Russia keeps on applying the policy of russification and expulsion from the territory of Crimea against Crimean Tatars, making the local residents homogeneous and Russian-minded. This was stated by Volodymyr Chekryhin, Deputy Chairperson of the Crimean Human Rights Group Board, at the meeting of the Expert Council in the Office of Ombudsman of Ukraine on the eve of May 18 – the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Crimean Tatar Genocide.
As Mr. Chekryhin said, expulsion from the territory of Crime is a gross violation of fundamental human rights including the rights not to be subject to exile, not to be arbitrarily deprived of nationality and not to be arbitrarily denied entry to the own country. These actions constitute a crime against humanity – deportation and forced displacement. But the occupying power has been widely applying all these instruments.
“The occupation authorities keep on persecuting arbitrarily the Crimean Tatar community members for occupation resistance under faked criminal and administrative arraignments,” the human rights defender emphasized.
He said that the Russian occupiers were regularly applying intimidation, torture, humiliation, threats, psychological and other types of pressure on the Crimean Tatars.
Dmytro Lubinets, the Ombudsman, noted that Ukraine had launched the International Platform for the Release of Civilians Illegally Detained by Russian Federation, and its first meeting had been held. The list of over 200 names of Crimeans detained and illegally incarcerated by the Russian Federation was presented to 52 countries and international organizations. According to Mr. Lubinets, the matters to be addressed includes bringing the case of Crimean Tatar genocide and deportation started by the Prosecutor’s Office of AR of Crimea in 2019 into the Ukrainian court. This would help bring the perpetrators of genocide to justice, restore the rights of the victims, and receive compensation and reparations.
