For the seventh anniversary of the occupation of Crimea, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center presented a short film Crimean Tatars: A Struggle for Survival (in English), which tells about the events of 2014, about the repressions against representatives of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people, as well as about human rights violations on the peninsula.
Seven years ago, on February 26, 2014, tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars, Ukrainians and Crimean residents of other nationalities, in response to the appeal of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, came to the Verkhovna Rada of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and did not allow the pro-Russian MPs to make unconstitutional decisions on the disconnection of Crimea from Ukraine.
On that day, the civil society of Crimea defended the territorial integrity of Ukraine in a peaceful, legal way, not allowing Russia and its agents in Crimea to hold an extraordinary session in order to simulate the alleged voluntary transition of Crimea to Russia.
Unfortunately, the massive nonviolent resistance of the inhabitants of the peninsula could not prevent the temporary occupation of Crimea, which has been going on for seven years. The Crimean Tatar people, the indigenous people of Crimea, hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians and residents of other nationalities, who remain loyal to the Ukrainian state, remain hostages of the Russian invaders.
The film of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center tells about the events of 2014, about the illegal occupation of Crimea, about systematic repressions against the indigenous Crimean Tatar people. Mass searches, arrests, illegal trials began to be used as a method of intimidating the population disloyal to Russia.
The film reveals the following problems:
reduction of education in Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian languages;
lack of freedom of speech in Crimea and the closure of indigenous ethnic media outlets;
the transformation of the peninsula into a military foothold;
the prohibition of the representative body of the indigenous people – the Mejlis;
Resolutions and decisions of authoritative international organizations are ignored by Russia.
With this film, we want to once again draw the attention of the entire international community to the problem of the occupation of Crimea, to the problems of people who continue to suffer at the hands of the occupier for their position. Seven years later, Crimean Tatars continue their non-violent struggle for the right to live in their homeland, because they still have pain. Does it hurt you?