Seven Countries have Recognized Soviet Deportation of Crimean Tatars in May 1944 as an Act of Genocide, and Crimean Tatar Activists are Pressing for Even Broader International Recognition of This Crime

 Paul Goble

            Staunton, May 19 – Over the last decade, seven countries have recognized the May 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet government as an act of genocide: Ukraine in 2015, Lithuania and Latvia in 2019, Canada in 2022, and Poland, Estonia and the Czech Republic in 2024.

            Now, Crimean Tatars are seeking such recognition from other countries, hopeful that as Crimea suffers from another Russian attempt to deprive the Crimean Tatars of any hope for an independent future, other countries, including some in Africa, Asia and Latin America, will join this list (kavkazr.com/a/deportatsiya-krymskih-tatar-genotsid-kotoryy-dolzhen-bytj-priznan-mirom-pochemu-eto-vazhno-/33417301.html).

            There is good reason that they and others should: nearly half of the Crimean Tatars deported from their homeland died in transit or in the first year of exile, they were prevented from return far longer than any other punished people, and they are now be subject to deracinating repression by Moscow once again.