Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev took part in the event dedicated to the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people “Remember history – return the territory”.
As part of the event, an art performance “Hellish Road of Tashke-Tavaksay” was held. During it, one could hear an excerpt from the diary of Nariman Kazenbash, who, at the age of 13, was deported by the Soviet authorities from Crimea in 1944 along with other Crimean Tatars. The guests will join the marathon of writing letters to political prisoners, as well as got acquainted with two photo projects dedicated to crimes against the Crimean Tatars.
The speakers of the event were:
- Dmytro Lubinets, Commissioner of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine for Human Rights;
- Tamila Tasheva, Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea;
- Refat Chubarov, Head of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people;
- Iryna Vereshchuk, Minister for the Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine;
- Rustem Umerov, Head of the State Property Fund of Ukraine
- Emine Dzheppar, First Deputy Minister of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine;
- Eskender Bariiev, Member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center;
- Oleksii Tilnenko, Head of the board of CrimeaSOS;
“They did not condemn yesterday, it is repeated today. Today is the 79th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people, that is, today is the day of remembrance of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people”,- Eskender Bariiev began his speech.
The head of the board of the CTRC also called on Ukrainians to join the flash mob as a sign of solidarity with the Crimean Tatar people.
“Today I put on an embroidered shirt, which was presented by our friends from the homeland of Stepan Bandera, from the Ivano-Frankivsk region. I put on this vyshyvanka because I respect Ukrainians and Ukraine, I am sure that my rights and the rights of my people will be protected in Ukraine. Today I call on all Ukrainians: when you wear vyshyvanka, you are showing your collective right to preserve your identity. Also, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center is holding a flash mob: put on the flag of the Crimean Tatar people in order to show solidarity with the Crimean Tatar people, most of which, unfortunately, are in the occupied territory”,-Bariiev said.
Also, the chairman of the board of the CTRC did not bypass the topic of the future of Crimea and stressed that today it is necessary to work on changes in the legislation of Ukraine, on changes in the laws on deoccupation of Crimea.
“Experts of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center made a great analysis of how to work and what first steps will need to be taken. In addition, we gathered and held an expert forum among people who are directly related to Crimea, who have been dealing with Crimea for many years. What kind of Crimea we will get, we don’t know yet. We have worked out recommendations in 10 areas, including the anti-corruption direction, because we need to demonstrate that a rule of law has come to Crimea, that there will be a future in Crimea and all the rights of residents are protected”,-Bariiev said.
Eskender Bariiev also recalled that earlier the CTRC had developed a methodology for assessing the degree of collaboration on the peninsula.
“As for collaborators: already in 2019, we developed a special methodology on the degree of collaboration, so that later sanctions against collaborators could be introduced using this methodology. We also developed a test so that these people, who have been living in Crimea for more than 9 years, clearly know these red lines”,- the expert emphasized.
