Today, Crimean Tatars are once again in the "arms" of the Russian regime, which is the successor to the Stalinist one - President during the requiem for the 75th anniversary of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people

President of Ukraine Petro Poroshenko notes that Crimean Tatars are currently experiencing the same persecution and oppression in Crimea as 75 years ago in Soviet times. He said this during the requiem for the 75th anniversary of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people.

“75 years separate us from the terrible May morning of 1944, when the brutal, unfair, humiliating expulsion of the Crimean Tatar people from their homeland began. It took only a few days for the Soviet regime to completely change the course of the history of the whole people - the Crimean Tatars. And the homecoming took many decades," he said.

The President stressed that the Crimean Tatar people suffered catastrophic losses as a result of deportation. "Only in a year more than 30 thousand Crimean Tatars perished from famine, deceases and exhaustion in places of exile. But the real size of losses is difficult to establish, as one should not even recall how official statistics in the Soviet Union was made," Petro Poroshenko emphasized.

"On November 12, 2015, the Ukrainian parliament finally recognized the deportation of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea in 1944 as a genocide of the Crimean Tatar people. I am proud that it happened during my presidency. And what were we waiting for? Why was there no political will before? Why was there no opportunity to tell the truth to the people and the world?" Petro Poroshenko emphasized.

He also noted that on May 9, the Latvian Saeima adopted a statement to commemorate the 75th anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars and support the policy of non-recognition of the illegal annexation of Crimea, in which the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 was recognized as a genocide. "We are grateful to the people, government and parliament of Latvia. This is the first step towards recognizing genocide around the world. I am sure that this is just the beginning of the international condemnation of the crime," Petro Poroshenko stressed.

“It is with great pain that I think about how hard it was for you to be again in the "arms" of the Russian regime, which is the successor to the Stalinist one. The regime that by its very nature is almost the same as Soviet, and therefore no less cynical, cruel and criminal,” the Head of State said.

He stressed that for the fifth consecutive year, the Crimean Tatar people are deprived of the opportunity to honor the memory of the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people in the occupied Crimea. "In 2015, the activists were brought to administrative responsibility by the invaders for organizing a mourning rally. Since 2016 indestructible and freedom-loving Crimean Tatar people have changed the tactics of commemorating the victims of deportation. Throughout Crimea, people began gathering near the monuments to the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people in order to pray and commemorate the victims with a moment of silence," the President noted.

According to him, today in the framework of political and religious persecution on the peninsula, 86 people were imprisoned, more than 60 of them are Crimean Tatars. 170 children were left without full parental care.

"People live in fear of getting a label of an extremist or terrorist and risk being imprisoned or just disappearing without a trace," Petro Poroshenko emphasized.