On May 18, 1944, by order of Stalin, the deportation of Crimean Tatars began.
According to the decree of the USSR State Commissariat of Defense of 1944, Crimean Tatars and other ethnic groups were forcibly deported by the Stalinist regime from the territory of Crimea to Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan and remote regions of Russia. They were accused of collaboration with fascist Germany. Nearly 32,000 people from the NKVD were mobilized so that 185,000 Crimean Tatars could be deported in the following days.
According to the National Movement of Crimean Tatars, nearly 90,000 people died in the first 4 years of the deportation. In January 1974, the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the USSR lifted the ban on Crimean Tatars, Greeks, Armenians and Bulgarians returning to Crimea.
The deportation of the Crimean Tatars, which began on May 18, 1944, was one of the greatest crimes of the Soviet regime committed during World War II. For over 20 years, the USSR completely denied the criminal nature of these actions.
Although as early as 1967 the Soviet Union recognized the unfounded accusations against all Crimean Tatars of collaboration with the Germans, they were never granted the right to return to their historical homeland until the collapse of communist totalitarianism. Crimean Tatars were deported to remote areas of Siberia, the Urals, and Central Asia, where they found themselves without documents, under curfew, and without the right to move even to search for families lost during the deportation.
The number of "special settlers" increased in 1945, when, towards the end of the war, soldiers and officers who had fought against fascism were also declared "traitors" and sent into exile to their families. The harsh living conditions in the special settlements, complicated by the new climate and infectious diseases, led to a mortality rate among the deportees, which was actually increased by the lack of medical care.
After Ukraine declared independence in 1991, it showed sympathy for the Crimean Tatars, allowing them to return to their homeland. To this end, the authorities have taken a number of regulatory acts to facilitate the process of their return, the main act being the “Ratification of the Protocol to the Agreement on Issues Related to the Restoration of the Rights of Deported Persons, National Minorities and Peoples“.
Other important documents are: the Government Program for the Settlement and Development of Deported Crimean Tatars and Persons of Other Nationalities, adopted in 2006 in force until 2015; Decree of the President of Ukraine dated 14.05.10 No. 615 “On Additional Measures for the Development of Crimean Tatars, Other Persons Deported on National Grounds and Their Descendants Who Have Returned or Are Returning for Permanent Residence in Ukraine“.
Currently, 266 thousand Tatars have returned to Crimea. According to various estimates, there are between 30,000 and 100,000 Crimean Tatars living outside Ukraine.
The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in March 2014 has revived the issue of the Crimean Tatars' struggle for their rights. For the first time in recent history, the occupation administration of Crimea banned the traditional mourning rally in the center of Simferopol on May 18.