Ukrainian Parliament recognizes deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide
Mustafa Dzhemilev described this as “the first step towards the restoration of justice.”
The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recognized the deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea on May 18, 1944 as the genocide, having voted for the draft resolution “On recognition of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people.” 245 MPs voted to pass the resolution as a basis and as a whole.
Leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev describe the vote as “the first step towards the restoration of justice.”
“The present-day Russian Federation, having inherited the legacy of the imperial Russia and the Soviet Union, occupied the Crimean peninsula on February 28, 2014, ignoring all the rules of the international law and the human rights. Since then and till today, Russia is implementing the systematic policy of ignoring the fundamental freedoms of the Crimean Tatars, their forced emigration from Crimea, rapid assimilation, exerting of pressure, murder, imprisonment, deportation of those who are trying to resist and oppose its actions. This is the continuation of the genocide which we have to stop,” Dzhemilev stated.
As a reminder, the Soviet government explained the deportation with “collaboration of some Crimean Tatars with the Nazi Germany during the World War II.” In 1989, the Supreme Soviet of the USSR recognized the deportation as illegal and criminal action.
