By Merve Aydogan
ANKARA (AA) - The Turkish Foreign Ministry on Wednesday expressed "concern" over the "politically motivated" sentencing of Crimean Tatar political figures.
"The politically motivated conviction of Nariman Dzhelyal, Deputy Chairman of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly, and our other Crimean Tatar kinsmen Asan Akhtemov and Aziz Akhtemov today (21 September) is concerning," said a statement by the ministry.
The ministry emphasized Türkiye's support for "the Crimean Tatars' right to live freely and safely in their homeland".
It noted that it expects "necessary steps to be taken as soon as possible for the freedom of all our compatriots imprisoned in Crimea, including the aforementioned ones."
Russian forces entered the Crimean Peninsula in February 2014, with President Vladimir Putin formally dividing the region into two separate federal subjects of the Russian Federation the following month.
Crimea's ethnic Tatars have faced persecution since that time, a situation especially decried by Türkiye.
Türkiye, the EU, and US, as well as the UN General Assembly, view Crimea’s annexation as illegal.
Separately, Ukraine's First Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzheppar on Twitter "strongly" condemned the "shameful sentence on trumped-up charges by Russian occupiers."
"We appeal to international community and our partners on #CrimeaPlatform to exert political, diplomatic, sanctions and economic pressure on #Russia in order to immediately release Nariman Dzhelyal, the brothers Aziz & Asan Akhtemov, and all Ukrainian citizens illegally imprisoned by Russian occupiers," she added.