This year marks the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from the Crimean peninsula by the Soviet totalitarian regime back in 1944. 18 May is for Ukraine the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar genocide. On this day we commemorate all Crimean Tatars - mostly children, women, and the elderly - whom the Soviet authorities sent into exile, a way that for many became their last. We pay tribute to all those who have endured over the course of centuries oppression, persecution and discrimination.
The sufferings of the Crimean Tatar people, tragically, are not over nowadays. 80 years after the deportation, the Russian leadership continues the Soviet criminal policy of repression, persecution and oppression of the Crimean Tatars. It deliberately violates their rights, carries out illegal conscription, destroys cultural heritage, falsifies history, and militarizes education and public life.
In fact, the Russian aggression against Ukraine began in late February 2014 with the illegal occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea. Since the start of Russia's full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the persecution of the Crimean Tatars, intended to erase their national identity, has only intensified.
We pay due respect to the Crimean Tatar people, recognised in Ukraine as the indigenous people of Crimea, and firmly condemn all human rights violations committed against them by both the Soviet totalitarian regime and the Russian Federation.
We call upon the Council of Europe member States and the international community to increase the diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation to force it to stop persecutions of Crimean Tatars and other violations of human rights in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, release all illegally detained Crimean Tatars and ensure full compliance with the obligations as an occupying power in accordance with international law.
Ukraine's victory and the liberation of Crimea would ensure that the systematic repression against the indigenous Crimean Tatar people be brought to an end and respect for human rights be restored.
