On Thursday, May 18, on the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people, President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with representatives of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.
The meeting was attended by Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, leader of the Crimean Tatar people Mustafa Dzhemilev, Chairman of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Refat Chubarov, Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Head of the Department for Legal and Foreign Affairs of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Eskender Bariiev, member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people Riza Shevkiev , Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea Tamila Tasheva.
Volodymyr Zelenskyy noted that today Ukraine honors the memory of the victims of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people. As he stressed, the Soviet authorities killed almost half of the representatives of the Crimean Tatar people, and tried to convince those who survived that they would forever remain in a foreign land, because the ban on returning to their native Crimea lasted for decades.
“Today Ukraine has felt the return of this evil, which has changed its symbolism, but not its essence. But this time we will destroy it. We must do it. Whatever Russia does, its aggression will be defeated. She will not be able to steal either Crimea or any other part of our state. This is our home”,- Volodymyr Zelenskyy said.
According to the President of Ukraine, in order to prepare for the reintegration of the peninsula, he signed a decree on the Consultative Council for the deoccupation and reintegration of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.
“We remember Nariman Dzhelyal, and Server Mustafayev, and Leniie Umerova, and all those who were deprived of their freedom by the occupants. And we do everything to free them. I am sure that the time will come when we will all be able to meet on May 18 in the confidence that in our Crimea, in its flowering gardens and hospitable homes, there is a free life, there are warm memories of grandparents, there are smiles of children but one thingwill be missing – there won’t be any trace of the occupation”,- he stressed.