Ukraine calls on international community to recognize deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944 as genocide

The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine made the announcement in its statement.

In 1944, the USSR accused the Crimean Tatar people of collaborating with the Nazi authorities on trumped-up cases, which became a far-fetched pretext to launch the deportation mechanism. In violation of international law, the Soviet government committed an act of genocide to erase the national identity of the Crimean Tatar people, an indigenous people of Ukraine, by prohibiting the use of their native language, the practice of their religion, and the preservation of their culture.

"We remember those who suffered from this tragedy and pay due respect to the Crimean Tatar people, who have endured oppression from the Russian Empire, the USSR, and now contemporary Russia, over the course of centuries," the Foreign Ministry emphasized.

The ministry added that after the beginning of Russia's temporary occupation of Crimea in 2014 and Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, Crimea has actually become a huge open-air prison and a place to hide Russia's crimes. More than 180 Ukrainian citizens have been imprisoned on the basis of politically and religiously motivated persecution in Crimea.

"We demand that the Russian Federation cease its violations of human rights in the temporarily occupied territory of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, immediately release all political prisoners, and ensure full compliance with the obligations of the Russian Federation as an occupying power in accordance with international law. We call upon our international partners, including members of the International Crimea Platform, to condemn the deportation crime and recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people in 1944 as an act of genocide," the statement reads.

Reference.

Every year on May 18, Ukraine commemorates the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people, whose deportation in May 1944 was one of the greatest crimes of the Soviet regime and genocide against the indigenous population of the Crimean peninsula. According to various sources, about 200,000 Crimean Tatars were deported, as well as more than 40,000 Bulgarians, Armenians, Greeks, Turks, and Roma.

• On May 18, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy congratulated Ukrainians on Vyshyvanka Day and commemorated the victims of the Crimean Tatar genocide.