SIMFEROPOL. Feb 19 (Interfax) - Crimean Muslims are going to ask the German government for war reparation for the villages destroyed during the German occupation of the peninsula in 1941-1944.
"The Great Patriotic War proved a tough test for residents of Crimea. During the years of occupation, 127 Crimean villages were destroyed, along with their peaceful residents whom fascists had accused of links to partisan fighters," the Crimean Muslims said in a statement approved at their congress in Simferopol on Saturday.
The forum attendees are now claiming their "moral and legal right to revisit the issue of reparation."
The delegates instructed the Crimean Muslim authority to set up groups to investigate the matter as well as "prepare, process and submit documentation for consideration by the Federal Republic of Germany, regarding damage reparation and compensation for harm."
The republic of Crimea has a population of 1.9 million, including about 300,000 Muslims.