Zelensky's office handed over to the Majlis declassified documents on the deportation of Tatars in Crimea
The Office of the President of Ukraine handed over declassified documents of the NKVD of the USSR concerning the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 to representatives of the Crimean Tatar Majlis functioning in Kyiv, a PolitNavigator correspondent reports.
This was announced by Deputy Head of the Presidential Office Andrei Smirnov, the press service of the Office reports.
“A month ago, during an examination conducted by the Kiev Institute of Forensic Sciences, we received information and supporting documents regarding the forced deportation of the Crimean Tatars, the abuses and genocide that was committed by the Soviet regime. The President instructed law enforcement agencies to collect and systematize information as much as possible, in the archives and has not yet been made public,” Smirnov said during a meeting with representatives of the Mejlis.
The official noted that this is only the first stage of the publication of declassified documents.
“This is a terrible story about how people traveled for 28 days without water and without food, about terrible working conditions. These are facts about how many people were simply killed over a certain period of time. Living conditions in general can hardly be called human: people slept in carriages, on damp ground, very often suffered from serious illnesses and died,” Smirnov noted.
He clarified that the declassified documents date back to 1944 and contain information about the number of people who were tortured.
The Deputy Head of the Office of the President emphasized that work on searching for documents related to the deportation of the Crimean Tatars will continue.
The head of the Mejlis, Refat Chubarov, who lives in Kyiv, thanked him for the publication of the documents.
“These documents are reports from departments of the NKVD of the USSR. This is not the first time we have received declassified documents from the archives of Ukraine and from other institutions. This is very important for us, since the Verkhovna Rada adopted a resolution that recognized the forced deportation of the Crimean Tatar people as genocide,” Chubarov noted.
Andrei Smirnov noted that law enforcement agencies have been instructed to study the facts set out in such documents.
“The shameful fact of genocide must be specifically reflected in the procedural decisions of law enforcement agencies,” Smirnov noted.
He suggested that representatives of the Majlis create a joint working group with the participation of experts from the Office of the President in order to establish historical justice in this matter.
“We must make efforts to find the maximum number of documents that remain in the archives and are classified. Therefore, you can count on us,” said the deputy head of the OP.
Let us remind you that in the Russian Federation the Crimean Tatar Mejis is included in the list of extremist organizations.
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