Czech Senate Condemns Soviet-Era Crimean Tatar Deportation as Genocide

On December 18, the Czech Senate officially recognized the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide, according to Maria Mezentseva, head of Ukraine's delegation to PACE.

Mezentseva highlighted the near-unanimous support, with 70 of 76 senators voting in favor, four abstaining, and none opposing, according to the Senate’s website.

"Mustafa Dzhemilev  addressed the Senate on behalf of the delegation, and the senators gave him a standing ovation," Mezentseva added.

In May 1944, Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin ordered the deportation of over 200,000 Crimean Tatars within just two days. They were forcibly relocated to Central Asia and the Ural region, thousands of kilometers away from their homeland in Crimea.

At least 46% of the Crimean Tatar population died during the journey or in the early years of exile. The peninsula was left almost entirely devoid of its indigenous people, as the Soviet authorities initiated a campaign erasing nearly all traces of the Crimean Tatar community.

Ukraine formally recognized the deportation as an act of genocide in 2015, followed by Latvia and Lithuania in 2019, and Canada in 2022.