Ukrainian Parliament Calls for World Recognition of Crimean Tatar Deportation as Genocide

On 14 May, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted an appeal to the international community on the occasion of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide. The appeal, in particular, concerned the cessation of violations of the rights and freedoms of Crimean Tatars by Russia.

The Gaze reports on this with reference to the message of the leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev on his Facebook page.

"Today's appeal calls on the governments and parliaments of other states to recognise these crimes as an act of genocide, as Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Poland, Estonia, the Czech Republic have already done, and to join forces to bring Russia to justice - both for past and present crimes in the occupied Crimea," Dzhemilev wrote.

He stressed that the policy of the occupiers in Crimea, aimed "at the systematic expulsion of the indigenous people from their homeland and the massive settlement of Crimea by Russian citizens, brutal persecution for any manifestation of disloyalty to the occupiers, horrific prison terms imposed by the occupation courts on people even for posts on Facebook, the inhuman torture they are subjected to in detention, the facts of abduction and murder of people, as well as other methods used, indicate that the Putin regime continues Russia's genocidal practices against the subject peoples."

The deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944 was recognised as an act of genocide by several countries: Ukraine - in 2015, Lithuania and Latvia - in 2019, Canada - in 2022, Poland, Estonia, and the Czech Republic - in 2024.

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