A delegation of 22 public figures representing the countries of the European Union and the USA is in Crimea from September 30 to October 6.
Representatives of public organizations of Western countries, who arrived in Crimea on a study tour, did not see signs of militarization and human rights violations on the peninsula. This was announced by the head of the organization “People’s Diplomacy. Norway”, a deputy of the land parliament of the commune Alta Hendrik Weber.
A delegation of 22 public figures representing the countries of the European Union and the USA is in Crimea from September 30 to October 6. The delegation is headed by Weber. Foreign guests get acquainted with the culture of the peoples of the Crimea and the history of the peninsula.
“In the West, the media write that the Crimean Tatars are seized on the street and arrested by representatives of the Russian authorities. We did not find any evidence for this, because we visited Crimean Tatars settlements, talked with spiritual leaders <…> We did not find anything they write about in the West”, – he said at a meeting with the speaker of the Crimean parliament, Vladimir Konstantinov.
The teacher from Washington state Michael Lewis Watts noted that he visits Crimea for the first time and as a part of delegation visited Simferopol, Sevastopol and Evpatoria.
“Everywhere we saw ordinary life. It’s a completely non-militarized republic, as media in our countries try to show us. We visited Muslims, Christians, Jews. Everywhere we saw that people live in harmony”, – he said.
Recall, after the referendum held in 2014 and the reunification of Crimea and Sevastopol with Russia, Ukraine and other countries imposed a number of sanctions against the Russian Federation, Russian businessmen and politicians who visited Crimea and people doing business on the peninsula. In some countries, an information blockade of the peninsula is underway, and it is difficult to represent the region at international events.
Despite the sanctions imposed, the visits of foreign delegations to the republic do not stop. According to the chairman of the committee on interethnic relations and public diplomacy, Yuri Hempel, since 2015, more than 500 national diplomats from Europe and America have visited Crimea