Aksenov swears that no one prohibited anything on May 18 in Simferopol
Crimean Governor Sergei Aksenov denied a statement issued on Monday by the European Union's foreign policy service about a ban on holding events in Simferopol to mark the 71st anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars, Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks from Crimea.
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"This is pure nonsense. No matter what we do, they'll still say everything's wrong. Today's event proves that everything is normal: people of different nationalities, starved for normal communication for 20 years, are gathering together and remembering the dead and injured," the official responded to Interfax's question after laying a time capsule at the construction site of a memorial complex commemorating the victims of the deportation at Siren Station in the Bakhchisaray District.
As a reminder, the Simferopol administration denied the pro-Ukrainian Mejlis of Crimean Tatars' application to hold a rally on May 18. Also, according to Eskender Bariyev, head of the Committee for the Protection of the Rights of the Crimean Tatar People, authorities denied the Mejlis's youth group permission to hold the "Light a Flame in Your Heart" rally in Simferopol on May 17.
Aksyonov swears that no one banned anything in Simferopol on May 18th.