Better Late Than Never: West Starting to Accept Crimea as Part of Russia

There are positive changes in the way the West perceives the Crimea issue, like the recent visit of a group of European parliamentarians led by Thierry Mariani to the peninsula, French member of European Parliament Aymeric Chauprade told Sputnik.

The politician said he believes that this tendency will continue to improve, and that he considers the events that transpired on the peninsula in 2014 as a historical reunification of Crimea with Russia.

"In my opinion, that event was doubly legitimate," Chauprade said. "It was legitimate from a historical standpoint, considering how Crimea was a part of Ukraine for a relatively short period of time. It was also legitimate in terms of elections because there was a referendum regarding the issue, a referendum that I attended as one of the few international monitors who observed the event. During that referendum, which was marked by a high voter turnout, 97% of voters supported the peaceful reunification with Russia. And I believe that eventually all honest, unbiased and free parliamentarians will realize that the future of Crimea is intrinsically linked with Russia."

He pointed out how he visited areas of Crimea populated by Crimean Tatars and that things there were just as calm and peaceful during the referendum as in the rest of the peninsula.

"Crimean Tatars comprise about 8-10% of Crimea's population and their participation in the referendum wasn’t exactly active. Still, you can't say that the majority of Tatars were against the reunification with Russia," Chauprade said. "There were definitely attempts to manipulate the segments of the Crimean Tatar population that are most susceptible to the influence of Islamic ideas that are often employed by the US and Turkey. We’ve seen how the US and Turkey attempted to use them just like in the Caucasus region or in Central Asia. Or like in Xinjiang, where the US and Turkey seek to manipulate the Uyghurs in a similar fashion."

"As a historian and a political scientist I have a habit of doing a comparative study when reviewing some historical issue," Chauprade explains. "I worked on the issue of Chechnya and I remember how the US played a pivotal role in arming the Chechen rebels since the early 90s. Now we see the same thing happening in other parts of the world like in the Middle East. The Islamic State of today was born thanks to the US policy of using Islamism to advance its interests, and it resulted in the destabilization of nation-states. If we want to improve international stability, we must help reinforce the nation-states. Russia upholds this perception of international law, to stabilize the nation-states against all these destabilizing games the US plays with Islamism and mafias. And when you consider the Crimean issue, not to mention other important geopolitically important regions, one must always remember the dangerous and destabilizing games that the US plays behind the scenes."

Chauprade also remarked that considering who handles financial matters in Ukraine and controls certain sectors of the Ukrainian economy related to foreign investments, one has to wonder whether Ukraine is actually an independent state.

"Unfortunately, Ukraine today is being governed by people who serve foreign powers, namely the US and its allies. This is the main reason of the ongoing conflict," Chauprade stated. "I firmly believe that if Ukraine was run by people who first and foremost care about the interests of their country and do not ignore the historical reality, Ukraine would’ve been able to peacefully coexist with its neighbors like Moscow and the Western European countries, instead of constantly trying to fan the flames of conflict like friends of Mr. Poroshenko do."