Dzhemilev: Putin brazenly lied about "peace agreement" in Istanbul

Russian President Vladimir Putin lied when he said that a peace agreement was allegedly signed at the Ukrainian-Russian talks in Istanbul in March 2022, but Ukraine broke it itself.

The leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev said this during the ceremony of raising the Crimean Tatar flag near the building of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, an Ukrinform correspondent reports.

"A few days ago, the Kremlin dictator Putin, speaking to the heads of several African countries, said that a peace agreement was allegedly signed at the Ukrainian-Russian talks in March 2022 in Istanbul, but Ukraine itself broke it and continued hostilities. Of course, Putin was lying in his usual manner. I say this responsibly because I was present at the final part of the negotiations in Turkey. In fact, we handed over a letter to the Russian side as a condition for the cessation of hostilities, with a position to withdraw to the border as of February 24. And on the issues of Crimea and Donbas, to start a negotiation process, while committing not to use force to liberate these territories. But the very next day after the talks in Turkey, Putin said that there could be no negotiations on Crimea, because it is allegedly the territory of Russia," Dzhemilev said.

The leader of the Crimean Tatar people emphasized that such a position of the Russian leadership, as well as the blatant crimes of Russians in the occupied territories, quite naturally "led the leadership of our country to the conclusion that there can be no negotiations with the Russian side and the liberation of our territories is carried out in the only language understandable to the aggressor - military force." 

He also noted that Ukraine is now at the stage of final restoration of its territorial integrity and elimination of the bandit regime in Crimea. 

"We would very much like to see the liberation of Crimea in a peaceful, diplomatic way, without bloodshed and destruction. This was stated in the concept of the liberation of Crimea adopted by the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine in March 2021 and the final communiqué of the Crimean Platform Summit in August 2021 in Kyiv. We talked about this even after the beginning of Russia's large-scale invasion at the end of February last year," Dzhemilev said.

However, according to him, the Russian occupiers have cut off all paths to a peaceful solution with their inhuman actions.

"A few words to our compatriots and all our citizens in the temporarily occupied Crimea. I know that a lot of people on the peninsula, especially representatives of the indigenous peoples of Crimea, are looking forward to the arrival of our troops. But waiting is not enough. In this just holy war for the liberation of their homeland, every citizen of our country, including those in occupied Crimea, must make their contribution. Years will pass, and our children and grandchildren will definitely ask us what we personally did to liberate our homeland from the occupiers. And it is very important that we are not ashamed in front of them," he added. 

As reported, June 26 marks the Day of the Crimean Tatar flag.