Deportation of Crimean Tatars should be recognized as genocide to prevent justification by Russia – national leader

If the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 is not recognized as genocide, Russia will try to justify this crime.

This was stated by the leader of the Crimean Tatar people, Mustafa Dzhemilev, who spoke in a comment to Ukrinform in the Polish Sejm.

The Crimean Tatars have been seeking recognition of the deportation of 1944 as genocide for years, Dzhemilev recalled.

"But after the occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, it became especially relevant, because now Russia is pursuing a policy of de-nationalization in the occupied territories. Ethnic cleansing is taking place again, Russia is forcing the indigenous population to flee Crimea, while a massive inflow of Russian citizens into Crimea is being observed," the leader emphasized.

If the deportation of the Crimean Tatars is not recognized as genocide, it "will be constantly used by Russia to incite hostility towards the Crimean Tatar people and justify this crime," assumed Dzhemilev.

He thanked Poland’s Sejm for adopting a resolution recognizing the deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide.

As Ukrinform reported earlier, the Lower House of the Polish Parliament (Sejm) on Friday adopted a resolution condemning the genocide of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet authorities in 1944.

Besides Ukraine, such nations as Latvia, Lithuania, and Canada, had also recognized the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as genocide.