The fourth Summit of First Ladies and Gentlemen was held in Kyiv on the initiative of the wife of the President of Ukraine, Olena Zelenska. The theme of the current event was ‘Child Protection: Guarantees of a Safe Future’.
In particular, Adile Dzhelyal, the daughter of the First Deputy Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Nariman Dzhelyal, made her statement.
The girl told about the story of her father’s detention and how she was forced to grow up quickly to endure these trials.
‘Imagine: you are 12 years old, sleeping in your room, and suddenly your mum wakes you up. A bunch of people in black masks with guns burst into your house. It was scary, we couldn’t get through to anyone. I sat there imagining they could kill us. Dad was taken away. Mum was often away from home all day, she went to the courts and visits with dad, and I, as the eldest sister, stayed with my younger sisters and brother. My sister was 9 at the time, my brother was 4, and my youngest sister was not even a year old. And it all came down on me so abruptly that I didn’t realise I had lost my childhood. I felt anger, sadness, resentment, and most importantly – loneliness, because the closest people, parents, were not around,’ – she said.
Adile noted that the news of her father’s release was the happiest for her. But at the same time she was forced to leave her home.
‘But there are still many children in Crimea who also had their peaceful childhood stolen. We have the power to save them: to give them back their parents, security and freedom. Give them back their childhood’, – added the girl.
Recall that already 255 children in the occupied Crimea are forced to grow up without their own father, without his daily support, guidance and care. And 15 children were born in the absence of arrested parents.
Unfortunately, the rf has already broken the lives of tens of thousands of children, because the occupation of Crimea has equally affected both the fates of adults and children. The Crimean Tatar Resource Centre has spoken about this many times and dedicated the film ‘Bring Me Back My Dad’ to this topic, which tells the stories of children whose parents were imprisoned or forcibly abducted after the occupation of the peninsula.