Russia repeats genocide on Crimean Tatars
The 80 years since the genocidal deportation of the Crimean Tatar people are not just a tragedy for the Crimean Tatars, but a systemic diagnosis and a historical warning of what Russian imperialism is.
MEP Anna Fotyga, former foreign minister of Poland
The Crimean Tatars are but one of numerous peoples who have suffered from Moscow's expansionist policies over the course of three consecutive centuries. Moscow first deprived the Crimean Tatars of their state territories, and then of their statehood on the Crimean Peninsula and the adjacent regions. These territories are currently witnessing fierce battles for Ukrainian independence.. In the late 18th century, Crimean Tatars, along with Poles and Ukrainians, fell into the hands of Russian imperialism, and the first thing Moscow did was strike at the historical memory of these peoples. The blow to the Crimean Tatars was so profound that by the end of the 19th century, they were on the brink of total extinction.
Even the microscopic presence of Crimean Tatars on the Crimean Peninsula was viewed as an existential, ideological, and historical threat for the Kremlin. Putin's words were not accidental when he said that Crimea is a sacred place for all of Russia. However, it is based on historical lies and omits the fact that less than 6 per cent of Crimea’s written history belongs to the Russian chapter. This short period of 168 years was fulfilled with genocidal policies of the Russian rulers, because in this strategic location there was no place for the indigenous people under tsarist, Soviet rule and likewise for Putin's and any other chauvinistic regime in Russia. As a result, on May 19, 1944, 80 years ago, Moscow organised a mass deportation of the Crimean Tatar people and several other ethnic groups residing on the peninsula. The entire Crimean Tatar people were squeezed into hundreds of enormous kilometer-long trains and moved eastward to Central Asia over 21 days. It was a deliberate decision to annihilate the people of Crimea and the peoples of the North Caucasus, who were also mass-deported that year. During their exile, the Crimean Tatars lost about half of their population.
Immediately after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the process of complete historical, cultural, and archaeological annihilation of all Crimean Tatars began. 80 per cent of the Crimean Tatar localities were renamed. It was a deliberate and targeted forgetting of the history of Crimea, which was intertwined with the history of its indigenous people. It was exactly what the term genocide defines. We need to say it loudly: Moscow committed genocide on the Crimean Tatars in 1944. This process continued until the end of the USSR, and even after the fall of the empire and the return of the indigenous people to their homeland. Local authorities and pro-Russian forces in Kyiv actively hindered the restoration of the presence of Crimean Tatars in Crimea. The Crimean Tatars and their representative bodies, the Mejlis and the Qurultay, made their historical choice to support a pro-European and pro-Ukrainian future for Ukrainian statehood in the late 1980s and have essentially never deviated from this course. They believed and believed that only in this way could they ensure the revival of their people on their ancestral land.
In the 2000s, a new historical period of flourishing seemed to begin for the Crimean Tatars. Culture, media, art, and much more were developing. It appeared that the Crimean Tatars were given a second chance for historical and, most importantly, political revival. However, Russian imperialism never sleeps and was preparing an act of aggression against Ukraine and the Crimean Tatars. The annexation and occupation of Crimea again placed the Crimean Tatars on the brink of survival. They forced the political leadership and active and talented youth to leave the peninsula because Moscow and the occupying authorities initiated mass persecution of Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars for their refusal to accept the new /old occupying power. Since 2014, Crimea is the epicenter of human rights violations in occupied Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars have again found themselves on the brink of an existential challenge, as they did in the late 18th century when they were under the occupation of the Russian Empire. Let me just focus on one case. Server Mustafayev was born in 1986 in Uzbekistan. The family later returned to Crimea, specifically to the city of Bakhchisarai. Server finished school in Bakhchisarai and then enrolled in the Bakhchisarai Construction College at the National Agrarian University. He studied at Kyiv National University, specializing in heat and gas supply and ventilation. Afterward, he worked as a manager in communication shops. In 2014 he started to manage a chain of bakeries. He was also active in the community in Bakhchisarai, organizing children’s parties and social events and helping low-income families. He became the coordinator of the public association "Crimean Solidarity”.In May 2018, the occupation authorities searched Mustafayev’s house and arrested the activist. Subsequently, the occupation authorities illegally sentenced him to 14 years in prison for participating in the “activities of a terrorist organization” and “preparing for the violent seizure of power.” The occupiers convicted Server Mustafayev for defending victims of political persecution and reporting on human rights violations in the occupied Crimea. Despite the harsh conditions of his imprisonment, Server remains an activist and is involved in human rights activitie.: Server helped his cellmate reunite with his child, who was taken from him when he was taken to prison. Due to a long stay in the pre-trial detention center, Mustafayev developed heart problems. A similar fate is shared by more than 200 political prisoners from occupied, majority of of whom are Crimean Tatars.
Since February 2022, with the beginning of full-scale aggression against Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars have supported the Ukrainian people in their struggle against the Russian aggressor. The mass emigration of Crimean Tatars from Crimea in the autumn of 2022 to many EU countries and Turkey should be seen as a systemic refusal to serve in the occupying forces and shoot civilians. Some Crimean Tatars remain living in Crimea, where they have been deprived of cultural, political, and historical rights, while others are scattered like beads around the world. The Kremlin effectively favours the soft migration of Crimean Tatars beyond the borders of the Russian Federation and Crimea. The situation in other occupied territories in the Donbas and Zaporizhia region demonstrates that the underlying scheme is chauvinism, characterised by genocide and the destruction of everything non-Russian and dissenting.
https://www.euractiv.com/section/politics/opinion/russia-repeats-genocide-on-crimean-tatars/
And for good measure:
'US tells Russia crimes it commits are acceptable' — What recognition of Russia's occupation of Crimea would mean for Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars
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Russia's war against Ukraine began in Crimea in 2014. Since then, Moscow has been actively reshaping the peninsula's ethnic composition, bringing nearly a million Russians into the occupied area and forcing Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, indigenous people of the peninsula, out and persecuting those who stayed.
The peninsula was turned into a military base, and in 2022, Russia used occupied Crimea as a staging ground for its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The possible U.S. recognition of Russian control over the occupied peninsula would mark an unprecedented step, effectively allowing Moscow to avoid accountability and signal that borders are to be redrawn by force.
For many Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars it would mean, in turn, that they would never be able to return home.
The Kyiv Independent asked Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars to share their stories about Crimea and what would it mean for them if the U.S. would acknowledge and support Russia's annexation of their homeland.
For Crimean Tatars, this would be more than just a political decision, it would be a death sentence for our national identity. It would signal to the world that the disappearance of our people, our language, our culture, and our history is acceptable.
For Crimeans, such a stance is not just a betrayal. It signals that their pain, repression, deportations, arrests, and humiliation supposedly do not matter. It would imply that those who resisted the occupation, who refused to collaborate with the occupiers, who ended up imprisoned — did it all for nothing. But that is not true. It is precisely because of them that Crimea remains Ukrainian — politically, culturally, in the hearts of millions.
In fact, by this recognition, the United States is telling Russia that the crimes it commits are acceptable, that it will not be punished, and that it can continue. If Trump is so eager to please (Vladimir) Putin, he might as well hand over one of the American states to Russia.
https://kyivindependent.com/not-just-a-betrayal-what-us-recognition-of-russias-crimea-occupation-would-mean-for-ukrainians-crimean-tatars/
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