Mintimer Shaymiev: ‘Tatarstan should perform the function of uniting the entire Tatar diaspora’

The first president of Tatarstan, state adviser of the Republic, Mintimer Shaimiev ,spoke at the plenary session of the 8th Congress of the World Congress of Tatars. In his speech, he turned to the events of 30 years ago, recalling how Tatars from all over the world gathered for the first time in their historical homeland.

“At the first congress, I stated that our congress is “a large authorised forum representing Tatars of the whole globe and capable of making official statements on behalf of all Tatars.” And we no longer doubted that we were on the historically correct path. We have come to a common opinion that we are obliged to think about the Tatar nation as a whole and Tatarstan should perform the function of uniting the entire Tatar diaspora and positively influence the national policy of Russia. Over the past thirty years, our congress has been really consistently working in this capacity," said the first President of Tatarstan.

Mintimer Shaimiev drew attention to that in the 1990s Tatarstan, thanks to a balanced national policy and approaches more acceptable to citizens in carrying out economic reforms, managed to raise its authority.

“It is gratifying to realise that in the perestroika years of the last century we had the sense to preserve and strengthen the integrity of the Russian Federation, not to lose our face, to be creators and to pursue a policy consistent with the aspirations of the Russian peoples," he said.

Mintimer Shaimiev recalled that this year Russia celebrates the 1100th anniversary of the official and voluntary adoption of Islam by Volga Bulgaria. In his opinion, the events dedicated to the anniversary date should not be limited to 2022. He proposed to develop a special programme with the participation of the Tatar public and the authorities.

“We couldn't even dream about it before. For this, we express our deep gratitude and great gratitude to the leadership of the country, President of the Russian Federation Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin. Celebrating the 1100th anniversary of the adoption of Islam is a wise and right step by the head of a multinational and multi-confessional country," Mintimer Shaimiev said.

The 8th Congress of the World Congress of Tatars has been held in Kazan. The plenary session has been held at the Kazan Expo International Exhibition Centre.