#crimea

Tsarskiy Kurgan, Kerch, Crimea, 4th century BCE.

The structure features a unique corbelled system, where each successive layer of stone protrudes slightly inward to create a vault. This specific 36-meter-long entrance passage is called a dromos.

It is widely believed to have been the final resting place of a ruler of the Bosporan Kingdom, Leukon I.

today, on 18th of may in 1944, crimean tatar people were deported by the soviet government from our homeland crimean peninsula, our only homeland. we call it sürgün or sürgünlik which directly means exile.

the official reason for the collective punishment of the soviet government was "collaboration with the army of nazi germany during occupation of crimea". except crimean tatar people, another nine minorities were "punished" as well. (according to wikipedia, only 20,000 of crimean tatars agreed to work with germany. it opposes to 40,000 crimean tatars that were fighting against fascism and nazism in the red army.)

within three days around 192,000 of crimean tatar people have been transferred in cattle trains to central asia and ural mountains. mostly to uzbek soviet socialist republic. around 8,000 of them perished due lack of food and water and harsh living conditions in exile. houses, farms, acres of land were left abandoned.

we were allowed to return to our homeland only in the late 80s - early 90s. crimean tatars — my family included — had to rebuild everything almost from scratch during the 90s. in 2004 we made 12% of the crimean population. mind you, before exile we were 20% and before russian empire annexation of crimea in 1783 we were 90% of population. after annexation in 2014, we make only 10%.

there are many theories why the soviet government actually deported us. but it's confirmed that this is a genocide, an ethnical cleansing of autochthonous population of crimea.

currently sürgünlik is recognised as genocide by ukraine, lithuania, latvia, poland, the czech republic, canada and the netherlands.

this tragedy shaped us, this is the trauma my people carry throughout the generations. right now russian federation attempts to erase us and our heritage all over again. in crimea, crimean tatars are getting arrested, accused of being "terrorists". our national schools are closing, general education schools are slowly getting rid of our native language lessons.

half of my generation can't speak and think in our language as it gets forgotten and our dialects get lost.

so no, russian war against ukraine isn't just about ukraine for me. it's about my people's identity not being erased by the imperialist state we suffer from since the 18th century, it's about bringing them to historical justice and condemning their actions (not only towards crimean tatars, but towards everyone they've harmed)

afterwards, a lot of Crimean Tatars (who survived the deportations) lived in exile, and a lot of them waited until the independence of Ukraine to return to Crimea.

to this day Crimean Tatars experience persecution by the russian occupational authorities in their own homeland, Crimea. i’ve also known a few Crimean Tatars who cannot go home to see their family because of russian occupation of Crimea

the tragedy that befell Crimean Tatars in 1944 and the current ongoing persecutions should be remembered. Crimea was never russian.

spiral bracelet | c. 350 - 300 BCE | scythian (modern day ukraine)