Some of the members of the Supreme Council of Crimea have delivered speeches in the Crimean Tatar language for the first time, First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and a member of the Crimean parliament, Refat Cubarov, has said.

"Today, for the first time at a session of the Crimean parliament, speeches in the Crimean Tatar language were delivered and translated into Russian… Some [of the deputies] were shocked, but in general [our] colleagues took this just fine," Cubarov wrote on his page on Facebook.

Earlier, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Mustafa Jemilev stated that the Crimean Tatars would strive to achieve the official use of the Crimean Tatar language in Crimea, regardless of the language law.

"When we speak about the Crimean Tatar language, we don't need such a law. We think that the Crimean Tatar language has to be one of official languages in Crimea due to the fact that we are the native people of the peninsula. We will strive for official functioning of the Crimean Tatar language on our territory, regardless of the language law," he said.

As reported, the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, passed the language bill on July 3, 2012. According to it, a language may be provided with the status of a regional language if the number of people considering it their native language exceeds 10% of the total population of the region.

The Crimean parliament instructed the Crimean government to draw up and submit for consideration its proposals on the implementation of the language law by October 10, 2012.