April 12th, 2016, amidst ovations from fellow Tatars, an honorary Mykolas Romeris University (MRU) doctorate was awarded to Ukrainian parliament member Mustafa Dzhemilev, who is the former Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.

Seimas Parliament member Emanuelis Zingeris, Ambassador of Ukraine to the Republic of Lithuania Volodimir Jatsenkivski, Prof. Vytautas Landsbergis addressed and congratulated Dzhemilev.

MRU's String Quartet performed before the start of the official ceremony. Later Lithuania's Tatar Children's Folk Ensemble, "Ilsu" sang the informal Crimean Tatar hymn, with Tatars in the audience joining in.

MRU's Senate Chairman Prof. Gintaras Aleknonis delivered the opening address and Politics and Management Faculty Dean Assoc. Prof. Virginijus Valentinavičius presented the biography of Dzhemilev.

Dzhemilev is a human rights activist and one of the human rights initiative group founders (in 1969), and a member, in the former Soviet Union.

He was a political prisoner in the Soviet Union (1966-1967, 1969-1972, 1974-1975, 1975-1976, 1979-1982, 1983-1986).

He has been a member of the Ukrainian parliament since 1998.