Crimean Muslims want to take issue of mosque land to Council of Europe

03/10/2008
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Crimean Muslims propose that the Council of Europe's conference on regional development in Ukraine, set to be held in Yalta on April 3-4, discuss the issue of allotting land for the construction of a major mosque in Simferopol.

The groups has sent a letter to Halvdan Skard, the representative of the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, with the proposal, the Crimean-Tatar Majlis' press service told Interfax.

The group has also called for the consideration of the issue of the reinstatement of the rights of deported Crimean Tatars.

The Council of Europe's conference, which will see the participation of Verkhovna Rada MPs and the Congress of Local and Regional Authorities of the Council of Europe, should discuss issues "related to the reinstatement of the rights of the Crimean Tatar people returning to their motherland after decades of forced exile in Soviet times," the letter reads.

The group has also proposed to invite for participation in the conference of the Council of Europe on regional development the Ukrainian MP who chairs the Majlis of Crimean Tatar people, his first deputy Refat Chubarov, and Mufti of Crimean Muslims Emirali Ablayev.

Earlier reports said that Crimean Muslims launched a peaceful protest action in Simferopol protesting the actions of Simferopol city councilors, who refuse to make available an agreed piece of land for the ecclesiastical department of Crimean Muslims for the construction of a mosque on Yaltinskaya Vuk Street.

On materials of Interfax

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