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Crimea’s Tatars condemn annexation, seek autonomy

By Laura Mills
Published March 29, 2014 7:26pm ET
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Crimea’s Tatars condemn annexation, seek autonomy
Crimean Tatars greet Russia's top Muslim Cleric Ravil Gainutdin, foreground right, during the Crimean Tatar Qurultay, a religious congress, in Bakhchysarai, Crimea, Saturday, March 29, 2014. The Crimean Tatar Qurultay, a religious congress will determine whether the Tatars will accept Russian citizenship and the political system that comes with it, or remain Ukrainian citizens on Russian soil. (AP Photo/Pavel Golovkin) | Pavel Golovkin

BAKCHYSARAI, Crimea (AP) — Leaders of Crimea’s Tatar minority gathered Saturday to condemn Russia’s annexation of the peninsula and appealed to international bodies for recognition as an autonomous group.

Tatars, an ethnically Turkic and mainly Muslim group that was subjected to mass deportation from their native Crimea by Soviet leader Josef Stalin in 1944, gathered to forge a collective response to Russia’s absorption of their native region.

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