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Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People


OTTAWA. On May 18, the world marked the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress (UCC) joins the Crimean Tatar People in mourning, grief and solemn commemoration of the memory of the victims of the Sürgünlik.

In 1944, the totalitarian Soviet communist regime exiled the Crimean Tatar People, the indigenous people of Crimea, from their homeland. Hundreds of thousands of men, women and children were forcibly and violently deported to Siberia and Central Asian regions of the USSR. Nearly half lost their lives during the first year of exile. The Soviet regime prohibited the Crimean Tatar People from returning to Crimea for almost 50 years.

May the Memory of the Victims be Eternal. Вічная Пам’ять.

In November 2015, Ukraine’s Parliament recognized this crime as an act of Genocide against the Crimean Tatar People and established May 18 as the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People. The Ukrainian Canadian Congress calls on Canada to recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar People as an act of Genocide.

In 2014, Russia invaded and occupied Crimea. Today, the Crimean Tatar People, who are bravely resisting the Russian occupation of their ancestral homeland, are once again subject to systemic repressions, arbitrary arrests and attacks on their inalienable rights and freedoms by the Russian occupation regime. The Representative Assembly of the Crimean Tatar People, the Mejlis, has been illegally banned. The Crimean Tatar People are once again the victims of a cruel and ruthless occupation regime.

The UCC stands in solidarity with the Crimean Tatar People and calls on the international community to increase pressure on Russia to end its illegal occupation of Crimea.

On May 19, at 12PM EDT, the UCC, in partnership with the Human Rights Research and Education Centre at the University of Ottawa and the Embassy of Ukraine in Canada, is hosting a webinar, Current Developments in Russian-occupied Crimea: Human Rights Situation and Russia’s Military Buildup. To register for the event please click on the image below.


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