SIMFEROPOL, Ukraine -- Ukraine’s Defense Ministry has decided to hand over a plot of land to the Crimean government in order to resolve a dispute with Crimean Tatars who claim the land.
Crimean Parliament speaker Anatoly Hritsenko told RFE/RL that the Defense Ministry will hand over the land in Simferopol, the capital of the Crimea region, where Crimean Tatar repatriates from Central Asia built a settlement called Yani Kyrym (New Crimea) several years ago.
Private companies have been trying to use the territory for their own purposes, saying that the Tatar settlement was built illegally.
Hritsenko said that if the Crimean government becomes the owner of the land, it will be easier to resolve the conflict.
The leadership of the Crimean Tatars last week asked for help in resolving the dispute from the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe.