On Friday, May 15, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, with the support of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Ukraine, held the 13th session of the Crimean Discussion Club. As part of the webinar on the "Recognition of the genocide and counteraction to discrimination against the Crimean Tatar people", experts called on Ukraine to comply with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. Participants also emphasized the importance of a court decision recognizing the deportation of Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide.
Speakers:
– Eskender Bariiev, Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (moderator);
– Iryna Starovytska, Project Manager of the Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom (Introductory address);
– Refat Chubarov, Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people;
– Gulnara Bekirova, historian, Ph.D.
– Oliver Loode, member of the UN Permanent Forum on Indigenous Issues in 2014-2016;
– Oleksandr Poznyak, Lawyer, Human rights defender;
– Borys Babin, Doctor of Law, Professor.
Participants discussed the following topics:
1. Investigation of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatar people
2. Recognition of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an act of genocide
3. Effective counteraction to discrimination of the Crimean Tatar people
4. Implementation of the collective rights of the Crimean Tatar people
The speakers noted that the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people should qualify precisely as genocide, proving the intent of the Soviet government to carry out the complete or partial destruction of the corresponding ethnic group as an indigenous people, depriving them of their historical homeland and destroying their national elite during the long repressions of 1920-1930.
According to experts, the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as an indigenous people from their historical homeland in Crimea is still an incomplete (ongoing) international crime that has no specific time frame. Ukraine has the proper material and procedural jurisdiction for its investigation and final qualification; the legal recognition of this deportation as genocide will be final after the entry into force of the relevant decision of the competent court. Thus, the webinar participants emphasized the importance of a court decision recognizing the deportation of Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide and called on Ukraine to comply with the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide.