Marked on January 20, the Republic of Crimea Day was established in 2009 and reaffirmed in 2014 under a law adopted by the Republic of Crimea, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova noted on Thursday.
"I would like to convey my greetings to all citizens of our country on Republic of Crimea Day. We offer our congratulations to the people living in this Russian region and wish them good health, peace and prosperity within Russia, our united homeland," she added.
This date, as well as the approaching anniversary of the Crimean Spring, gives us a great opportunity to remind everyone that the people living on this peninsula spent more than 20 years fighting for self-determination and justice. They were fighting for the very democracy the West has been preaching, at least in theory, while turning out to be completely oblivious of its commitments and promises in real life. It is in Crimea that we witnessed the ultimate triumph of democracy. This 20-year effort led the people of Crimea back home in 2014. The chronicle of how this popular will and hope gathered momentum among the people of Crimea as they moved toward reunification marks the main milestones of this truly noble cause.
On November 12, 1990, the Crimean Regional Council of People’s Deputies decided at its extraordinary session to hold a referendum on changing the Crimean Region into the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic, as it existed until 1945. During the referendum on January 20, 1991 (which is the date for Republic of Crimea Day), more than 93 percent of voters supported recreating the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic as an entity within the USSR.
However, Kiev sought to retake the initiative. On February 12, 1991, the Supreme Council of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted a law reinstituting the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic. The corresponding amendments to the 1978 Constitution of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic were adopted just four months later. This distorted the will of Crimeans, but they kept on fighting for their noble cause.
On May 5, 1992, Simferopol adopted the Act of State Independence for the Republic of Crimea, which stipulated the right to elect a president, government and supreme court independently, as well as introduced Crimean citizenship and state languages.
On May 13, 1992, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada recognised the resolutions of the Crimean parliament to promulgate the Act of State Independence and hold a new referendum, as unconstitutional and invalidated them.
On June 14, 1993, Crimea’s Supreme Council created the office of president of the Republic of Crimea. Supported by 72 percent of the voters, Yury Meshkov held this position from February 1994 through March 1995. On March 27, 1994, Crimea held a new referendum with the majority of voters backing the initiatives of the popularly elected president to promote closer integration with Russia.
Ukraine’s Central Election Commission and President called the March 27, 1994, referendum illegal, and in 1995 imposed a constitution on Crimea with both the presidential office and sovereignty missing from it.
The people of Crimea remember all too well how Ukraine trampled upon their rights and freedoms, attacked the Russian language, and sought to artificially impose alien historical views and values, as well as plans to deploy NATO forces, and military exercises openly declaring that Russia was their adversary. Everyone remembers the threats of invasion professed by the Maidan radicals. All this led the people of Crimea to choose, in all solidarity, reunification with Russia in the March 16, 2014, referendum.
"Crimea and Sevastopol have changed over the past few years. I have travelled there many times on work assignments, as well as privately. Crimea has been buzzing with activity. Enshrined in the Constitution of the Republic of Crimea, inter-ethnic accord is a condition for progress and development. Russian, Ukrainian and Crimean-Tatar are state languages there. Let me remind those who may not know this that Crimea guarantees cultural diversity, equality and mutual enrichment. Isn’t this a great example for the Kiev regime? If Crimea succeeded in this endeavour, Ukraine can also do it. Full steam ahead!" Zakharova stressed.
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