#crimean tatars genocide

[horpyna]

On May 18th, The Deportation of Crimean tatars Day...

...and the way this knowledge lingers through my family. my grandma grew up in north Kazakhstan, USSR turned it into a melting pot of ethnicities with the frequency they were sending the deportees there. my grandma's family were deportees from Ukraine on both sides, but to them it happened way before USSR came to existence (it just shows how it was the same old system, just repackaged). my grandma recalled living among not only kazakhs, ukrainians and russians, but also chechens, ingushs, jews, germans, and of course, crimean tatars. many of these demographics were often under supervision, meaning they were not allowed to leave, they had to go and mark their presence every morning, the had limited options in employment. it especially concerned the Crimean Tatars. they were already very poor, having arrived literally barehanded to the foreign, unfamiliar, colder land. on top of that, the were treated like social outcasts due to the "traitor" status. it in turn, barred them from getting better employment. so they were set up for poverty regardless. they lived along the coast line of the river in handmade huts. i don't have the details about how they lived through wintes, but considering what i know now, they probably didn't. Many crimean tatars, that survived the deportation itself, died within the first few years.

Now, compare it to the fact that even PoW germans, who were also contained in this town, were later allowed to settle and develop. they're was no way to know if they were just bystanders or ideologically motivated in the past, during the war. but i find it fucking telling that potential former nazis were given a chance to a normal life, but their victims, who spent years under nazi occupation, were branded as traitors of the State and denied a chance to live normally, even after such a detrimental uprooting, after a literal genocide. USSR was probably hoping they would go extinct on their own from poverty and isolation. Those, who carried on, would still live in the shadow of this false accusations, as well as their children and grandchildren.

And in 2014 russia came back with the same policy. Crimean tatars, who just then managed to begin reclaiming their land, were shunned again. There's political and ethical persecution against them going on since 2014 till this very day. it a crime that international community allowed it to happen again, and that somehow it wasn't a good enough reason enough to seriously oppose russia back then, when we still had time.

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

1994: Crimean Tatars mark the 50th anniversary of russia deporting their entire population from their homeland. From the 18th-20th of May 1944 the Tatars were loaded onto cattle trains and removed from their native land.

2024 is the 80th anniversary of Stalin's Crimean genocide.

Since 2014 Crimea has again been occupied by russia.

[folklorespring]

May 18 is the 80th anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars from the territory of Crimea in 1944 by the Soviet authorities. It is also a remembrance day for the victims of this genocide.

Thread on deportation of Crimean Tatars

[dontforgetukraine]

Memorial to the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people

Crimea is not just a territory. It is a part of our soul, a land where our people lived in peace and harmony with their culture, language, and traditions. We are not merely fighting for the return of Crimea; we are fighting for the restoration of justice and the chance for every Crimean to return to their homeland, their Crimea, free from Russia and fear. Today, as part of the Fourth Summit of the International Crimea Platform, we are unveiling a Ukrainian national memorial dedicated to commemorating the tragedy of the Crimean Tatar people. And one day, a similar memorial will undoubtedly appear in our free Crimea. We are confident that Crimea will be free. This is our shared mission, and the whole world stands with Ukraine in this struggle today. —Volodymyr Zelenskyy

Volodymyr Zelenskyy's full speech can be found here.

[panimoonchild]

Ukraine is diverse and embraces it

Let the light overshadow darkness. Only with the good of our world united. 

[thelittleukrainianwell-armedgirl]

[ohsalome]

I often hear comments about Crimea and the other territories occupied by Russia being the “price of peace” in Ukraine. I, like many Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians, know that rewarding aggression and brutal occupation does not bring peace.

Crimea is not Russian to be “given back” to Russia. It never was. It never will be.

It is the homeland that has been repeatedly, brutally taken from us; it is the homeland we will not stop fighting for.

My grandmother, Shevkiye, was just 11 years old when on May 18, 1944, Soviet soldiers barged into her home at five o’clock in the morning. World War II was still raging and the Soviet regime had just accused the Crimean Tatars of collaborating with the enemy, the German Nazis – a baseless allegation that led to the unimaginable horror of genocide by deportation.

My great-grandfather was at the front, fighting those same Nazis whom he was accused of collaborating with. So the Soviet soldiers found at home just his wife and four children – the youngest one only a few months old. The soldiers gave them 15 minutes to gather their belongings and did not stop hitting my great-grandmother with their guns as she struggled to pack.

They marched them out of the house and – along with other families from their home village of Ayserez – hoarded loaded them onto a train meant for transporting cattle. The wagons were packed with people and there were no toilets on them; people struggled to breathe. No food or water was provided on the long journey, during which my grandmother’s family remained unaware of their destination.

Exhausted and starved, they focused solely on survival as hunger and disease killed many along the way. One of the most traumatising memories of the journey for my grandmother was witnessing a pregnant woman give birth on the train and then pass away shortly after. A Soviet soldier threw her body out of the wagon while the train kept moving.

After 20 days on the train, they finally arrived at Golodnaya Steppe station in the Mirzachul region of Uzbekistan, where they were unceremoniously unloaded onto a scorching hot platform. With no money or support, they struggled to survive in this unknown land.

They settled in a dilapidated barrack with no roof, windows, or doors. Their food consisted of grass, nettle, potato peels, and rotten potatoes; their drinking water came from irrigation ditches and often caused dysentery. There was no medical assistance available; the Soviet authorities clearly wanted as many Crimean Tatars to die as possible.

The forced deportation of the Crimean Tatars to Central Asia resulted in the death of 46 percent of the population, leaving a gaping wound in the hearts of those who survived. It was the culmination of a century and a half of deliberate and systematic destruction of the Crimean Tatar people, heritage and culture after the subjugation of the Crimean state by Russian imperial forces in the late 18th century. It is on this obliteration of the Crimean Tatars that the bloody myth of Crimea as a “Russian territory” was built.

[horror-fox]

May 18 is the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide. 🕯️

Today is the 80th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea.

This is one of the greatest crimes of the communist regime, when more than 190 thousand Crimean Tatars were forcibly relocated to remote regions of the Soviet Union.

Exactly 80 years ago, at dawn, soldiers and NKVD operatives broke into the homes of Crimean Tatars.

While the men were at the front, mostly women, children and the elderly were forced to leave their homes, leaving them only minutes to gather.

Brutally, and without any explanation, Crimean Tatars were herded into freight cars to be taken thousands of kilometers away from their homeland.

This horror 80 years ago has become a reality for the representatives of the indigenous people of Ukraine.

These events have become a history that we have no right to forget.

Today, russia is an imitator of these criminal practices.

It continues its repressive policy, which has already resulted in thousands of victims in the temporarily occupied territories of Ukraine.

On this day, we remember all those who suffered from the actions of the criminal regimes of the USSR and russia.

Remembering the past makes us stronger and strengthens our will!

[vintage-ukraine]

Traditional Crimean ornament Örnek by the illustrious Crimean master weaver and embroiderer Adaviye Efendiyeva, 1930

Adaviye Efendiyeva died during the Soviet deportation of indigenous Crimean people in 1944

[victusinveritas]

18-20 May 1944. Crimean Tatars were deported from their historical lands to Central Asia

𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘮 [a 𝘴𝘵𝘰𝘳𝘺 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘤𝘭𝘢𝘴𝘴 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘶𝘨𝘨𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘸𝘰𝘳𝘬𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘱𝘦𝘰𝘱𝘭𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘢 𝘵𝘩𝘳𝘰𝘶𝘨𝘩 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘧𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘯𝘰𝘣𝘭𝘦 𝘳𝘰𝘣𝘣𝘦𝘳 𝘈𝘭𝘪𝘮 𝘈𝘪𝘥𝘢𝘮𝘢𝘬, 𝘸𝘩𝘰 𝘣𝘦𝘤𝘢𝘮𝘦 𝘢 𝘧𝘰𝘭𝘬 𝘩𝘦𝘳𝘰 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘳𝘪𝘮𝘦𝘢𝘯 𝘛𝘢𝘵𝘢𝘳𝘴]

Poster for the film directed by Heorgi Tasin, film script by Mykola Bazhan and Ümer Ipçi, Vostokfilm Studios, All-Ukrainian Photo Cinema Administration, Yalta, Crimean ASSR, 1926

[kazhanko-art]

You remember when Jamala sang about the deportation of her family and all the Russians were like “typical Ukrainian whining about their history vying for sympathy points” and the song wasn’t even about Ukrainians?

[sonyaheaneyauthor]

1945: The village of Uskut, Crimea after Stalin's deportation of the entire native population of the Crimean Tatars from the 18th-20th of May 1944.

russian colonisers had yet to move into the houses.

[folklorespring]

Crimean Tatars in Crimea before being deported by soviet authorities

[leviathangourmet]

Tatar Deportation: Stalin’s Forgotten Genocide

[thenuclearmallard]

My aunt was Crimean Tatar. I wish we had the chance to meet before she passed.