80th Anniversary of Deportation of Crimean Tatars Commemorated

On May 18, the 80th anniversary of the deportation from the Crimean Peninsula organized by the Soviet authorities was commemorated, the official website of President Volodymyr Zelensky reported.

The Ukrainian leader took part on Saturday in the unveiling of a memorial stone in Kyiv, which will be replaced by a Memorial to the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide.

The event was also attended by the leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov, Permanent Representative of the President in Crimea Tamila Tasheva, and military personnel, volunteers, representatives of the Mejlis and ambassadors.

"Now every Crimean Tatar heart feels pain when recalling the events of those days, those years. The exact number of human losses caused by the deportation is still unknown. The exile to a foreign land took the lives of at least a third of the total number of Crimean Tatars who lived on the peninsula at that time," the President said.

The memory of all the adults and children killed by deportation was honored with a minute of Zelensky noted that since the restoration of Ukraine's independence and until 2014, Crimea had been a happy home for many of our people. He emphasized that it would definitely be so again after the liberation from Russian occupation.

"The peninsula destined to become one of the best places to live in Europe will indeed be that place – without Russia," the President said.

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Dzhemilev reminded that on this very day a year ago, the President proposed to establish a Memorial to the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide.

"The significance of the Memorial is immense. It demonstrates the attitude of the state towards the indigenous people of Crimea. And this is especially important given what is happening to the Crimean Tatar people in their homeland, Crimea," he said.

Previously, on the site where the Memorial is to appear, a monument to the Chekists had been standing for half a century. It was demolished a few years ago.

"A monument that glorified not people, but a cruel system – a system that is guilty, in particular, of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people. It is at this place in Kyiv that a memorial of our respect for the Crimean Tatar people and commemoration of all the victims of Russia's genocidal attacks on our Crimea should be erected," the President emphasized.

See the original report here.