Crimean Tatar Resource Center Demands 40 Nations Recognize Genocide

They sent documents to the international community demanding that the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people be recognized as genocide. They continue to work to expand the list of countries that have already recognized this crime and seek international condemnation of Russia for its consequences.

This was reported by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center.

The Crimean Tatar Resource Center and the Mejlis have prepared a package of documents to recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an act of genocide and sent it to 40 countries. This step is aimed at overcoming the consequences of the historical tragedy when the Soviet authorities forcibly evicted Tatars, as well as Armenians, Bulgarians, Greeks and Germans from Crimea in 1944.

On March 26, 1993, the Supreme Council of Crimea adopted a resolution establishing the Day of Remembrance of the Deportation Victims, recognizing the crime of the Soviet regime. In 1944, more than 238,000 people were deported from Crimea, and about 46% of them died due to the terrible conditions of resettlement.

Since 2014, after the occupation of Crimea by Russia, Crimean Tatars have again become victims of political persecution, forced to leave their homeland. In 2022, the situation deteriorated even further: the occupation authorities began the forced mobilization of Crimean Tatars into the Russian army, which is another act of forced assimilation.

To date, the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people has been recognized as genocide by 7 countries: Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Canada, Poland, Estonia and the Czech Republic.

The documents, which were sent to 40 countries, contain an appeal of the Mejlis and the Crimean Tatar Resource Center to the parliaments of the world, as well as legal qualification of the deportation as an international crime. Crimean Tatar organizations are calling on the international community to recognize the deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide and to hold Russia accountable for its crimes.

Last year, the Czech Senate Committee on Foreign Affairs, Defense and Security supported a draft resolution recognizing the 1944 deportation as genocide of the Crimean Tatar people.

The number of enforced disappearances is also increasing in the occupied Crimea. Dozens of people disappear every year, and the percentage of women among the victims is particularly alarming. Enforced disappearances are a serious violation of human rights and are used by the occupation administration as a tool of intimidation. After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, the lives of Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and all those who do not support Russia became unbearable.

During the years of occupation, at least 61 activists have been killed in Crimea, 29 of whom were Crimean Tatars. The occupation authorities use repressions against activists and ordinary citizens, including falsification of cases, arrests and abductions.

Анна Бальчінос