Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, human rights activists, one of the founders of the "Initiative Group on Human Rights in the USSR," long-term prisoner of Soviet camps Mustafa Jemilev has been officially nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize. His candidature has been supported by Ukrainian, European, and American professors.

On his part, Euro-Asian Jewish Congress (EAJC) President Alexander Mashkevich spoke on behalf of the Jewish activists of the former USSR, who had known him well, turned to acknowledged leaders who had been honored with this award ealier – to be precise, to President of Israel Shimon Peres and writer Elie Wisel, -- with a request to support the candidature of the Mejlis Chairman.

"Mustafa Jemilev, who dedicated his whole life to human rights, continues to consistently follow of the principles inherent to the national movement of the Crimean Tatars – principles of non-violence and solidarity with the rights of other enslaved peoples and human rights in general. Through his unreserved service to the people, unprecedented bravery and unyielding will in asserting the rights of peoples and human rights, which are the basis of human civilization, Mustafa Jemilev has justly become one of the most iconic figures in the contemporary human rights movement," the EAJC President's address reads.

Alexander Mashkevich underscored that "The Euro-Asian Jewish Congress has fruitful and close ties with the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, and develops the Muslim-Jewish dialogue for the mutual good of two peoples, for peace and prosperity.”

Famous human rights activist, dissident, Soviet-time political prisoner, now the Chairman of the EAJC General Council, Chairman of the Association of Jewish Organizations and Communities (VAAD) of Ukraine Josef Zisels, who has been a friend of Mustafa Jemilev for over thirty years, had been immediately invited into the Workgroup for the nomination of Mustafa Jemilev for the Nobel Peace Prize.
On his part, Mustafa Jemilev commented his own nomination for this most high award with a statement that he believes this nomination to not be his own personal merit, but the acknowledhement of the many-yeared efforts of the Crimean Tatars to solve their problems nonviolently.

"I am evalutating this fact as moral support for the nonviolence principle to which the Crimean Tatars hold. I hope that this will help gather attention for the Crimean situation around land for the repatriates, and will also underscore the necessity for a non-violent solution of the problems in the conflicted Black Sea region," the Mejlis chairman said.