Three years ago, on May 18, 2015, Crimean Tatars in Ukraine and around the world marked the 71st anniversary of the mass deportation ordered by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin, which displaced more than 200,000 people to Central Asia and cost tens of thousands of lives. The deportation was begun on May 18, 1944.
In Kyiv, a special event called “I Am A Crimean Tatar” was held in Holosiyivskyi Park to commemorate the victims. The event was organized by Crimean Tatar activists and the Institute for Civil Society and Democracy Development.
People listened as survivors recounted their experience during the deportation, as many Crimean Tatars have fled to other parts of Ukraine since Russia annexed the Ukrainian peninsula in 2014. In the evening, a memorial concert was held at Kyiv’s National Opera House and other participants joined the “Light a Flame in My Heart” rally on Independence Square.
In Lviv, a solemn public meeting was held in the city center, and events took place in other cities across Ukraine, including in Kherson and Kharkiv.
In Crimea itself, which is under temporary Russian occupation, commemorations were forbidden and targeted by the local authorities as extremism and its participants as terrorists. The Russian authorities were so concerned about the “disruptive” nature (and contrary historical narrative) of these commemorative events that in 2014 Crimean Tatar activists Mustafa Dzhemiliev and Mejlis (Crimean Tatar representative assembly) leader Refat Chubarov were banned from entry to Crimea. All scheduled events marking the anniversary in Crimea were banned in 2014.
Mr. Dzhemiliev said that locals reported in 2015 that Ukrainian flags were being particularly targeted amongst the participants who were mostly waving Crimean Tatar flags. Plainclothed FSB agents listened to what the activists were saying as they walked amongst the participants and helicopters drowned out loudspeakers.
Ukraine’s Parliament voted in December 2015 to recognize the Crimean Tatar deportation as genocide and adopted a bill marking May 18 as a national Day of Commemoration of the Crimean Tatar Deportation. Ukraine’s Education Ministry promotes the inclusion of the Crimean Tatar deportation history in schools across Ukraine. In 2014, Ukraine’s Parliament recognized the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous people of Crimea.
Last year, at a gathering in Ankara, Mr. Chubarov said that once again many Crimean Tatars are forced to remember the tragedy of their people from exile. With every passing day, he said, Crimean Tatars face increasing pressure under Russian occupation through arrests, searches, abductions and killings, as well as silencing of the media.
Sources: “Crimean Tatars of Ukraine mark 71st anniversary of deportations,” RFE/RL, The Ukrainian Weekly, May 24, 2015.