Poland awarded a prize for championing democracy and human rights to Mustafa Jemilev, a leader of the Tatar community in Ukraine's Crimea peninsula who says he was barred from the region after Russia annexed it.
«He is a defender of Ukraine’s integrity," said Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski, as he announced Jemilev had been awarded the prize. «He is someone who, together with his people, has demonstrated that democracy is possible.»
Jemilev has worked to redress historical injustices done to the Tatar people and shown that democracy works in a traditional Muslim society, Sikorski said.
The Polish prize, in its first year, is intended to recognise people who embody the same democratic values as Lech Walesa, the leader of Poland’s Solidarity trade union movement who was awarded the Nobel Peace Prize for his role in overthrowing Communist rule in Poland in the 1980s.
President Bronislaw Komorowski will present the award on 3 June, during a visit to Warsaw by US president Barack Obama to coincide with the 25th anniversary of historic elections which brought to end decades of communist rule in Poland, Polish foreign minister Radoslaw Sikorski announced on Wednesday.
As reported TheNews.pl, Mustafa Jemilev, a Ukrainian MP since 1998, will receive 250,000 euros personally, 700,000 euros will be available for development aid projects, to be chosen by the Tartar leader, plus 50,000 euros, which will go towards a study tour of Poland.
Between 1966 and 1986, Jemilev was arrested six times for anti-Soviet activities and served time in Soviet prisons and labour camps.
In 1998, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees awarded Jemilev the Nansen Medal.
Other candidates for the award by Poland’s Foreign Ministry included Burmese dissident Aung San Suu Kyi, head of EU diplomacy, Catherine Ashton and Swedish Foreign Minister Carl Bildt.
The Tatars are a Turkic-speaking Muslim community who make up about 12 percent of Crimea’s two million-strong population. Many Tatars were uneasy about coming back under Moscow’s control, especially as they were persecuted during Soviet rule.
Jemilev, who until last year led the body that represents Crimean Tatars, publicly opposed Russia’s annexation of Crimea. He said Crimea’s new Moscow-backed authorities last month banned him from entering the peninsula for five years.
