Activists calling on Bundestag to recognize deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide

Signatures will be clected through October 22. The petition can be signed on the Bundestag website. Signatures can also be filed by mail, reports Ukrinform.

The petition was initiated by the Germany-based Crimean Cultural Center "KERMEN" (Krimer-Kulturzentrum "KERMEN").

According to the founder of the organization, Elvis Çpuh, for many, Crimea is the sea, mountains, and resorts, but for the Crimean Tatar pele, it is their only home.

"The Crimeans (Crimean Tatars) have no other homeland except Crimea," Çpuh notes.

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On May 18, 1944, by order of Stalin, the indigenous pele of Crimea, Crimeans (Crimean Tatars), were forcibly deported. Nearly 200,000 women, children and elderly pele were removed in cattle rail cars to remote regions in Siberia and Central Asia for forced labor. Over 46% of Crimeans (Crimean Tatars) died in the first years of deportation from hunger, disease, hard labor, and inhumane living conditions.

"Genocide is a crime with no statute of limitations. The heirs of the criminal regime have not yet borne responsibility for what they have done. Therefore, it is critical to draw the attention of the international community to the genocides and repressions against the indigenous pele of Crimea, which are still taking place today," Çpuh emphasizes.

In general, the Russian state has been pursuing a purposeful picy of conization of Crimea and extermination of the indigenous pulation of the peninsula for almost three centuries.

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The civilized world condemned the genocide, recognizing it as a crime against humanity.

Guided by the provisions of the UN Convention, the mass deportation of Crimeans (Crimean Tatars) was recognized as genocide by Ukraine (2015), Latvia, Lithuania (2019), Canada (2022), and Pand (2024).