Dear ladies and gentlemen!
Dear compatriots!
Each nation has certain dates that unite it – happy or mournful. For the Crimean Tatar People, this day was May 18. Without a year, three-fourths of a century separate us from this tragic event. The witnesses die, but memories of the Moscow-held genocide of the Crimean Tatar People remain in the historical memory of the Crimean Tatars and in the memory of the entire Ukrainian People. That forced eviction was one of the most criminal and brutal operations of the totalitarian communist-Moscow regime.
The day after tomorrow, on the third Sunday of May we commemorate the victims of political repressions. This day is very special because it is 85th anniversary of Holodomor and it is 85 years from the day of Great Terror. And we, Ukrainians know that better than most how being marked to death by the Kremlin empire. After all it was Hrushchov who retold the Satlin’s dreams to replace all the Ukrainians to Siberia. And we – Ukrainian people weку saved only by the significant quantities of Ukrainians.
I want to emphasize that the pain of the Crimean Tatars is the pain of all Ukrainians. The tragedy of the 1944th was only a prelude, the beginning of a long-term policy of persecution. The whole People was slandered, robbed, brutally expelled from their homeland, almost half was eliminated. And those who remained alive were sent to the semi-desert territories of Central Asia, Ural and Siberia wrote the great Ukrainian, Human Rights activist Petro Hryhorenko.
In 1948 the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR established a lifetime term for the deportation of the Crimean Tatars and introduced criminal responsibility for escaping from the places of compulsory settlement. “Such a draconian restriction, which human rights activist Hryhorenko called “ten years in reserve”, was abolished only in 1956, but even after that Crimea was a closed area for its indigenous population.
For decades the Crimean Tatar People conducted a persistent struggle with the Soviet regime to return to their native land. In the mid-eighties you were the first among the enslaved nations to go to the Red Square in Moscow to claim your national rights
The establishment of Ukraine’s independence in 1991, the flowering and revival of the Crimean Tatar community took place. At the same time, he noted that the government of previous years had underestimated not only the role of the Military Forces but the potential of Crimean Tatar People.
Insufficient provision of its cultural, political and economic rights in the Homeland, which for decades has taken place in favor of criminal elites in Crimea, was an absolute mistake. And these failures eventually led to Russia’s annexation and occupation of Crimea, the President said, noting that Crimean Tatars are currently suffering oppression and persecution in the occupied peninsula.
The Stalin Club which is leaded behind the Kremlin Wall renovated the policy of Crimean Tatars persecution. “Russian peace” is characterized by the xenophobic anti Crimean Tatar features. Thousands of our compatriots – Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians to evade the immediate threats to their lives had to leave their native housing.
The occupiers, violating the international law, is changing the situation in the occupied territory by forcing the Crimean Tatars and ethnic Ukrainians and inhabiting the peninsula by the migrants from the Russian countryside. Ethnocide, prohibition of Medjlis where the Russian Federation was forced to renovate its activity in the territory of occupied Crimea by the decision of UN International Court of Justice and which they have not any intention to respect. Arrests, harassments of conscious Ukrainians and Crimean Tatars, ongoing searches and intimidations, physical and psychological pressure, disappearance of persons – everything is a current weekdays of Russian occupation of Crimea.
Boycotting by the Crimean Tatars of the illegal elections of President of Russian Federation in the temporarily occupied Crimea has become a reason of a new repression launching. Thanked to the solidarity with Ukraine and Crimean Tatars the world did not recognized the election charade. Did not recognized, I stress.
No the Great Seven not the USA and not the European Union and many other countries. They implemented sanctions together with the Ukrainian sanctions, which had been in force today, against the persons responsible for the illegal voting. Punishment for any illegal actions against the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine is inevitable as a Last Judgement. It is evident.
We cannot know the only thing: the time and terms. Convinced that the aggressor will be held responsible for the illecal construction of the Kerch Strait Bridge and other crimes. The Russians will need this bridge as a escape route. And Ukraine after the renovation of its sovereignty in Crimea will use it as a link with Kuban by the way a great number of Ukrainians also residing there as well as with our Russia – not the agressor.
Dear madams and gentlemen!
The right of Crimean Tatars to live in their Native Land freely will be necessary restored. I am convinced in inevitable rule of historical justice. We have been preparing for this responsibly. In a year the Working Group established by the Constitutional Commission has developed the amendments to the Chapter X of the Constitution of Ukraine. They must establish the inalienable right of Crimean Tatars People as an Indigenous People of Ukraine to self–determination within an Independent Ukrainian State. Exactly such right is proposed by the Group to recognize as a source of a special status of Crimean Autonomy as an integral part of United Ukraine.
At the same time the involved experts, scientists, civil representatives pointed out their position directed to insurance of equal rights and freedoms of all citizens of Ukraine irrespective of ethnic origin who will reside in the Ukrainian Crimea, liberated from the Russian invaders. They all together will choose the representative body of Crimean autonomy which would be called as Crimean Council by the proposals of the Working Group.
Peculiarities of the election of the deputies – the representatives of the Crimean Tatars People the Grope proposes to adopt by the separate Law of Ukraine. I am confident that in Ukrainian Crimea it will be peace and harmony among different ethnic groups – Ukrainians, Crimean Tatars, Russians and others. But there is a situation of real threat to the state sovereignty or the territorial integrity of Ukraine, the members of the working group offers to empower the President of Ukraine “ to establish a special government regime in Crimea by appointment of a special state governor simultaneously by the termination of the respective mandate of Crimean Autonomy” We will not repeat the mistakes of the past.
I am waiting the working group will approve these proposals, the time was enough for doing this, and will submit it for the consideration by the Constitutional Commission soon. We all understand the discussion will not be easy. I have not any illusions. Especially when the issue will be discussed by the Parliament. We should formulate our position clearly, our future vision where Crime will be inevitably a part of Ukraine.
The amendment done to the Constitution regarding Crimean Tatars People are necessary for Ukraine. And to achieve this goal Ukraine has launched all political-legal diplomatic mechanisms in Ukraine to restore sovereignty on these lands, to return Crimea from occupation. And by the way to amend the Constitution we definitely strengthen our effort to renovate the state sovereignty of Ukraine over the Crimean peninsula recalling the international law of the indigenous people rights. It will give a legal force to Ukraine.
We will continue working on the prompt return to Ukraine of all Ukrainian hostages from the temporally occupied Donbas and Crimea. And of the political prisoners held on the territory of the occupied Crimea, in Russian prisons on the territory of the Russian Federation.
Crimea, Sevastopol, Donetsk and Lugansk regions are Ukraine!
Glory for Crimean Tatars People!
Glory for Ukraine!