Russia map with occupied Crimea erased from sculpture in Turkey / Photo from Facebook/Emine Dzheppar

Ukraine's First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs Emine Dzhaparova (Dzheppar) has said a map of the Russian Federation with Ukraine's Crimean peninsula seized by Russia in 2014, which was engraved on a sculpture on display at an international art festival in Turkey, has been erased.

The author of the map was a female citizen of the Russian Federation, the official said on Facebook.

Read alsoSlovak PM apologizes for inappropriate joke about Zakarpattia regionHaving learnt about the map, Ukraine's Consul in Antalya Emir Rustamov asked Alanya Mayor Adem Murat Yücel to help with removing the incorrect map.

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"We are grateful to the Turkish partners for the immediate reaction. Now art has stopped being used as a political tool of influence and no longer misleads local residents and guests of the wonderful city of Alanya about the territory of the Russian Federation. Crimea is Ukraine!" Dzhaparova said.

Russian occupation of Crimea

  • Russia annexed Ukraine's Crimea in March 2014 after its troops had occupied the peninsula. An illegal referendum was held amid the aggressive takeover on the issue of the peninsula's accession to Russia. De-facto Crimean authorities claimed that 96.77% of the Crimean population had allegedly supported the move.
  • On March 18, 2014, the so-called agreement on the accession of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol to the Russian Federation was signed off in the Kremlin.
  • Western powers never recognized the Crimea annexation attempt and imposed sanctions on Russia over aggression against Ukraine.
  • Ukraine's parliament voted to designate February 20, 2014, as the official date for the start of the temporary occupation of Crimea.