The Turks came to study the situation of the Tatars in Crimea
The story of the sharp attack by Turkish leader Erdogan, who called on Russian President Vladimir Putin to “remember Crimea” in response to his interpretation of the events of 1915 in the Ottoman Empire as “genocide,” has developed: an unofficial Turkish delegation arrived on the peninsula to assess the situation of the Crimean Tatars.
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The verbal conflict between Ankara and Moscow began last week when Vladimir Putin traveled to Yerevan to participate in events in memory of the victims of the genocide of the Armenian people in the Ottoman Empire. In his official speech, the Russian president used the term “genocide” only once. Nevertheless, the Turkish Foreign Ministry advised Russia to look back at its own history, which “has no fewer episodes that fall under the concept of ‘genocide’.” A few days later, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said that Vladimir Putin’s speech in Yerevan greatly upset him and called on Russia to “remember Crimea.”
That same day, an unofficial Turkish inspection team departed for the peninsula. It included retired politicians, as well as academics and NGO representatives. According to Kommersant , the delegation was led by Zafer Üskül, former head of the Turkish Parliament's Human Rights Commission.
The first deputy chairman of the Mejlis, Nariman Dzhelyalov, said that representatives of the Turkish delegation asked questions about kidnappings and the situation with the land issue after the annexation of Crimea to Russia. Today there will be a meeting of a delegation of Turkish human rights activists with representatives of the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR.
Deputy Prime Minister of Crimea Ruslan Balbek assured Turkish observers: Crimean Tatars enjoy “all the rights of citizens of the Russian Federation” and “are under the protection of the state.”
Experts do not directly connect the trip of the Turkish delegation to Crimea with the Turkish leader’s harsh statements against Russia - the visit of human rights activists was planned long before. Mr. Erdogan’s harsh rhetoric towards Moscow is aimed, rather, at a domestic audience: there is just over a month left before the parliamentary elections in Turkey. The fact that Ankara does not want to escalate the conflict is also supported by the fact that the Turkish side does not intend to cancel the meeting of the foreign ministers of Russia and Turkey scheduled for mid-May in Antalya.
English version :: Read in English: Turks arrived to study the situation of Tatars in Crimea