02 June 2026
(Fevzi Mamutov and the owner of Odesa's Tatarka. PHOTO: Fevzi Mamutov/Facebook)
The owners of the Tatarka restaurant, which recently opened in Vorontsov Lane in Odesa, had to apologize to the Crimean Tatar community for the menu and offensive language.
According to Fevzi Mamutov, a member of the Odesa Regional Council and head of the Crimean Tatars of Odesa Region NGO, the conflict has now been resolved.
"I had the opportunity to talk to the owner of the Odesa Tatarka restaurant, Oleksandra Mikolyuk. We discussed the issue that caused the debate around the restaurant and came to a common understanding: pork will be removed from Crimean Tatar dishes. For some, this may seem like a trifle. But culture, traditions and respect for the identity of the people begin with such details," the MP emphasized.
He also noted that the owner of the restaurant is an IDP from Donetsk region. However, the main conflict arose when the founder of the Tatarka restaurant chain from Kyiv, Volodymyr Biryukov, in response to criticism of the menu, which included pork dishes with alcohol, wrote on social media that he was "waiting for the whole Crimean Tatar people to visit" and added: "Get ready for deportation."
The latter comment outraged the Crimean Tatar community the most, as the deportation of these people from Crimea in 1944 is a world-famous act of genocide. Volodymyr Biriukov later deleted these comments.
The deportation of the Crimean Tatars is a genocide, an integral part of which was the forced eviction of the Crimean Tatar people, mostly women and children, from their historical homeland, Crimea, carried out during May 18-21, 1944, and the arrival of the trains ended on June 4, 1944; one of the crimes of the Soviet totalitarian regime. In total, according to official data, which were recognized as falsified, 191 thousand Crimean Tatars were deported to remote regions of the Soviet Union, and according to a self-census conducted by the National Movement of Crimean Tatars, 423.1 thousand people were deported. During the deportation and in the first years after it, between 27%, according to the NKVD, and 46.2% of the deportees, or between one third and about half of the people, died.
Fevzi Mamutov expressed hope that these posts were not the result of Vladimir Biryukov's beliefs, but were the result of emotions caused by criticism.
"I want to say about the comment of the network's founder Vladimir Biryukov about 'get ready for deportation'. Frankly speaking, I do not understand this position. For the Crimean Tatar people, deportation is not a historical joke and not a reason for emotional disputes in the comments. This is a tragedy that affected every family," the MP said.
However, according to Fevzi Mamutov, the outraged commentators also sometimes crossed the line. For example, the author of one of the comments stated that the owner of an Odesa cafe was dressed as a "gypsy whore" at the rejection. Fevzi Mamutov emphasized that Crimean Tatars may be forced to apologize to the Roma community for such statements.
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