The Tatar community in Crimea, which was annexed by Russia back in 2014, continues to face repressions for supporting Ukraine, according to a Ukrainian ethnic minority expert.
It is vital to talk about the fate of Crimean Tatars and not to forget this community amid Russia’s ongoing war in Ukraine, insists Yulia Tyshchenko.
“Russia uses the same methods of repression as the Soviet Union did,” the expert from the Ukrainian Centre for Independent Political Research (UCIPR) told reporters in Vilnius on Wednesday.
According to Tyshchenko, Russia considers the Crimean Tatar parliament, the Medjlis, to be a terrorist organisation and fabricates cases against its representatives.
“Why is Russia treating the Crimean Tatars like this? They have always supported Ukraine’s statehood, its European and NATO path. It was a unique national movement in the post-Soviet space,” Tyshchenko said.
“The Crimean Tatars undermine Russia’s perception that Crimea is Russia, because they are a people with their own culture, they are a recognised national group in Ukraine. Russia calls it, this Tatar community, a hydrogen bomb,” she added.
Western countries must not forget about the repressions suffered by Crimean Tatars, she said.
“What can partner countries do to stop these repressions against the Crimean Tatars? Obviously, our ability to influence Russia’s action is weak, but we need to talk about specific people, their fates, that Tatars stand with Ukraine and support it,” Tyshchenko stressed.
Vida Montvydaitė, head of the Lithuanian Department of National Minorities, noted that Tatars living in Lithuania are related to the Crimean Tatars. Their struggle for freedom is also Lithuania’s responsibility, she said.
“The Lithuanian Tatars, whose year we marked last year, are members of the same family as the Crimean Tatars. Their struggle for freedom and their century-long persecution in Ukraine are also part of our responsibility,” Montvydaitė said.
May 18 marks the 78th anniversary of the deportations and genocide of the Crimean Tatars.
The Soviet Union deported several hundred thousands of Tatars from Crimea during World War Two, and Lithuania recognises these deportations as genocide.
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