Turkey welcomes Ukraine's Crimean Platform initiative

"We feel the support of Turkey on many international platforms. The Turkish side is very positive about everything we talk and offer, in particular as regards the Crimean Platform. Currently, Turkey is deciding on its role and level of participation in the Crimean Platform, which provides for involvement in four dimensions: parliamentary, governmental, at the level of heads of state and at the expert level," Rustem Umerov, Member of the Parliament of Ukraine, Chairman of the Ukraine-Turkey Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Verkhovna Rada, told Ukrinform after a meeting with Yıldırım Tuğrul Türkeş, Head of the Turkey-Ukraine Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Grand National Assembly of the Republic of Turkey.

According to him, the Verkhovna Rada now elaborates the content of the Crimean Platform’s parliamentary dimension, where several cooperation mechanisms will be proposed. Parliamentary friendship groups will be one of them. There are also plans to intensify discussions on the issue of de-occupation of Crimea at the expert level.

"I suggested holding a video conference on Crimean issues at one of Turkey's leading universities to open discussions at the level of think tanks, experts on security issues, the Black Sea region, and human rights," said the chairman of the Ukraine-Turkey Inter-Parliamentary Friendship Group in the Verkhovna Rada.

Umerov thanked Turkey for its continued support for Ukraine's sovereignty and territorial integrity, involvement in the protection of the rights and freedoms of Crimean Tatars. He also told about the situation of Ukrainian political prisoners and spoke in favor of Turkey's active participation in their release.

Amid the coronavirus pandemic, this was the inaugural and first meeting of the heads of friendship groups in the parliaments of Ukraine and Turkey after the election of a new composition of the Verkhovna Rada. In order to develop cooperation, it was agreed to hold an online meeting of representatives of the inter-parliamentary friendship groups of Ukraine and Turkey and to make mutual visits of representatives of these groups to Ukraine and Turkey after the pandemic.

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