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04 March 2014 [13:13] - Today.Az


Turkey's Foreign Minister Ahmet Davutoglu said on Monday that Turkey will always stand by the Crimean Tatars, as he met with nearly 50 representatives of Crimean Associations, the Anadolu agency reported.

Turkey supports and encourages the return of Tatars in their homeland Davutogllu said, adding that the current Turkish President and Prime Minister are saying that do not even think that we can stay indifferent to any matter related to our compatriots in Crimea or anywhere in the world.

"Wherever our brothers and sisters are suffering we will be the first to help them," Davutoglu said.

The Crimean Tatars fear exile again if the Crimea region of Ukraine is going to stay occupied by Russia. The 280,000 Crimean Tatars living in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea constitute close to 13 percent of the total population, according to Turkey's Foreign Ministry.

Muslim minority Tatars are manning the streets and mosques as they fear a repeat of the exile they faced in 1944 under Stalin, which saw them scattered in labor camps across the barren steppes of Central Asia.


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