Address of Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council of Ukraine Oleksandr Turchynov on the occasion of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatars Memorial Day

Over 70 years ago, on May 18, 1944, the totalitarian Stalinist regime launched a large-scale operation on deportation of the Crimean Tatars nation from the native land. Around two hundred thousand people, falsely accused of supporting fascists, became exiles.

After decades of this sad date, Russia is once again trying to break the Crimean Tatars and their desire for freedom, using the same rhetoric of "cooperation with fascists", "terrorist activity". The totalitarian flywheel erodes cultural traditions, restricts civil rights, and tries to destroy national consciousness and historical memory. Intimidation, accusations of terrorism and extremism, repressions, arrests, torture, the total militarization of the peninsula are the visiting card of the Putin regime.

However, despite everything, the aggressor cannot overcome the freedom-loving spirit of the Crimeans!

Today at 12 o'clock in Ukraine there will be a minute of silence on the Day of Remembrance of the victims of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars nation from the Crimea. I encourage you to join...

 May the memory of those, who gave their lives in the struggle for freedom, live forever! We remember!

History can teach those who are ready to learn, and those who are not - will at all times be surprised when it repeats itself. Whatever the bloody dictatorship and its dictator are, they are always doomed to a shameful end. And the more bloody and cruel the regime is, the more terrible and humiliating the collapse of its headman will be.