The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine has adopted resolution No. 2493-a on recognizing the genocide of the Crimean Tatars.
A total of 245 MPs voted in favor of the resolution which was passed with the amendment proposed by MP Mykola Kniazhytsky.
The resolution recognizes the deportation of Crimean Tatars from
Crimea in 1944 as the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people and sets June
18 as a day of remembrance for the victims of this genocide.
Kniazhytsky’s amendment reads: “The Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine
declares that systemic pressure on the Crimean Tatar people, the
repressions against Ukrainian citizens on a national basis, the
organization of ethnically and politically motivated prosecutions of the
Crimean Tatars, their governing bodies such as the Mejlis of the
Crimean Tatar People, the Kurultai of the Crimean Tatar People in the
temporarily occupied territory of Ukraine by the state authorities of
the Russian Federation since the beginning of the occupation, is a
conscious policy of the ethnocide of the Crimean Tatars.”
