Eleven years ago, on March 16, 2014, the Russian occupiers held a so-called “referendum” on the status of the peninsula in Crimea at gunpoint, which resulted in Russia’s attempted annexation of Crimea.
Hundreds of thousands of people of different nationalities boycotted the referendum at the call of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. All the so-called polling stations in places of compact residence of Crimean Tatars were completely empty, and in some settlements they were closed.
By boycotting the referendum, the indigenous people of Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars, clearly indicated their position and their right to self-determination in accordance with international law. The UN General Assembly recognized the “referendum” as illegal. The European Union, the United States, and a number of other countries also recognized that the referendum was null and void.
“My position was principled: I said that the people, who have been waging a longstanding non-violent struggle based on international law, can in no way support a country that violates the sovereignty of an entire state and violates international law,” – recalls Eskender Bariiev, Chairman of the Board of the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, member of Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people.
Eskender Bariiev notes that the actions of the representative body of the Crimean Tatars and the entire Crimean Tatar people in those days were very important and significant. Thus, on March 15, 2014, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, on Bariiev’s initiative, adopted an appeal to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine and the entire Ukrainian people. And thanks to this appeal, on March 20, 2014, the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine recognized the Crimean Tatars as the indigenous people of Ukraine, and the Mejlis and Kurultai of the Crimean Tatars as the representative bodies of the people.
It is now the eleventh anniversary of the occupation of Crimea and the third year of Russia’s full-scale war against Ukraine. Over the years, Russia has intensified repressions against Crimean Tatars and anyone who does not support the occupation regime. Thousands of people have been forced to leave the peninsula, hundreds have become victims of political persecution, and dozens have gone missing or died. The occupation authorities systematically violate human rights, suppress freedom of speech and attempt to erase Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar identity in Crimea.
The Crimean Tatar Resource Center calls on the international community and international organizations to increase pressure on the Russian Federation and the occupation authorities of Crimea to deoccupy the peninsula and all territories of Ukraine.