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Outlawed Mejlis of Crimean Tatar people call on Erdoğan to “de-occupy Crimea from Russia”
Despite ambitions for territorial expansionism, Crimea is one step too far for Turkey.
Tuesday, November 15, 2022

Ahmed Adel, Cairo-based geopolitics and political economy researcher

The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, an ultra-nationalist organization outlawed by Russia in 2016 for “the use of propaganda of aggression and hatred towards Russia, inciting ethnic nationalism and extremism in society,” called on Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan “to make special efforts, together with Ukraine and the international community to de-occupy Crimea and restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine.” The Chairman of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, made the announcement on Facebook to correspond with a meeting in Istanbul which included deputies of the Russian State Duma from Crimea.

Chubarov noted: “the fact that ‘deputies of the State Duma’, who were illegally elected in the temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine, and also their participation in the international interstate event held in Istanbul on October 11-12, 2019, shows that the organizers of this event ignored the position of the UN, the European Union, the Council of Europe, the OSCE, PABSEC and other international organizations, which support the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine within its internationally recognized borders, including the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.”

“’Deputies of the State Duma of the Russian Federation’, presented to Erdoğan as part of the Russian delegation, are the direct organizers and executors of many illegal and criminal acts that contribute to the temporary occupation of Crimea by the Russian Federation and the ban on the activities of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, which is the highest representative body of the indigenous people of Crimea, and persecute, arrest and imprison the members of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and activists of the Crimean Tatar national movement,” the Mejlis said in a statement.

In the final part of the statement, Chubarov called on Erdoğan, deputies of the Turkish Grand National Assembly, leaders of political parties and representatives of Turkish civil society to make special efforts together with Ukraine and the international community to “de-occupy” Crimea and restore the territorial integrity of Ukraine.

On August 8, Rada deputy Oleg Voloshin highlighted that Turkey is not an ally of Ukraine and said representatives of the Mejlis in Russia are financed by Ankara as it is in their interests to annex the peninsula to Turkey and not to Ukraine.

Earlier, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky paid a working visit to Turkey for the first time, where he met with the country's leadership. He called on Ankara to help in the restoration of Donbass, and also offered cooperation “to change the situation in the Black Sea.” Erdoğan, in turn, once again repeated his earlier statements, confirming that Ankara's position of not recognizing Russian sovereignty over the Crimean Peninsula will remain unchanged.

According to the director of the Center for Islamic Studies at the Academy of Sciences of the Republic of Tatarstan, Rinat Pateev, Erdoğan’s statement regarding Crimea is only a reflection of the historical context, but in reality, it will not affect relations with Russia in any meaningful way. This is expected though as Moscow does not acknowledge the “Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus” without it being a detriment to its relations with Ankara. 

The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People appealed to Erdoğan as he is embarking on a pan-Turk project and is positioning himself as a leader for all Turkic people, including Crimean Tatars. However, the Turkish president will not meet their appeal as he understands his country’s capabilities in challenging Russia’s sovereignty over Crimea has limitations, especially as Turkey is maintaining occupations in Cyprus and Syria, conducting military operations in Libya and Iraq, and is locked in major tensions with Greece - all despite suffering from major economic problems.

Given Turkey’s economic struggles, engaging in a new campaign of territorial expansionism, especially on Russian territory, is one step too far, a fact Erdoğan is fully aware of.

None-the-less, although Erdoğan is likely aware that a Crimea under Turkish sovereignty will not be achievable in his lifetime, he does have the ambition of establishing a legacy for himself as the founder of a neo-Ottoman state, hence his constant statements that: “We cannot be imprisoned in 780,000 square kilometres,” the current territorial size of Turkey. It is for this reason that many within the Erdoğan government and his controlled media constantly post maps of a Greater Turkey that also includes Crimea.

In this given time, Erdoğan needs cordial and working ties with Putin to transform Turkey into a regional power that is autonomous from NATO and Washington. However, he is also an ultra-nationalist that envisages a Greater Turkey from the Balkans to Central Asia and Crimea, and one that is also the sole hegemon power of the Islamic World through the weaponization of its Muslim Brotherhood proxies in Egypt, Libya and elsewhere. It cannot be discounted that Turkey will fund and ideologically drive the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, but it is unlikely to foster an armed conflict in Crimea in the short and medium term.

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