Two policemen walk past armed men standing guard at the entrance of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars) in Simferopol on September 16, 2014.
The building of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly, a civil society organization of Tatars in Crimea, was emptied and then sealed off late on Friday.
The building that is located in Simferopol, which is called “Akmescit” by the Tatars, was raided by some Russian police and soldiers on Sept. 16. Those Russian security forces, whose faces were covered according to the media reports, searched the building for 12 hours. One day after the raid, federal court officials came to the building and warned the
Crimean Tatar National Assembly members that the building would be closed down. Those officials gave time to Crimean Tatar National Assembly members for empting the building.
After this warning, the members of Crimean Tatar National Assembly decided to empty the building.
According to QHA (Crimean news agency) report, the Crimean Tatar National Assembly members emptied the building and started to wait for the federal court officials to close down the building on Sept. 19 as scheduled earlier by the officials. However, those federal court officials did not show up at the planned time. Thus, the Crimean Tatar National Assembly members had to close down the building themselves.
In an earlier press statement, Crimean Tatar National Assembly Chairman Rıfat Çubarov had stated that the assembly did not have the power to confront the Crimean government, thus they we obligated to empty the building. Çubarov stated that the main issue is not the building, adding that the real problem is that the Crimean Tatar National Assembly was being eliminated.
On Sept. 17, Turkish Foreign Ministry expressed concern over what it called “growing pressure” on the Crimean Tatar National Assembly, stating: “We condemn such actions that are aimed at cowing the Tatar community, Crimea's native people, and urge that these actions be ended immediately.”
Turkey's foreign ministry building in Ankara.
Turkey said in the statement that it does not recognize a vote in Crimea, the first election in the Black Sea peninsula after Russian annexation, that was held on Sept. 14.
A statement from the Foreign Ministry said Turkey does not recognize the “illegal annexation” of Crimea. “In this framework, ‘elections' held in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea have no validity for our country,” it said.
Critics slammed Sunday's regional and local elections as unfair and undemocratic, with many complaining that the campaigning was characterized by favoritism toward the ruling United Russia Party that is loyal to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Russia annexed Crimea from Ukraine in March. Turkey has watched the annexation process warily, especially because of concerns for the fate of Crimea's Turkic Tatar community.
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