On May 18th Ukraine commemorates the victims of the deportation of Crimean Tatars.

It became a crime of genocide and a manifestation of the criminal nature of Stalinism policies.

Just in the first years of exile tens of thousands of deported Crimean Tatars died. The rest were deprived of their rights for decades and were to return to their homeland only after 1989.

Only after independence of Ukraine, the real return of Crimean Tatars to Crimea became possible.

The tragedy of the Crimean Tatar people repeated in 2014, with the illegal occupation of the Ukrainian peninsula by Russian occupation forces.

The second hybrid wave of deportation of Crimean Tatars and an artificial change in the demographic composition of the peninsula began.

It is marked with political, religious, cultural persecutions of the Crimean Tatars: ban the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, systemic repressions, persecution and violations of the rights of Crimean Tatars, who opposed Russia's armed aggression.

Thousands of Crimean Tatars had to leave their homes and move to mainland Ukraine.

We call the world

• to honour the memory of numerous innocent victims of Stalin's deportation of the Crimean Tatar people
• to condemn Russia's aggression against Ukraine and new repressions against the Crimean Tatars
• to call upon Russia to stop violations of the fundamental principles of international law and comply with the demands of the international community regarding the deoccupation of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.