Erdogan asks Dzhemilev for the list of Ukrainian prisoners held in Russia
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan asked the leader of the Crimean Tatars Mustafa Dzhemilev to give him the list of Ukrainian prisoners detained in Russia and promised to discuss this issue with Putin, Dzhemilov said in an interview to Radio Svoboda.
“During our recent meetings – it was on July 12 – Poroshenko (Petro Poroshenko, the president of Ukraine) and I were present at the opening of the Trans-Anatolian gas system. We met again with Erdogan. I told him that there are more than 70 Ukrainian political prisoners in Russian prisons. Do it, come to an agreement with Putin on their release. He said, “Of course, we will take some measures. But name at least a few prisoners”. I named Sentsov, Kolchenko...” said Dzhemilev.
Dzhemilev said that a few days ago the Turkish Ministry of Foreign Affairs requested the full list of the political prisoners.
“I think there will be a conversation with Putin anyway. But how productive will this conversation be? I also asked him whether they had any more Russian terrorists for ‘exchange’. Although, in my opinion, it is totally immoral to exchange absolutely innocent people, patriots of their country with terrorists, people whose hands are covered in blood,” noted Dzhemilev.
In October 2017, the leaders of the Crimean Tatar national movement, Akhtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov, who had been imprisoned in the annexed Crimea, were handed over to Turkey. According to unofficial information, during a meeting, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin reached an agreement on the transfer of Chiygoz and Umerov.
Earlier, the leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev handed a personal message from the President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko to the President of Turkey. The content of the message remains unknown.