After the occupation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, thousands of activists fell under repression for their civic position. Criminal cases have been opened, detentions, searches and arrests have been systematically carried out, and people have been subjected to enforced disappearances. The peninsula has turned into a territory of lawlessness.
The indigenous Crimean Tatar people, who are subjected to repression, find themselves in a particularly difficult situation. According to the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, during the entire occupation period of Crimea the number of political prisoners and those prosecuted in criminal cases has reached 307, 206 of whom are the representatives of the Crimean Tatar people.
Russia, violating international law, continues to carry out mass repression and pressure on Crimean Tatars and pro-Ukrainian activists on the territory of the Crimean peninsula. Only today, on March 5, Russian security forces conducted searches in 10 houses of Crimean Tatars.
Moreover, this practice is spreading to the newly occupied territories of Ukraine – Zaporizhzhya and Kherson regions, where the occupants are trying to intimidate people in the same way.
After 10 years of persecution and repression, people are tired and want to receive guaranteed protection of human rights in Crimea! After the deoccupation of Crimea, Ukraine should become a guarantor of human rights protection on the peninsula!