Crimean activists hold resistance actions on Day of Remembrance for Victims of Crimean Tatar Genocide

On May 18, 2025, the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People, activists from the “Yellow Ribbon” movement held a resistance action in temporarily occupied Crimea, as reported on the “Yellow Ribbon” movement’s social media page.

Source: “Yellow Ribbon” movement’s Telegram channel

The activists honoured the memory of the victims of this tragedy. They posted photos of leaflets with the inscriptions “Crimea is Ukraine” and “Remember – 1944” on the streets of Yalta, Simferopol, Yevpatoria, and Bakhchysarai on social media.

“It was on this day in 1944, by Stalin’s order, that the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars began. We must preserve the memory of the past, support all who fight for Crimea’s freedom, and jointly resist the occupation,” the movement’s participants emphasised.

Local residents of the temporarily occupied peninsula continue to speak the truth, despite the pressure from the occupying authorities, the activists stated.

Source: “Yellow Ribbon” movement’s Telegram channel

“The 1944 deportation is a crime that is impossible to forget. These posters are voices from the past, calling not to allow the tragedy to repeat,” read the “Yellow Ribbon” movement’s message.

As it is known, from May 18 to May 20, 1944, the deportation of Crimean Tatars took place in Crimea. In two days, Soviet security forces forcibly relocated up to 194,000 people from the peninsula. The deportation of Crimean Tatars has been recognised as genocide by Ukraine, Estonia, Georgia, Latvia, the Czech Republic, Lithuania, Canada, and Poland.

Annually in Crimea, mass events, including a commemorative rally in the centre of the Crimean capital, were held to mark the anniversary of the Day of Remembrance for the Victims of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatar People. However, after Russia’s military operation to seize the Crimean peninsula, the Russians prohibited such actions in the centre of temporarily occupied Simferopol.

The communist regime of the USSR and subsequently Russia deliberately spread the myth of “betrayal” about Crimean Tatars for decades. Today, the occupying country uses this narrative to spread hate speech, oppression, and discord in temporarily occupied Crimea.