On January 12, in the occupied Crimea, Arsen Alchykov, a veteran and one of the most prominent participants in the Crimean Tatar national movement, passed away at the age of 84.

He was born in 1941 in the village of Shuma (renamed Verkhnya Kutuzovka after 1945) in the Yalta district. At the age of three, he was deported from Crimea with his family and grew up in exile. After obtaining a profession as a design technician, he joined the ranks of the Crimean Tatar national movement at a young age. He became a political prisoner in Soviet labor camps and, together with his wife Tamara Kontuhanska, who was also an active participant in the Crimean Tatar national movement, was convicted during the “Trial of Twelve” in 1967.

In 1975, at a time when even the word “Crimea” was forbidden for Crimean Tatars, Alchykov, risking his freedom once again, returned with his family to his native land. He became one of those whom Crimean Tatars now refer to as pioneers who paved the way for the return to their homeland. Throughout the years of the Crimean Tatar people’s struggle for the right to return, Arsen remained among the most active participants in the national movement.

During the period of mass return of the Crimean Tatars to their homeland, he became a respected mentor to the younger generation and was a delegate to several convocations of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar people. Even after the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, Arsen Alchykov remained loyal to Ukraine.

His life serves as an example of courage and dedication to his people. Eternal memory!