“Remembering the 1944 Deportation of Crimean Tatars as Genocide by the Soviet Union and Russia’s Continued Repression Today”

May 18, 2023 marks the 79th anniversary of the forced deportation of the Crimean Tatars, one of the most heinous crimes of the Soviet totalitarian regime.

According to fabricated cases, in 1944 the USSR accused the Crimean Tatar people of collaboration with the Nazi authorities, which became a fabricated pretext for triggering the deportation mechanism. In violation of the norms of international law, the Soviet government committed an act of genocide to erase the national identity of the Crimean Tatar people – the indigenous population of Ukraine, by forbidding the use of their native language, the practice of their religion and the preservation of their own culture.

We remember those who suffered from this tragedy and pay due respect to the Crimean Tatar people who for centuries have suffered and continue to suffer repression from the Russian Empire, the USSR and now modern Russia, announced Ukraine, which on February 24, 2022 was attacked unprovoked by war criminal Vladimir Putin.

After Russia’s temporary occupation of Crimea in 2014 and Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Crimea has effectively become a vast open-air prison and hideout for Russian criminals. More than 180 citizens of Ukraine were imprisoned on the basis of politically and religiously motivated persecution in Crimea. Among them is the first deputy of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Nariman Jelyal, who was sentenced to 17 years in prison by Russia for his participation in the founding summit of the Crimean Platform. A particular manifestation of the arbitrariness of the Russian repressive machine was the detention of 25-year-old Crimean Tatar woman Lenie Umerova, who was detained by Russia in December last year while trying to enter Crimea to visit her sick father. Today, she continues to be held in pre-trial detention in Lefortovo on charges of treason, while Leniere’s only so-called “crime” is the refusal of her Russian passport.

We demand that the Russian Federation stop violating human rights in the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, immediately release all political prisoners, ensure full compliance with the obligations of the Russian Federation as an occupying state in accordance with international law, Kyiv urged .

We call on our international partners, including participants of the International Crimean Platform, to condemn this crime of deportation and to recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people in 1944 as genocide. We are convinced that only the victory of Ukraine and the liberation of the Crimean peninsula will be able to end the systematic repression against the indigenous population of the Crimean Tatars and restore respect for human rights in the world.