Today, we mark the 81st anniversary of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people. On this day, the whole world honors the memory of the Crimean Tatars and expresses solidarity with them worldwide.

In total, about 238,500 people suffered from deportation exactly 81 years ago, at six in the morning. 46.2% of all those deported died in the first years of deportation. In addition, the Soviet authorities did everything to destroy the language, culture, history and traditions of the Crimean Tatar people, from misplacement to massive persecution.

The history hasn't stopped in 1944, as Crimean Tatars haven't been able to return to their homeland for years until late 1980s and even 1990s, with the ban standing as late as 1989, lifted after massive protests.

After Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, about 50,000 Crimean Tatars left their homeland. Over a hundred became political prisoners of the Russian Federation, and many activists died due to persecution by the occupiers.

Between 2017 and 2022, more than 7,000 human rights violations were documented in occupied Crimea by the Crimean Tatar Resource Center, 5,613 of which were against Crimean Tatar people.

Crimean Tatars in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson regions effectively experienced a double deportation — after the full-scale Russian invasion, they had to leave their homes again in 2022.

We consider all these unforgivable actions of Soviet and then Russian government as purest form of persecution, of ethnic cleansing, of genocide.

FUR/HELP firmly stands in support of Crimean Tatar self-determination, as well as any indigenous group that faced genocide, persecution and violence. Crimean Tatars as well as any indigenous group deserves freedom, dignity and self-determination. We can't stand for LGBTQIA rights, if we don't stand for Indigenous rights. Tatarophobia and islamophobia don't belong in the world.