Estonia Recognises 1944 Deportation of Crimean Tatars as Genocide

The Parliament of the Republic of Estonia has approved a statement recognising the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people by the Soviet regime in 1944 as an act of genocide. This is reported on the website of the Estonian parliament.

The statement condemns the mass extermination of Crimean Tatars and their forced deportation from the Crimean Peninsula. The document also emphasises that after the occupation of Crimea in 2014, Russia has continued its policy of genocide against Crimean Tatars, aimed at destroying their identity.

‘The Russian Federation continues to pursue a policy of genocide against the Crimean Tatars in the occupied Crimea in 2014, which was applied in the Soviet Union, aimed at destroying the identity of the Crimean Tatars and erasing their historical and cultural heritage,’ the statement said.

The statement also refers to the restoration of Ukraine's state sovereignty over the territory occupied by Russia during the armed aggression that began in 2014, and stresses that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine.

The Republic of Estonia became the sixth country to recognise the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as genocide.

On 18 May 1944, the Soviet regime began deporting the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea. Over the course of three days, dozens of railway cars forcibly deported about 200,000 Crimean Tatars to Central Asia.

On 24 October, the Third Parliamentary Summit of the Crimean Platform will be held in the Latvian capital Riga. It will be attended by delegations from about 40 countries, as well as delegations of parliamentary assemblies of reputable international organisations.