The Ukrainian World Congress (UWC), together with the global Ukrainian diaspora, join Ukraine and Crimean Tatars around the world in commemorating the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea and in paying tribute to the innocent victims of this genocide committed by the murderous totalitarian Soviet regime.
UWC calls upon governments and international organizations to recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as genocide. We also appeal to all of Ukraine’s allies to consolidate their military support of Ukraine so that it can liberate all its lands from the deadly and brutal Russian occupation.
80 years ago, on this day, the Soviet authorities began the planned deportation of over 200,000 Crimean Tatars from the Crimean peninsula on the order of the Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin. The majority of the deported were women, children, and older people. Up to 40% of them perished during the forced displacement because of starvation, illnesses, torture, and slave labor in exile in deserted parts of Central Asia. The survivors were forced to live in harsh exile until the late 1980s, humiliated and labeled by the Soviet authorities as a “nation of traitors.” This crime of Soviet-Communism became one of the most horrific ethnic cleansings in the heinous history of the USSR.
The return to their ancient homeland Crimea and the gradual revival of the Crimean Tatar heritage became possible only after the collapse of the Soviet Union and the restoration of Ukraine’s independence in 1991. Ukraine officially recognized May 18 as a day to remember the genocide against Crimean Tatars.
With the Russian take-over of Crimea in 2014, Crimean Tatars were again under repression in their homeland. The Russian Federation brought back terror, intimidation, and persecution of the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian communities based on political, cultural, and religious intolerance and has also been implementing a policy of artificial population replacement in Crimea.
Despite the ten years of Russian occupation of Crimea, Ukrainians are rock-solid in refusing land trade for peace and remain confident that Crimea must return to Ukraine like any other Ukrainian territory under Russia’s occupation. A free and independent Ukraine is not possible without Crimea. The Russian military aggression against Ukraine started in 2014 in the peninsula and must end with its liberation.
Eternal memory to all the 1944 Crimean Tatar genocide victims! Eternal memory to all the victims of the Russian genocidal aggression against Ukraine!
