On Tuesday, October 13, representatives of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center held an online meeting with the staff of the British Embassy in Ukraine. The diplomats were presented with the album Hostages of the Occupation, which tells about 20 life stories of Crimean Tatars families who became hostages of the occupation of Crimea. The parties also discussed areas of further cooperation.
The meeting participants were Siobhan Wright – Second Secretary for Political Affairs of the British Embassy in Ukraine, Kateryna Bykova – Representative of the Embassy, Eskender Bariiev – Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, member of the Presidium of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and Zarema Bariieva – Manager of the CTRC.
Representatives of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center told British diplomats about human rights violations in the occupied Crimea and noted that the CTRC website contains an electronic database Victims of the Occupation of Crimea, which reflects the current number of political prisoners, missing and dead people during the occupation of Crimea in four languages.
The parties discussed a number of initiatives proposed by the CTRC:
– the possibility of holding an exhibition Hostages of the Occupation in the UK;
– the possibility of holding round tables for British MPs in order to familiarize them with the Godfather initiative, which provides for political patronage over political prisoners of Crimea and their families;
– the possibility of introducing personal sanctions against violators of human rights in the occupied Crimea and their inclusion to the respective list in accordance with the analogous law to Magnitsky Act in the UK;
– the possibility of holding events aimed at recognizing the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people by the British Parliament as an act of genocide.
In connection with the aforementioned, a package of documents was handed over by the CTRC to recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an act of genocide, which includes:
an appeal by the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people to all the parliaments of the UN member states, an appeal of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center to the Parliament of Great Britain, a copy of the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On the recognition of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people”, resolutions of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine “On the appeal of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine to the UN, the European Parliament, PACE, OSCE PA, NATO PA, PA BSEC, governments and parliaments of the countries of the world on respecting the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people and condemnation of violations by the Russian Federation as an aggressor state of rights and freedoms of the Crimean Tatar people”, statements of the Saeima of the Republic of Latvia “In memory of the 75th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people and support for the policy of not recognizing the illegal annexation of Crimea”, statements of the Seimas of the Republic of Lithuania “On recognizing the destruction of the Crimean Tatar people by the Soviet Union as an act of genocide”, the legal qualification of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an international crime against the indigenous people.
The album was developed as part of the "Hostages of the Occupation" project with the support of the Democracy Grants Program of the US Embassy in Ukraine.