Crimean Tatar leader awarded Poland's 'Solidarity Prize'
PR dla Zagranicy
Peter Gentle
07.05.2014 11:58
Mustafa Dzhemilev, a former Soviet dissident and leader of the Crimean Tatar National Movement has been awarded the inaugural 'Solidarity Prize' by Poland's Foreign Ministry.
Mustafa Dzhemilev: photo - EPA (archive)
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.
Mustafa Dzhemilev, 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, Dzhemilev 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 Dzhemilev the Nansen Medal.
Dzhemilev said that the referendum held in Crimea in February, which led to local pro-Russian politicians declaring that the peninsula would leave Ukraine and join the Russian federation, was “illegal”.
Crimean Tatars favour rule by Kiev and not Moscow.
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. (pg)