Putin 'following Stalin in treatment of Crimean Tatars'

By Ali Cura and Diyar Guldogan

KIEV, Ukraine (AA) - Russian President Vladimir Putin has followed in the footsteps of Joseph Stalin in his approach to the Crimea’s Tatars, the chairman of the Crimean Tatar Parliament said Thursday.

Speaking on the anniversary of Stalin’s expulsion of Tatars from the Black Sea peninsula, Refat Chubarov likened the former Soviet tyrant to Putin, who annexed the region in March 2014.

“Putin shows that he is a real follower of Stalin, who exposed the Crimean Tatar people to a mass exile from their historic homeland on 18 May, 1944," Refat Chubarov told a plenary session of the parliament, or mejlis.

Thursday marks the 73rd anniversary of the deportation of around 180,000 Tatars to central Asia by Stalin, who accused them of having collaborated with the occupying Nazis.

Nearly half the exiles are thought to have died of starvation and disease.

In 1987, around 2,300 Tatars were permitted to return to Crimea, followed by another 19,300 a year later.

Since Russia seized the Ukrainian territory, the region’s Tatar minority has complained of repression, including arbitrary arrests and detentions.

Chubarov said the Russian “occupants” continued their efforts to “roust” Tatars from the peninsula.

- Circassian exile

Meanwhile, government ministers commemorated the deportations with a minute’s silence while in Turkey, the Foreign Ministry also marked the event.

“On the night of 17-18 May 1944, 250,000 Crimean Tatar Turks were deported from their motherland and exiled to thousands of kilometers away from their homes,” Foreign Ministry spokesman Huseyin Muftuoglu said.

He added: “More than 100,000 Crimean Tatar Turks are still living far from their homeland. We respectfully commemorate those who lost their lives as a result of the 18 May Crimean Tatar exile.”

Turkey also marked the expulsion of Circassians from their homes in the Caucasus during Czarist rule, which is commemorated on May 21.

“Today, we still feel the pain of the tragedy of the Circassian exile,” Muftuoglu said.

Nearly 1.5 million Circassians were expelled from the region to the east of the Black Sea when it was overrun by Russia in 1864. Between 400,000 and 500,000 are believed to have died.

Most of the Circassian exiles were absorbed into the Ottoman Empire, settling as far away as present day Jordan.

“We once again underline that just like in the past, we continue to stand by our kinsmen, the Crimean Tatar Turks, and our friends and relatives, the Caucasian people, and bow respectfully before the memory of the losses of these tragedies,” Muftuoglu said.