Crimean Tatars in Ukraine on Thursday welcomed President Volodymyr Zelensky’s presentation of a bill in parliament on indigenous people.
In his speech, the head of the National Council of Crimean Tatars, Rifat Chubarov, said that putting forward the bill in Parliament is a positive and essential step towards achieving the Autonomous Administration of Crimean Tatars.
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He pointed out that the current laws in Ukraine are not sufficient to recognize the rights of the Crimean Tatars, pointing to the need for more laws in order to achieve this.
He added that the Indigenous Peoples Law constitutes the basis for other laws relating to various groups of people.
In turn, Guyana Yuksal, a member of the National Council of Crimean Tatars, said that the bill brings many things to Crimea.
She explained that the law will contribute to the recognition of the Crimean Tatars as one of the indigenous people of the region.
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It is reported that the Tatars, who are the original inhabitants of the Crimean Peninsula, were subjected to forcible displacement as of May 18, 1944.
And towards central Russia, Siberia, and the Turkic-speaking countries of Central Asia, which were under Soviet rule at the time.
Their homes and lands were confiscated during the reign of the Soviet leader, Joseph Stalin, on charges of “treason” (1944).
To be distributed to Russian workers who were brought in and settled in the peninsula, which is strategically important, in the north of the Black Sea.
According to Crimean Tatar sources, 250,000 Tatars were displaced within 3 days by trains used to transport animals.
During that displacement, 46.2 percent of them died as a result of disease, hunger, living conditions and ill-treatment.
