Crimean Tatars have categorically rejected a proposal to establish a new ‘cheerful’ festival, ‘Avdet Kunyu’ or Day of the Return to Crimea after decades of forced exile following the 1944 Deportation. Amid mounting repression under Russian occupation, and when Crimean Tatars are prevented from gathering to remember the victims of the Deportation, with some detained and prosecuted for supposed ‘administrative offences’, the mere suggestion of such a festival seems inappropriate.
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Halya Coynash: Crimean Tatar activists reject Russia sponsored attempt to foist a fake ‘Day of Joy’
Crimean Tatars light candles during a memorial ceremony in Kyiv on May 17, 2014, held on the 70th anniversary of the deportation of Tatars from Crimea.
