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Eighty years ago, the totalitarian Soviet regime under the leadership of Stalin forcibly deported the native inhabitants of the Crimean peninsula, the Crimean Tatars, from their native Crimean land and sent them into exile.
Almost two hundred thousand Crimean Tatars, who together with other peoples of the world fought against Nazism, were declared “traitors” by the Soviet regime and in a matter of days were sent into exile in remote areas of Central Asia and Siberia in cattle cars.
The difficult path of deportation became the road of death for many of them. Only in the first years of exile, about half of the deportees died.
The deportation of the Crimean Tatar people became one of the heinous crimes of the Soviet authorities as part of the systematic genocidal policy of erasing national identity, the goal of which was to create a “single family of Soviet peoples.” For the sake of implementing this misanthropic idea, the Kremlin broke millions of lives, destroying people physically, uprooting them from their native land, depriving them of their native language, spiritual, cultural and historical heritage.
The collapse of the USSR and Ukraine’s independence gave new hope to the Crimean Tatar people, who were finally able to return to their native land. However, the tragedy was repeated several decades later, in 2014, when the Russian invaders returned to Crimea.
The Russian occupation authorities immediately launched large-scale repression against the Crimean Tatars. Putin’s policy became a de facto continuation of Stalin’s, this time in the form of a hybrid deportation: the creation of living conditions calculated for the complete or partial destruction of the Crimean Tatar people and forcing the Crimean Tatars to leave the peninsula. The repression only deepened with the beginning of Russia’s full-scale aggression against Ukraine in 2022.
Just now, under the conditions of Russia’s temporary occupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, the Crimean Tatar people continue to suffer political persecution and oppression based on their national identity.
The occupation administration of the peninsula illegally banned the activities of the representative body of the Crimean Tatars, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, massively deprives Crimean Tatars of their freedom on fabricated charges and forces them to leave their native land.
Honoring the memory of the victims of Stalin’s deportation, we condemn the aggressive policy of the current Russia and the repression against the Crimean Tatar people.
The Kremlin’s new crimes became possible only because the perpetrators of the crimes of the last century were never brought to justice. A sense of impunity has prompted and continues to prompt the Kremlin to repeat the most horrific atrocities. This vicious circle can only be broken by providing Ukraine with all the support it needs to defeat Russian aggression, liberate Ukrainian land and bring criminals to justice.
We call on the international community to increase consolidated pressure on Russia to force it to return to the fundamental principles of international law, stop human rights violations in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine, and release all political prisoners.
We call on all states, international organizations, and societies that value human life to honor the memory of the victims of the Crimean Tatar deportation and condemn this terrible crime, recognizing it as genocide of the Crimean Tatar people.
We appeal to our international partners to increase aid to Ukraine, to facilitate the earliest possible liberation from the Russian occupation of Crimea, as well as other temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine. This will put an end to Russian war crimes and terrible repressions, and will become a prerequisite for the return of the Crimean Tatar people and all residents of Ukraine to a peaceful life on their native land.
In a Ukrainian Crimea free from Russian occupation, the indigenous Crimean Tatar people will have a future, adequate security and opportunities for development and prosperity.
Crimea is Ukraine!
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