79 years ago today, on May 18, 1944, more than 400,000 Crimean Tatars were deported from their homeland on the orders of the Soviet Union’s head of state and party, Josef Stalin, for alleged collaboration with the occupying German forces. Under strict secrecy, the People’s Commissars for Internal Affairs and State Security Lavretij P. Berija as well as Vsevolod N. Merkulov had signed the order for the forced expulsion of the Crimean Tatars. On April 10, 1944, the Red Army managed to recapture the Crimean peninsula from the German Wehrmacht. The reconquest meant a period of suffering for the Crimean Tatars, which began with deportation from their ancestral homeland.
From May 18-20, 1944, all Crimean Tatars were forced to pack up their belongings within 15-20 minutes and were taken to the railroad stations by trucks. The Red Army deported by rail over 400,000 Crimean Tatars to Central Asia and Siberia. During the transport, it is estimated that over 150,000 Crimean Tatars died of hunger, thirst, rampant disease, and adverse weather conditions. Between 2015-2019, the parliaments of Ukraine, Lithuania, Latvia and Canada recognised the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars as genocide. In Turkish and Azerbaijani historiography, the term technicus mezalim has become established for mass violent crimes against the Muslim civilian population.