Petro Poroshenko (right) greets Crimean Tatar activists, political prisoners and Deputy Chairmen of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis Akhtem Chiygoz (centre) and Ilmi Umerov (left) in Kyiv on 27 October, after their return from Turkey. Photo (c): Mykhailo Markiv / Zuma Press / PA images. All rights reserved.In September, a Russian court in Crimea jailed the two deputy heads of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar parliament. Akhtem Chiygoz was given eight years for “provoking civil unrest” outside the region’s parliament building in February 2014 [a full month before the peninsula’s formal annexation - ed.], and Ilmi Umerov got a two-year term for “incitement to separatism”, due to his stating on a Crimean Tatar TV channel that Crimea was part of Ukraine and denouncing the 2014 annexation.
At the end of October they were, however, unexpectedly released on the orders of Vladimir Putin and flown to Turkey — Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan supposedly personally intervened on their behalf. Anton Korolyov, an independent journalist living and working in Crimea was already talking to Umerov about an interview for oDR before he was freed. Korolyov recently caught up with him in Kyiv.
“You realise that Chubarov and Djemilev have abandoned you?”
oDR: You and Akhtem Chiygoz were handed over to the Turkish authorities in something reminiscent of a secret services operation, although as I understand it, the original idea was to take you to mainland Ukraine. So what happened?
