Tatarstan President meets members of Tatar community in Chelyabinsk region and lays flowers at the monument to the first builders of Magnitogorsk

On October 1, during his working visit to Magnitogorsk, Tatarstan President Rustam Minnikhanov together with Governor of the Chelyabinsk region Boris Dubrovsky, Head of Magnitogorsk city Sergey Berdnikov, Chairman of the Board of Magnitogorsk Iron and Steel Works Viktor Rashnikov and Deputy Prime Minister, Chairman of the World Tatar Congress National Council Vasil Shaikhraziev had a meeting with members of Tatar community in Chelyabinsk region.

At the beginning of the meeting, Minnikhanov congratulated the elderly representatives of the community on the International Day of Older Persons and thanked the regional leadership for supporting the Tatar community. “To date, over 20,000 Tatar people live in Magnitogorsk and more than 180,000 in the Chelyabinsk region in general. There are many famous steelworkers, scientists and cultural figures among them, who have contributed to the development of the region. I want to express my gratitude to the leadership of the region and personally to Boris Dubrovsky, to the administration of the city of Magnitogorsk and to Sergey Berdnikov for the creation of conditions for the preservation and development of Tatar culture,” Minnikhanov said.

During the meeting, the parties discussed issues related to the establishment of a Tatar cultural centre in Magnitogorsk, the establishment of schools with an ethnocultural component for learning the Tatar native language, the opening of the branch of Tatarstan Novyi Vek Broadcasting Company and the opening of direct flight between Magnitogorsk and Kazan.

The most numerous Tatar community lives in the Chelyabinsk region. At the meeting, Chairman of the Tatar Congress of the region Lena Kolesnikova made a proposal to establish a monument to the Tatar poet Gabdulla Tukay in Chelyabinsk and to improve the surrounding square. The leaders of both regions supported the initiative.

After the meeting, Minnikhanov laid flowers at the First Tent monument dedicated to the first builders of the famous Magnitka. Many of those people lived and spent the winter in canvas tents and there were also Tatar people among them, who were sent from all regions of Tatarstan to this city.