On Monday, May 16, at the Ukrinform news agency, the Crimean Tatar Resource Center held a press conference as part of the #LIBERATECRIMEA information campaign: Impunity breeds lawlessness, dedicated to the 78th anniversary of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people.
Speakers at the event were:
Eskender Bariiev – Head of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, Head of the Department of Legal and Foreign Affairs of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People;
Tetyana Podvorniak – Communications Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center;
Liudmyla Korotkykh – Manager of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center;
During the press conference, the experts reminded the Ukrainian community about the terrible crime against humanity – the genocide of the entire Crimean Tatar people in 1944. They also drew parallels with modern events in 2022, when the Russian Federation actually continues the practice of the Soviet Union and carries out genocide of the entire Ukrainian people.
“Today we are commemorating the 78th anniversary of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people, but we are all witnesses of the genocide of the Ukrainian people committed by the Russian Federation in 2022. Unfortunately, all the methods of the occupiers have remained the same: deportation, arrests, violence, special settlements. The Russian Federation is trying to completely destroy Ukraine”,- said Eskender Bariiev.
Bariiev stressed that if the world had timely condemned the genocide of the Crimean Tatars, history might not repeat itself. Therefore, now we need to actively work on this in order to show the Russian Federation that it will definitely pay for its crimes committed in Ukraine.
Liudmyla Korotkykh emphasized that impunity breeds new crimes. She added that at present the whole world is watching the atrocities of the Russians, which are precisely qualified as genocide against the Ukrainian people.
“We must realize that one of the reasons for this is that we still, despite the criminal proceedings opened in 2015, do not have a court decision by which the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people in 1944 is recognized as the genocide of the indigenous people of Ukraine and which specifies the names of the perpetrators of this crime”,- the expert explained.
In her opinion, the court decision, by which the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people in 1944 was recognized as genocide, would be a weighty argument and would strengthen the Ukrainian position when appealing to other countries with a request to recognize the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people in 1944 as genocide at the political level.
Tetiana Podvornyak presented all the visual and information products that were prepared for the 78th anniversary of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people as part of the #LIBERATECRIMEA information campaign. A representative of the CTRC demonstrated the test What do you know about the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide, posters and hashtags for TV channels.
“We decided to shape our information campaign based on the parallels of two historical events: the deportation of the Crimean Tatar people in 1944 and the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Thus, we emphasize that these were indeed different eras, but the perpetrator remained the same. This was the result of impunity for the crime in 1944”,- Tetiana Podvorniak explained.
Posters and tests developed as part of the #LIBERATECRIMEA awareness campaign can be found via the landing page.
We remind you that earlier the Crimean Tatar Resource Center presented a new information campaign #LIBERATECRIMEA, which is designed to raise the level of awareness of the population of Ukraine about the situation in the occupied Crimea.