop Russia's war against Ukraine, our state should cede Crimea.
In particular, he proposes to transfer the Crimean peninsula "under the UN mandate with the mission of preparing a fair referendum after checking who are legal residents."
The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people considers such statements to be "unacceptable and cynical", as well as those "that do not correspond to the national interests of Ukraine, nor to the rights and interests of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people of Ukraine."
"According to the national legislation of Ukraine and international law, the "legal residents" of Crimea are exclusively citizens of Ukraine and persons who have legally established their permanent or temporary stay on Ukrainian territory, which is confirmed in accordance with the procedure established by Ukrainian legislation. Therefore, any other attempts to establish the legality of a person's residence in the Ukrainian Crimea are unnecessary and inappropriate," the document states.
The Mejlis expressed confidence that any proposals to resolve the issue of ending Russia's war against Ukraine, achieving peace in Ukraine, restoring its territorial integrity, restoring the violated rights and freedoms of Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories should be based on the national legislation of Ukraine and international law.
"Crimea is a temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, and the first step to establishing peace should be the withdrawal of the Russian occupying forces from the territory of the peninsula. The discussion of any issues of the future of Crimea should take place only with the participation and consent of the Ukrainian state and the indigenous Crimean Tatar people," the statement emphasizes.
The Center for Journalistic Investigations reminds that on September 18, 2024, during a discussion at the 20th annual meeting of YES in Kyiv, the Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland, Radosław Sikorski, expressing his personal opinion, noted that Crimea has a decisive role in the issue of possible peace talks between Ukraine and Russia . In his opinion, that is why one of the options for solving the issue regarding the peninsula can be its transfer under the mandate of the UN.
"If both countries want, then a solution could be found here. We could put it under a UN mandate with a mission to prepare a fair referendum after verifying who are legal residents and so on... And we could delay it for 20 years,” Sikorsky said.
