In her most recent article for Euractiv, Anna Fotyga, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Poland (2006–2007), Member of the European Parliament and advocacy mentor to Crimean Tatar political prisoner Server Mustafayev, briefs about 240 years of russian oppression politics over the Crimean Tatar people that reveal a systematic character of russian imperialism and its generalized indoctrinated genocidal policies towards indigenous peoples of its numerous colonized territories. Moreover, A. Fotyga calls the world leaders upon immediate acknowledging of the genocide of the Crimean Tatars, committed by the Kremlin 80 years ago. She concludes that defeating Russian aggressive imperialism can’t be fully achieved without returning Crimea back to Ukraine.

“For many nations in Europe and Asia, no other country has brought as much sorrow and suffering as Russia.”

“Immediately after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the process of complete historical, cultural, and archaeological annihilation of all Crimean Tatars began. 80 per cent of the Crimean Tatar localities were renamed.  It was a deliberate and targeted forgetting of the history of Crimea, which was intertwined with the history of its indigenous people. It was exactly what the term genocide defines. We need to say it loudly: Moscow committed genocide on the Crimean Tatars in 1944. “

“Since 2014, Crimea is the epicenter of human rights violations in occupied Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars have again found themselves on the brink of an existential challenge, as they did in the late 18th century when they were under the occupation of the Russian Empire.”

“The 80 years since the genocidal deportation of the Crimean Tatar people are not merely a tragedy for the Crimean Tatars; they constitute a systemic diagnosis and a historical warning of the nature of Russian imperialism. It is imperative that this pattern of aggression-genocide-colonization-annexation be halted. Never again is now.  Our obligations under the genocide convention require our strong support to Crimean Tatars. It can be argued that the only way to prevent Russia from repeating the crime of genocide is for Crimea to be returned to Ukraine.”

“The liberation of Crimea must be the principal objective of our goals for Ukraine’s victory and we must recognise that this is already underway. Russia’s aggression against Ukraine started with Crimea and cannot be won until Crimea’s liberation. Once Crimea is liberated, the subsequent domino effect will result in the downfall of Putin and his allies.”