Commemoration of the victims of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people
On May 18, Ukraine commemorates the victims of the genocide of one of its indigenous peoples, the Crimean Tatars. It was to this tragedy that the conversations held by the teachers of the Department of Digital Economy and Business Analytics of the Faculty of Finance and Business Management of the Ivan Franko National University of Lviv with higher education graduates of the OP “Information Technologies in Business” were devoted.
According to the resolution of the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine dated November 12, 2015 “On the recognition of the genocide of the Crimean Tatar people”, May 18 became the Day of Remembrance of the Victims of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People. It was on May 18, 1944 that approximately 200,000 Crimean Tatars were deported from their native peninsula, and in a few days the entire nation was deprived of its Motherland. The consequences of the forced resettlement of an entire nation were catastrophic. Although exact data are still hidden by the Russian authorities, it is estimated that up to 50% of resettled people died in the first three years, including many children. In what conditions the deportation was carried out, the memories of the surviving emigrants remained:
“In the morning, instead of a greeting, there is a selective insult and a question: are there any corpses? People cling to the dead, cry, do not let go. Soldiers throw the bodies of adults out the door, children out the window…”
“There was no medical care. The dead were taken out of the carriage and left at the station, not allowed to be buried.»
High mortality in exile continued for several years due to malnutrition, labor exploitation, disease, lack of medical care and exposure to the unusual climate in the places of resettlement. The deportees were sent to the most difficult jobs, forced to live in inhumane conditions, allocating only 200-400 grams of bread each, they tried to deprive them of their national identity.
It should be noted that this policy towards the Crimean Tatar people was a continuation of the traditional tsarist Russia’s extremely negative attitude towards those whom its authorities considered to be so-called “foreigners”. Demographic statistics that characterize the size of the Crimean Tatar people are very revealing – if in 1897 Crimean Tatars made up 34% of the population of the peninsula, in 1939 – 19%, then in 1959 – 0%. And only in 1989, their number reached 1.6% of the population of Crimea. Almost half a century of discriminatory policy carried out by the totalitarian regime towards the Crimean Tatars caused enormous damage to the Crimean Tatar language. At the moment, UNESCO has included the Crimean Tatar language among the dying languages.
The Crimean Tatars are a long-suffering people who have experienced more than one deportation, more than one destruction, both physical and spiritual, and are now being oppressed by the occupation authorities, which will be ended by the victory of Ukraine in the war imposed on it by the Russian invaders.