Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister pays tribute to victims of deportation of Crimean Tatars
On 18 May, the Vice-Minister of Foreign Affairs of Lithuania Andrius Krivas participated in a commemorative event for the 72nd anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars in Vilnius.
Lithuania’s Foreign Vice-Minister said that Lithuania stood in solidarity with Crimean Tatars, who were persecuted not the first time in history only for their wish to live in peace in their native land.
In 1944, the Soviet authorities deported about 220,000 Crimean Tatars, half of whom did not survive. On 11 May 2016, Ukraine’s Verkhovna Rada called on the international community to commemorate the genocide of Crimean Tatars and to condemn human rights violations in Crimea.
After the annexation of Crimea in 2014, Crimean Tatars, who disagree with the occupation policy of the Russian Federation, are subject to persecution. Russian-backed authorities aim to chase them from Crimea, to shut down their media outlets (the Crimean Tatar TV channel ATR and several other media outlets), as well as to ban the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people. Eighteen Crimean Tatars are currently imprisoned for alleged “Islamic extremism”.
View more photos on MFA’s Flickr account.
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