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The year of 2019 was difficult year but important in the context of the de-occupation of Crimea and the release of political prisoners of the Kremlin.
At the end of the outgoing or the beginning of the upcoming year, it is always a good idea to draw concluding remarks of our activities and highlight the events that have become important in our recent history.
I believe that the year 2019 was not easy, but important in the context of the de-occupation of Crimea and the release of political prisoners of the Kremlin.
I would highlight the following important events, to which I am involved, as well as the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, the International Movement for the De-Occupation of Crimea and Solidarity with the Crimean Tatar people # LIBERATECRIMEA, representatives of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar diasporas, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people and politicians and public figures – friends of Ukraine and Crimea, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine. I am talking about the international campaign “United by the flag – #LIBERATECRIMEA”, within the framework of which the Crimean Tatar flag of 3.5×4 size has visited 4 continents and 28 countries, also together with the flag of the Ukrainian Navy. The activists of this international campaign called for solidarity and demanded to protect the Crimean Tatar people, de-occupy Crimea, recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people of 1944 as genocide and release the prisoners of war and political prisoners of Crimea; these are hundreds of appeals, reports and statements to the special rapporteurs of the UN, ECHR, the Expert Mechanism on the Rights of Indigenous Peoples of the United Nations, OSCE, national parliaments of Western states, speeches at international venues; these are the campaigns “Candidate, Tell Me Who Does Crimea belong to?” during the presidential and parliamentarian elections in Ukraine and European Parliament. These are the Crimean Tatars Academy of Public Diplomacy and the Freedom International Summer Camp, with the help of which new creative ideas are formed for a non-violent struggle for the de-occupation of Crimea and the protection of our compatriots.
Thanks to these campaigns in 2019, we achieved important results:
Firstly, the recognition of the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people of 1944 as genocide by the parliaments of Latvia and Lithuania;
Secondly, the translation of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights into the Crimean Tatar language and its publication on official UN resources;
Thirdly, the decision of the UN International Tribunal for the Law of the Sea in favor of Ukraine and the subsequent release of 24 sailors and the return of warships, including the release of 11 political prisoners (Sentsov, Kolchenko, Balukh, Bekirov and others);
Fourth, the confirmation of the jurisdiction of the case “Ukraine v. Russia” by the International Court of Justice under two conventions;
Fifth, the adoption of resolutions of the UN General Assembly, PACE, OSCE PA and so on. And, of course, the extension of sanctions against Putin's Russia.
Of course, one cannot fail to note the negative events of the past year. These are new mass searches and arrests in occupied Crimea, which resulted in the increase in the number of political prisoners, mass transfer of political prisoners to the territory of Russia and tougher indictments, the consequence of which is maximum prison terms for political prisoners.
I wish Happy New Year 2020 to all of you!
I wish you a peaceful sky above your head, happiness and joy.
Only together we can overcome all difficulties, return fathers to their children and de-occupy Crimea!
I express my gratitude to our partners and friends of OSF, Friedrich Naumann Foundation for Freedom in Ukraine, Renaissance Foundation, Estonian Institute of Human Rights, US Embassy in Ukraine, Embassy of the Republic of Latvia in Ukraine, Embassy of the Republic of Lithuania in Ukraine, IRI, Museum of the Revolution of Dignity
Eskender Bariiev,
Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center,
Member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people