Text of the speech:
“Thank you for coming to the demonstrations in support of Ukraine every week. Together we stand for freedom, democracy and justice! Today I want to talk about the Crimean Tatars.
On 18 May 1944, the NKVD troops began an operation to deport the Crimean Tatars in Crimea, planned and carried out by the totalitarian Soviet regime. Almost 200 thousand people were found guilty of aiding the enemy solely based on their nationality, slandered, deprived, deprived of all rights, including the right to their homeland.
Having been driven out of their homes, all the Crimean Tatars were delivered to train stations. They began to die on the way, especially the elderly and small children. People died of hunger, disease, and inhumane conditions. The dead were not allowed to be buried, but thrown out of the train cars.
There is now a huge amount of documentary evidence of how people who had endured the long journey died, in whole families, from hunger and disease.
As a result of forced resettlement, 46% of the Crimean Tatars died during the first year and a half. Crimean Tatar schools, newspapers, and cultural institutions were liquidated. The Crimean Tatar people were effectively deprived of their historical homeland.
In 1957, the Soviet government allowed many repressed peoples to return and recreate the previously destroyed autonomies, but the Crimean Tatars remained in their places of exile. The Crimean Tatars were allowed to return to their homeland only in 1989.
I would like to note that the representative body of the Crimean Tatar people, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, and various public organizations of the Crimean Tatar people are systematically working with national parliaments of different countries to recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an act of genocide.
To date, several countries have officially recognized the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 as an act of genocide. This recognition is based on historical data, on the mass deportation organized by the Soviet regime, as a result of which a significant part of the Crimean Tatar people perished.
The first country to recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an act of genocide was Ukraine, which established 18 May as the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People. The Verkhovna Rada called on governments and parliaments of foreign states, international organizations and parliamentary assemblies to recognize the deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea in 1944 as an act of genocide against the Crimean Tatar people and to join in honouring the memory of its victims on 18 May.
This example was followed by the Seimas of Latvia, the Seimas of Lithuania, the House of Commons of Canada, the Seimas of Poland, the Riigikogu (the parliament of Estonia), and the Senate of the Czech Republic.
These recognitions emphasize the importance of remembering the tragic events of the past and the need to condemn acts of genocide, regardless of the time they were committed.
In February–March 2014, Russia carried out the military annexation of Crimea and the subsequent so-called “referendum on Crimea’s accession to Russia,” which the international community considers illegal.
Since then, Russia has de facto controlled the peninsula, but legally and under international law, Crimea remains an occupied territory of Ukraine. In 2014, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution reaffirming the territorial integrity of Ukraine and non-recognition of Russia’s annexation of Crimea.
Today, Russia continues to pursue a policy of genocide against the Crimean Tatars in occupied Crimea, the purpose of which is to destroy their identity and erase their historical and cultural heritage.
We call on the international community to show solidarity with the Crimean Tatars and continue to condemn the occupation and annexation of Crimea, condemn Russia’s war in Ukraine and express maximum support for Ukraine, and demand the restoration of Ukraine’s state sovereignty! Crimea is Ukraine! Glory to Ukraine!”
We express our deep sympathy in connection with the tragic date in the history of the Crimean Tatar people and join the call to recognize the deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea in 1944 as an act of genocide of the Crimean Tatar people!
Sincerely,
Rafis Kashapov is the Prime Minister of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in exile.
Nafis Kashapov – Deputy Prime Minister of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in Exile for Sports.
Zufar Zainullin – Ambassador of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in Exile to the Republic of Latvia.
Dmitry Kuznetsov – Representative of the Government of Independent Tatarstan in exile in the Republic of Finland.
