MFA calls on international community to increase pressure on Russia on Crimean Tatar genocide remembrance day
On the anniversary of the forced deportation of the Crimean Tatar people - one of the most brutal crimes of the Stalinist totalitarian regime and an act of genocide against Crimea’s indigenous people - the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine (MFA) called on the international community to increase consolidated political, diplomatic, sanctions and legal pressure on Russia.
"Ukraine recognized the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people in May 1944 as an act of genocide. We are grateful to Canada, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Poland, the Czech Republic and the Netherlands, which have adopted similar decisions, restoring historical justice and honoring the memory of the victims of this crime. We call on other countries to join the international recognition of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people," the MFA said on Monday.
It was stressed that following the start of the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, the occupation authorities continued the persecution and harassment of Crimean Tatars who remained in their homeland.
The MFA therefore calls on the international community to increase consolidated political, diplomatic, sanctions and legal pressure on Russia with the aim of ending human rights violations in temporarily occupied Crimea, releasing all illegally detained persons, ensuring the protection of the rights of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and restoring Ukraine’s territorial integrity within its internationally recognized borders.
"We demand that Russia immediately cease all forms of repression against Crimean Tatars, lift the illegal ban on the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, release all political prisoners and comply with its international obligations as an occupying power," the ministry said.
It also appealed to the international community: "restoring justice, protecting human rights, de-occupying Crimea and returning the Crimean Tatar people to life in freedom on their native land remain our shared tasks."
