Jamala, a Crimean Tatar singer and winner of numerous international music awards, including the Atlantic Council’s Distinguished Leadership Award, today presented her new album QIRIM.

This is a cultural event not only for Crimea and Ukraine, but for the whole world. Now more than ever it is important to show the faces of the people who suffer the most from the occupation of Crimea. Given the widespread manipulative narrative that the Ukrainian peninsula is “part of Russia,” QIRIM is a cultural and informational weapon against the propaganda of the aggressor country.

The QIRIM album is a powerful representation of one of the three indigenous peoples of Ukraine, the Crimean Tatars, for whom Crimea is the only historical homeland. It is the territory where the Crimean Tatars were formed and lived.

Currently, there is also a war for identity, as Russia has been trying to destroy the very existence of the Crimean Tatars for several centuries, starting with the annexation of Crimea in 1783, the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, and the occupation and current events.

The album includes 15 ancient compositions of the Crimean Tatar people recorded together with the orchestra. You can hear them for the first time in person today at the National Opera of Ukraine in Kyiv.

On May 11, Jamala’s concert will take place in Liverpool, England.