From: Euromaiden Press — Czech Senate unanimously recognized the 1944 deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide, becoming the 7th nation to make this declaration.
Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia, Estonia, Canada, and Poland have previously recognized these events as genocide.
After surviving the Nazi occupation in 1944, over 200,000 Crimean Tatars were labeled as “traitors” and forcibly removed from their homeland in just two days.
Stalin’s regime transported the entire population in locked railroad cattle cars with minimal food and water to distant areas of Central Asia and Siberia.
Over 46 percent of the Crimean Tatar people perished during the trip and in the first 2 years of the exile due to the harsh conditions.
When World War II ended in 1945, Crimean Tatar soldiers returning from service in the Soviet Army were not allowed to go home – they were sent directly into exile to join their deported families.
Nowadays, Crimean Tatars in Russian-occupied Crimea face systematic repression and human rights violations.
Voice of Ukraine 