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         Tatar Leader Asks Putin to Withdraw Russian Troops from Crimea

   A Crimean Tatar leader told Russian President Vladimir Putin the
   secession of Crimea from Ukraine to join Russia would violate an
   international treaty in which Russia, Britain and the United States
   vowed to keep Ukraine intact.
   One of the most senior representatives of the Muslim Tatar minority,
   Mustafa Dzhemilev, spoke to VOA`s Azerbaijani Service after a Wednesday
   phone conversation with Mr. Putin. He said he told the Russian leader
   the Tatars were resolutely opposed to the annexation of Ukrainian
   territory by another state.
   "I told President Vladimir Putin that the best way to avoid
   confrontations would be to withdraw Russian soldiers from Crimea."
   Many Crimean Tatars, who make up about 12 percent of the population of
   the Black Sea peninsula, are strongly opposed to falling under Russia`s
   control and want to be governed from Kiev.
   Crimea is to hold a referendum on joining Russia on Sunday, after which
   it is expected to be rapidly absorbed into Russian territory.
   Dzhemilev said he told Mr. Putin that referendum in Crimea would be a
   meaningless exercise.
   "I expressed my views about the situation, and he expressed his. Of
   course, our opinions differed. Our approaches to the problem differ.
   However, we agreed that no blood should be spilled in the Crimean
   peninsula and no interethnic conflict should take place in Ukraine."
   Suspicion of Moscow is high among the Tatar community, who were
   deported en masse by Stalin to central Asia during World War II and
   only started returning home in the late 1980s.
   However officials in Russia`s region of Tatarstan -- which enjoys the
   status of a republic within Russia -- have sought to reassure the
   Crimean Tatars they have nothing to fear.
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   [1]http://www.voanews.com/content/tatar-leader-asks-putin-to-withdraw-r
   ussian-troops-from-crimea/1870415.html

References

   1. http://www.voanews.com/content/tatar-leader-asks-putin-to-withdraw-russian-troops-from-crimea/1870415.html