The deportation of Tatars from Crimea in 1944 was an act of genocide against the Tatar people committed under Stalin, Ukraine’s Ambassador to Moldova Marko Shevchenko stated in connection with the proclaiming by the Ukrainian Parliament of the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide against Crimean Tatars on May 18. According to the diplomat, in 79 years of the deportation of Tatars to Siberia, the people of Ukraine are subject to a new act of genocide, IPN reports.
The ambassador noted that May 18 is a tragic day for Ukraine. It was officially declared the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide against Crimean Tatars. According to official reports, over 200,000 Tatars were deported from Crimea to Siberia and Central Asia.
“On May 18, 79 years ago, the Soviet Union started an operation that was later proclaimed by the Ukrainian Parliament an act of genocide against the Crimean Tatars. On May 18, 1944, the deportation of Tatars from Crimea to Siberia and Central Asia began and lasted for three days. All the Tatars from Crimea were deported. Many died on the road to Siberia. The people were transported in inhuman conditions. All these atrocities were proclaimed genocide by the Ukrainian Parliament,” Marko Shevchenko stated in the program “Shadow Cabinet” on JurnalTV channel.
According to the ambassador, the crimes committed by the Russian leaders continue now in Ukraine, but the Ukrainian people are determined to defeat the Russian army and will not concede territory to the aggressor state. After the war of 2014 and after the Crimean peninsula was illegally annexed, the number of Ukrainians who want the country to join NATO increased considerably.
“93% of the Ukrainians consider that Ukraine’s victory against Russia is possible, while 94% of the Ukrainians are against territorial concessions in this war for reaching peace faster. In 2014, when the Russian aggression in Crimea and Donbas started, Ukraine was a neutral country and the Ukrainians didn’t want the country to join NATO. All the Ukrainians were focused on internal problems. A provision of the Constitution stipulated that Ukraine is outside any military bloc. However, Russia started the war. Later, the issue of accession to NATO spread in society so much that it was even included in the Constitution, but only in five years of the launch of the aggression,” said Marko Shevchenko.
In February 2019, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine adopted a law to amend the Constitution for this to stipulate the country’s strategic course and the desideratum to become a full-fledged member of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization.
