Crimean senator Olga Kovitidi said in an interview with Vestnik Kavkaza that peace in Crimea was the main achievement of 2014. She noted that the peninsula needed solutions for the 23-year problems in the economy and social development. Rising pensions and salaries and the introduction of maternity capital, rehabilitation of the deported Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Tatars were important for the population, in her words.
Kovitidi said that business and cultural ties between Crimea and the North Caucasus were improving. She noted that the peninsula had been protesting against the heroization of Bandera.
The senator said that Crimea was especially patriotic, had a special sense of honour, respect for women and the elderly. She reminded about such notable terms on the peninsula as Sevastopol, the Black Sea Fleet, Kerch, the marines, Feodosiya, the defense of Sevastopol, Perekop.
Kovitidi admitted that she was from Laki, a Greek village. The village was burned down on March 23, 1942, for supporting guerrillas. In her words, only 2-3 Germans burned it down. Khatyn was burned down on March 23, 1943. She commemorated the victims of the Krasny collective farm concentration camp.
