Lithuania recognizes deportation of Crimean Tatars in 1944 as genocide
The Lithuanian Seimas acknowledged the crimes committed by the Soviet Union against the Crimean Tatars in 1944 and called on the international community to stand by the Crimean Tatars and continue the policy of treating Russia’s annexation of Ukrainian Crimea as illegitimate, reported the press service of the Seimas reported .
According to the resolution adopted on June 6, “The Seimas condemns the eradication and deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from their homeland, the Crimean Peninsula, to deserted areas of Central Asia which resulted in the majority of them perishing from starvation, disease, torture and hard labor”. This operation was planned and carried out by the totalitarian Soviet regime in 1944.
Concurrently, the Seimas resolution condemns the illegal occupation and annexation of Ukrainian Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014, the discrimination against the civilian population and the Crimean Tatars on the basis of language, culture, religion and nationality as well as the abolition of the Crimean Tatar self-governing body.
It was reported that on the anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, Latvia’s Seimas adopted a statement in which it recognized the operation as a genocide.
On May 18, Ukraine and the world honor the memory of the victims of the Crimean Tatar deportation which has become one of the most tragic pages in twentieth century history. According to various estimates, in the very first year of exile, more than 46% of Crimean Tatars died as a result of hunger, mass disease, harassment and hard labor in the settled sites.
On April 23, 2019, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People adopted an appeal to the parliaments and governments of the UN member states “On recognizing the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people”.
In March 2014, Russia annexed Crimea and resumed its oppression of the Crimean Tatars, for example, banning the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People.