Zelensky appoints former political prisoner as Ukraine’s ambassador to Turkey

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has appointed Nariman Dzhelyal, a former political prisoner and deputy chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, as Ukraine’s new ambassador to Turkey.

Dzhelyal, 45, has been part of the Crimean Tatar leadership since 2013. Following Russia’s 2014 annexation of Crimea, he remained on the peninsula and worked in Crimean Tatar media.

In 2021, he was arrested by Russia’s FSB and later sentenced to 17 years in prison over alleged sabotage of a gas pipeline. He was released in a prisoner exchange in June 2024, becoming the first Crimean Tatar political prisoner freed since 2019.