Czech Senate unanimously recognizes deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide

In a historic vote, the Czech Senate unanimously recognized the 1944 Soviet deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide, joining several other nations in acknowledging this dark chapter of World War II.

Dec 18, 2024 - 10:00

Czech Senate unanimously recognizes deportation of Crimean Tatars as genocide

On 18 December 2024, the Czech Republic voted to recognize the deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet Union in May 1944 as an act of genocide.

This historical recognition by another European nation not only validates the suffering of nearly half a million Crimean Tatars who were forcibly expelled from their homeland—resulting in thousands of deaths—but also strengthens international solidarity against similar acts of ethnic persecution.

As reported by the head of the Ukrainian delegation to Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE) Maria Mezentseva, the vote in the Senate was unanimous.

A screen in the Czech Senate depicting the status of the vote. Photo via Mezentseva/Facebook.

The website of the senate says that 76 senators were present. Seventy of them voted in favor, four abstained, and no one voted against.

Mezentseva added that the delegation invited Mustafa Dzhemilev, Ukraine’s Commissioner for the Crimean Tatar People, to speak, and that the Senate gave him a standing ovation.

In 1944 during the Second World War, Soviet authorities implemented a campaign of ethnic cleansing and severe repression on the Crimean Tatar community, deporting a large number of people from the Crimean Peninsula.

By the end of the deportation, not a single Crimean Tatar lived in Crimea, and 80,000 houses and 360,000 acres of land were left abandoned. Nearly 8,000 Crimean Tatars died during the deportation, and tens of thousands subsequently perished due to the harsh living conditions in which they were forced to live during their exile.

Earlier, countries such as Ukraine, Latvia, Lithuania, Canada, Poland and Estonia have also officially recognized the repression of Crimean Tatars during the Second World War as an act of genocide.

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