Today, the Senate of the Czech Republic unanimously adopted a resolution commemorating the victims of the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars, officially recognizing this Stalinist crime as an act of genocide. With this decision, the Czech Republic has become the seventh country to officially condemn the Soviet regime’s crimes against the Crimean Tatar people.

In his address to the Czech senators, Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatar people and a Member of the Ukrainian Parliament, emphasized the historical significance of this decision and expressed gratitude for the support, which moves the world closer to achieving historical justice.

The resolution was passed unanimously, with 70 votes in favor and none against or abstaining. This decision marks an important step in the international recognition of the 1944 deportation as genocide. In 2015, Ukraine was the first country to officially recognize these events as an act of genocide. Since then, the parliaments of Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Poland, Estonia, and now the Czech Republic, have joined this effort.

Let us recall that the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars, ordered by Stalin, forcibly displaced over 200,000 individuals from Crimea to remote regions of the Soviet Union. This act was a deliberate effort to destroy the indigenous population, targeting their ethnic, cultural, and religious identity.

The Mission expresses its gratitude to the Czech Senate and the people of the Czech Republic for their solidarity and support, as well as to the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People for their active efforts in advancing international recognition of this crime.

We call on the parliaments of other nations to support Ukraine and the Crimean Tatar people by joining the process of recognizing the 1944 deportation as an act of genocide. Only through collective efforts can historical justice be restored.