CRIMEAN TATAR LEADER BANNED ENTRY TO ITS COUNTRY

Simferopol, 8 Ramadan 1435/6 July 2014 (MINA) – Refat Chubarov, head of Crimean Tatars’ self-governing national assembly, has been slapped with a five-year entrance ban to Crimea by the peninsula’s pro-Russian administration, according to the Crimean News Agency

“Crimean Prosecutor-General Natalia Poklonskaya met Chubarov at Ukraine-Crimea border and read him a warning of extremist activity. Later, Chubarov was handed over a note, banning him from entering Crimea for 5 years,” the agency reported Saturday.

Since November 2013 he has served as the chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. He served as Deputy Chairman of the Supreme Council of Crimea from 1995 to 1998 and as People’s Deputy of Ukraine from 1998 to 2007.

He also has served as the President of the Worldwide Congress of Crimean Tatars since 2009.[4] In 2014 he called the Crimea referendum a circus and also said that it is a tragedy, an illegitimate government with armed forces from another country.

Former chairman of the assembly, Mustafa Dzhemilev, was also reportedly denied entry to the peninsula in early May.

Russia annexed Crimea after a disputed referendum held in the peninsula on March 16 following political crisis in Ukraine, Anadolu Agency quoted by Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA) as reporting.

The peninsula’s 300,000-strong Crimean Tatars largely boycotted the referendum, which was denounced as “illegal” by Ukraine and the West.

Crimean Tatars are the native population of Crimea since the Mongol hordes’ invasion in the 13th century. (T/P09/P04)

Mi’raj Islamic News Agency (MINA)