A banner appeared on the new building of the Ukrainian consulate in Antalya, Turkey; it featured demands to release Ukrainian political prisoner Oleg Sentsov. Pavlo Klimkin, the foreign minister of Ukraine posted this on Twitter on Monday.
'We opened the consulate and the Ukrainian House in Antalya; a culture centre of the Ukrainian society. The forefront of the building has an inscription with the demand to release Oleg Sentsov in Turkish language', Klmkin wrote.
A rally in support of Sentsov was held in front of the building, as one of the local supporters shouted: 'He protected Crimea, now we should protect him!'
Ukraine and Turkey agreed to continue working on the release of Ukrainian political prisoners. Ukrainian President Petro Poroshenko said this at a joint briefing with the President of Turkey. The briefing was broadcasted by 112 Ukraine.
'We highly appreciate the assistance of Turkey and Mr. President personally in the release of political prisoners. We are very grateful for the release of Ahtem Chiygoz and Ilmi Umerov. We agreed regarding those prisoners who are illegally detained in the occupied Crimea and on the territory of the Russian Federation... we will continue to coordinate the process of release of political prisoners', noted Poroshenko.
'Not only me and President Erdogan, but the whole world is taking care of the release of Ukrainian hostages. We talked about this issue the day before yesterday with German Chancellor Merkel; I will raise this question during my visit to Helsinki and Paris in November. We will do everything possible so that Sentsov, Sushchenko, Balukh and other political prisoners are at home as soon as possible. And the international support plays a crucial role in resolving this problem,' Poroshenko added.
Ukraine also provided Turkey with the complete list of all political prisoners held in Russian prisons. It was not reported when exactly Erdogan planned to talk with Russian President Vladimir Putin about the release of Ukrainian political prisoners.
