Delegations of Cyprus and Spain have demanded to remove from the text of the European Parliament (EP) resolution on annexed Crimea (Feb 4, 2016) a notion of the Crimean Tatars as the peninsula`s indigenous people, according to Obozrevatel, a Ukrainian online news outlet.
”A surprising thing happened. The resolution stipulates that Russia is an occupier and Crimea is an occupied territory… So, the words noting the indigenous people, on which Ukraine initially insisted, were withdrawn from the resolution… It was the demand of the delegations of Cyprus and Spain. We understand, this was done by Russian supporters,” said Larysa Voloshyna, the Ukrainian journalist and publicist.
See also: Russia to deploy Buk missiles and more S-400 aircraft missile systems in occupied Crimea
According to Voloshyna, the Ukrainian version stressed that the Crimean Tatars had suffered from Stalin`s repression under the Soviet rule.
”Russia does not care being branded an occupier. It does not want us to establish a clear legal status for our citizens, our own territories, and our people. That is what Russia is concerned about,” Voloshyna added.
Earlier, in late December 2016, an OSCE report on Russia`s elections to the State Duma had been published.
According to Rada`s First Deputy Speaker Iryna Gerashchenko, it is unacceptable that ”the report includes not a single word about the fact that the voting in occupied Crimea was held in violation of standards.”
See also: Russian aggression against Ukraine, international law and global security: 25 key theses
