Dzhemilev hopes Turkey will co-ordinate its PACE activities with Ukraine

"We are grateful to Turkey for its continued support. From the beginning of the occupation of Crimea until today, Turkey has always been with us. Turkey declares its support at every opportunity and at the highest level, encouraging us," Ukrainian MP, leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev told Ukrinform following the visit of representatives of the Verkhovna Rada Group on Interparliamentary Relations with the Republic of Turkey to Ankara.

He also noted that Turkey was implementing a project to build housing for internally displaced persons from Crimea.

“The meetings we held went beyond parliamentary ties… At all the meetings we discussed the current situation in Crimea, around Ukraine, regarding the build-up of Russian troops on the border, and the possible consequences. I must say that we received 100% support from the inter-parliamentary group, the parliament’s foreign affairs committee, and the Speaker of the Parliament," the politician said.

Dzhemilev noted that the issue of cooperation within international organizations was also raised during the visit.

"We commented on the vote of [Turkey’s] PACE delegation to restore Russia's presence in the PACE. We said it was unacceptable for us. We understand that you have special relations with Russia but Ukraine was greatly disappointed with that [the vote of the Turkish delegation to return the Russian delegation to PACE], and we hope that this will not happen in the future," Dzhemilev said.

According to him, the Turkish side expressed understanding and declared its intention to coordinate its actions with the Ukrainian delegation in the future.

As reported, on January 12-13, the Ukrainian parliamentary delegation visited Ankara and Istanbul.

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