Today we all are Crimean Tatars.
Seven Facts the World Should Know About Crimean Tatar Deportation
Blog by Mariana Betsa, Ambassador of Ukraine to Estonia
1. May 18th is a special day for Ukraine and each of us. In May 1944 more than 200 000 Crimean Tatars were forcibly deported from Crimea to Siberia by Stalin’s Soviet regime. Tens of thousands died during the arduous journey or shortly after arriving. The period of the ban on return to their homeland lasted until 1989. The real return of the Crimean Tatars to their motherland became possible only after independence of Ukraine.
2. The 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatar people by Stalin is an act of uncovered genocide.

3. The suffering of the Crimean Tatars did not end then. In 2014 Russia illegally occupied and attempted to annex the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. Today Crimean Tatars are still deprived of their motherland subjected to what some have called a “slow-motion” deportation or hybrid deportation. Indeed, more than 43 000 have fled Crimea since occupation. Those that remain are subject to ongoing pressure from the occupying authorities, including illegal detentions, abductions, tortures, enforced disappearances.

4. About 100 citizens of Ukraine, most of them Crimean Tatars, are illegally detained or convicted by Russia for political reasons in the territory of the Russian Federation and temporarily occupied Crimea.

5. In 2017 the International Court of Justice ordered the Russian Federation to reverse its ban on the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar representative body, and cease suppression of Crimean Tatars.

6. The dire human rights situation in Crimea under Russian occupation invokes the necessity to restore historical justice with regard to Crimean Tatars, condemn this heinous crime of the totalitarian communist regime and recognize the deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea in 1944 as genocide of the Crimean Tatar people.

7. We urge Russia to comply with the ICJ order, halt suppression of the Crimean Tatar people, release political prisoners and reverse its illegal annexation of Crimea, which is an integral part of Ukraine #CrimeaIsUkraine #WeAreCrimeanTatars #RememberGenocideMay18

Today we all are Crimean Tatars.