Mintimer Shaimiev meets with Turkish Ambassador to Russia Aydin Sezgin

On April 25, Tatarstan State Counsellor Mintimer Shaimiev met with Turkish Ambassador to Russia Aydin Sezgin, who arrived in Kazan to take part in opening of the year "Kazan-cultural capital of Turkic world 2014".

At the beginning of the meeting, Mintimer Shaimiev noted that the Republic of Turkey is the center of the Turkic world and contributes to development of the common cultural space of the Turkic peoples. “We are grateful to the TÜRKSOY organisation for announcing Kazan as the cultural capital of the Turkic world in 2014,” he said.

“Every meeting with you is a great honor for me. You are one of the elders of the Turkic world and the Russian Federation, the founder of the friendly relations between Russia and Turkey. Our friendship is growing stronger every day and entering a new level, comprising new spheres of life. It is pleasant that the work started by you has continued to the present. Economic, scientific, and cultural relations have been successfully developing between our republics,” Aydin Sezgin noted.

Participants of the meeting discussed cooperation between Tatarstan and Turkey in the field of culture and education. Aydin Sezgin said that he is closely watching the implementation of a wonderful project of the Regional Foundation of Revival of Historical and Cultural Monuments of the republic.

Issues related to the accession of the Republic of Crimea to the Russian Federation were also raised at the meeting. Aydin Sezgin expressed the concern of the Turkish leadership about the destiny of the Crimean Tatars under the current political situation and his wish to know Mintimer Shaimiev’s opinion as a direct participant of negotiations regarding this matter.

Tatarstan State Counsellor told Turkish Ambassador about his conversation with the former leader of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, deputy of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine Mustafa Dzhemilev, held on March, 12 in Moscow. He also outlined his vision of how to deal with challenges, the Crimean Tatars are facing today. Minitmer Shaimiev stressed the importance of the Russian President's Decree on the measures rehabilitating the Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Crimean Tatar and German peoples and state support for their revival and development dated April 21, 2014. According to him, this document provides opportunities to discuss issues on finding the ways of developing the Crimean Tatars, maintaining their language and culture.

Head of the Secretariat of Tatarstan State Counsellor Evgeny Grishin, Consul General of the Republic of Turkey in Kazan Sabri Tunch Angyly and other officials took part in the meeting.