The pain of the Crimean Tatar Turks' deportation to Central Asia by train carriages under inhumane conditions by the decision of the leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, is still remembered.
Exiles, which began with the policy of the Russian Tsarina Catherine II to exterminate the Crimean Tatar Turks, traditionally increased during the Soviet Union. Russia, on the other hand, continued these policies with different methods.
The suffering of the Crimean Tatar Turkish people, which started when Crimea came out of the control of the Ottoman Empire, never ended. The first address of the exiled Crimean Turks was Anatolia. Many Crimean Tatar Turks took refuge in the Ottoman Empire due to the pressure of the Russian tsarism.
Soviet Russia, which lost the Crimean peninsula shortly after the Second World War began, began to put pressure on the Crimean Tatar people after retaking the peninsula from Nazi Germany. The door of a new exile was opened with these justifications made up for the Crimean Turks, who were slandered about their cooperation with Nazi Germany.
The leader of the Soviet Union, Josef Stalin, decided to exile the Crimean Tatars to different regions in Central Asia with a secret decree.
Stalin's decision was put into effect at midnight on May 18, 1944. After the decision, about 250 thousand Crimean Tatars, mostly elderly, children and women, were removed from their beds and loaded into the wagons where the animals were transported, and were exiled to Central Asia in 3 days without food or water.
Half of those deported in wagons in inhumane conditions died before they could even reach the areas where they were deported.
CRIMEAN TURKS HAD NO OWNERS
Crimea, which was gifted to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic after Stalin, passed under the control of Russia, which illegally annexed the peninsula in 2014.
Today, the leader of the Crimean Tatar Turkish people, Mustafa Abdulcemil Kırmızıoğlu, who has been struggling to stay in their homeland since Catherine the Second, and many prominent figures of the Crimean cause have been exiled from their homeland.
Russia imposed a ban on entry to Crimea for many names, especially Kırmızıoğlu. Not only the names, but also the Crimean Tatar Milli Majlis, which represents the will of the Crimean Tatars, was deemed an "extremist organization" by the Russian court and its activities were terminated.
After Russia's annexation of the peninsula, many Crimean Tatars had to leave their homeland.
The Crimean Tatars, who have kept the pain of the 1944 exile in their memory for 79 years, still continue to struggle to return to their homeland and take their lands.
Crimean Tatars living in Ukraine, who continue this struggle diplomatically in the international arena, are experiencing difficulties due to the war started by Russia in Ukraine. Worried about the attacks of the Russian army, many Crimean Tatar Turks in Ukraine had to leave their country and live in Turkey and other countries.