On May 28, a joint Statement by the Chairman of the Committee of Ministers of the Council of Europe, Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Gabrielius Landsbergis, President of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe Theodoros Rousopoulos, Secretary General of the Council of Europe Marija Pejčinović Burić and Commissioner for Human Rights of Council of Europe Michael O’Flaherty was published to mark the 80th anniversary of the deportation and commemorate the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people.

In the Statement, the heads of the Council of Europe’s key bodies honor the memory of Crimean Tatars who were victims of deportation, mostly children, women, and the elderly, who were deported from Crimea by the Soviet authorities. They also paid tribute to all members of the people who have been subjected to oppression, repression, and discrimination by Russia for centuries.

Representatives of the Council of Europe also focused on the resumption of repression and harassment of Crimean Tatars after the beginning of the Russian occupation of Crimea: “In fact, Russian aggression against Ukraine began in late February 2014 with the illegal occupation and attempted annexation of Crimea. Since the beginning of Russia’s full-scale military invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the persecution of Crimean Tatars, aimed at erasing their national identity, has only intensified.”

In addition, this Statement calls on the member states of the Council of Europe and the international community to increase diplomatic pressure on the Russian Federation to stop repressions and harassment against the Crimean Tatar people and human rights violations in the temporarily occupied Crimea and the city of Sevastopol, to release all illegally detained persons and to ensure full compliance with the principles of international law.

The authors of the Statement expressed their respect for the Crimean Tatar people as an indigenous people of Ukraine and called for support for Ukraine: 

“Ukraine’s victory and the liberation of Crimea will ensure an end to systematic repression of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and the restoration of respect for human rights,” – the Statement reads.