Poroshenko hadn’t seen the working group suggestions on the status of Crimea yet (VIDEO)

The President of Ukraine, Petro Poroshenko alleged at a press conference on February 28 that he had not yet studied the working group suggestions on the changes in the Constitution regarding the status of Crimea.

Answering to ATR TV channel journalist Elvina Seitbullaeva’s question, when the president initiates voting in the Verkhovna Rada regarding the national and territorial autonomy of the Crimean Tatars, Poroshenko replied that he had not yet seen the working group proposals:

«They must be approved by the Constitutional Commission. I will immediately appeal to the Constitutional Commission to hold a public discussion of the working group suggestions. As soon as the final version will be found, as I’ve promised, the question of national or national and cultural autonomy and amendments to the Constitution I will initiate before the Verkhovna Rada. I really hope that the Verkhovna Rada will support these proposals».

After the President of Ukraine called the national autonomy of the Crimean Tatars as «national or national and cultural», the journalist specified from Poroshenko whether autonomy would become «national and territorial».

«I'll take this into consideration. Thank you», the head of state replied.

As previously the website «15 minutes» reported, there was registered a draft law on the status of the Crimean Tatar people in Ukraine in the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine on April 7, 2017.

One of the main articles in this Law is Article 7 on «Peculiarities of the Status of Administrative Territories on the Territory of the Crimean Peninsula», where the Autonomous Republic of Crimea is defined as the «national and territorial autonomy of the Crimean Tatar people created within the territory of the Crimean peninsula as a part of unitary Ukraine and is a form of implementation for Crimean Tatar people their right to self-determination».

On May 11, 2017 the head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov announced the creation of a working group on changes and amendments to the Constitution of Ukraine on the status of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.