On Wednesday the 16th of October, the Estonian Parliament, the Riigikogu, voted in favour of a statement which recognises the mass deportations of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union in 1944 as genocide, linking this statement to today’s war, reports Estonian ERR.
The statement commemorating the deportation 80 years ago was adopted by 83 votes in favour, with eight of the 91 MPs present abstaining.
In 1944, some 200 000 Crimean Tatars were deported and tens of thousands killed.
In the statement, the Riigikogu strongly condemned the extermination and mass deportation of Crimean Tatars from their homeland on the Crimean Peninsula to the territories of Central Asia.
The statement said that the entire nation lost its homeland and was subjected to brutal Russification for decades. The ban on returning to their homeland was lifted only in November 1989.
The statement underlined that in Crimea, occupied in 2014, the Russian Federation continues the genocidal policy of the Soviet Union against the Crimean Tatars, with the aim of destroying the identity of the Crimean Tatars and erasing their historical and cultural heritage.
According to the statement, the Riigikogu condemns the continuation of the policy of genocide of the Crimean Tatars through systematic detention, torture, abduction and the prohibition to learn and use their mother tongue, calling on the international community to stand in solidarity with the Crimean Tatars.
Riigikogu also called for continued condemnation of Russia’s occupation and annexation of Crimea and demanded the restoration of Ukraine’s full sovereignty over the territories occupied by Russia since 2014, affirming that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine.