Crimean Tatars’ organizations in Ukraine’s Crimea are protesting a decision to introduce bilingual traffic signs on the peninsula’s roads, according to RFE/RL’s Ukrainian Service.
The Supreme Council of Crimea adopted a law on April 22, according to which, by June 1 all traffic signs should be in two languages: Ukrainian and Russian. (At the moment, the signs are usually only in Ukrainian.)
Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Tatars’ Assembly (Medjlis) Refat Chubarov told RFE/RL that Crimean Tatar organizations and ordinary Crimean Tatars consider the new law’s adoption to be “discrimination and ignoring the rights and interests of Crimean Tatars.”
Crimean Tatars were deported from Crimea to Central Asia by Josef Stalin in the 1940s.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union they started returning to Crimea. Now there are over 250,000 of them living in Crimea, around 18 percent of the peninsula’s general population.
— Ukrainian Service
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