“Through house searches, interrogations, and harassment of political prisoners, the Russian authorities in Crimea are continuing their repression of the Crimean Tatar population. In doing so, they are directly continuing the historical deportation and extermination policies under Stalin,” warns Sarah Reinke, head of the Human Rights Department at the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP). On the 82nd anniversary of the collective deportation of the Crimean Tatars under Stalin on May 18, 1944, the human rights organization draws attention to the fact that the persecution of the indigenous population by the Russian occupiers of Crimea continues to intensify.
Reports from Crimean Tatar human rights organizations show that a total of 57 people were arrested for political reasons in the first quarter of 2026. In 2025, the figure was 36 during the same period; in 2024, it was 43. Eighteen of the 57 detainees were Crimean Tatars. They are disproportionately affected by the repression, even though they now make up no more than 12 percent of the population. This is also evident in the treatment of detainees: Russian authorities denied at least 23 people necessary medical care while in custody. Twenty of the documented cases involved Crimean Tatars.
“The court proceedings in Crimea are a farce. The Russian authorities and legal professionals no longer even attempt to maintain the appearance of an independent and fair trial but instead openly attack the lawyers of Crimean Tatars and hand down inhumanly harsh sentences without any basis,” Reinke criticizes. “Fearing persecution, many Crimean Tatars have fled. At the same time, Russia has drastically altered the demographics by settling ethnic Russians there. Crimean Tatar activists are fighting for the survival of their people from the diaspora and in Ukraine. When it comes to the fate and future of the peninsula, the Crimean Tatars must have a say,” demands Reinke.
May 18, 1944, marks a traumatic event for the Crimean Tatars: While many Crimean Tatar men fought alongside the Red Army against Nazi Germany, the Soviet secret police, the NKVD, deported the remaining Crimean Tatars in cattle cars to Central Asia, the Urals, and Siberia. In this genocide, 46 percent of the more than 200,000 deportees lost their lives. In exile, the Crimean Tatars were subjected to “special settler status”: freedom of movement was prohibited, as were the Crimean Tatar language and culture. The Soviet authorities deliberately destroyed the memory of the Indigenous Peoples in Crimea: they tore down monuments, burned books, and destroyed cemeteries and mosques. They used gravestones to build pigsties and toilets. All the original names of villages, towns, and rivers disappeared from the maps.
It was not until the late 1980s that the Crimean Tatars were gradually allowed to return to their homeland. The consequences of the genocide against the Crimean Tatars are still felt today and are further exacerbated by Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, which violated international law, as well as the war against Ukraine.
This press release was translated from German to English using AI. If you come across errors or ambiguities, please contact us at 65]G378o6DD6CA.
Contact: Sarah Reinke, Director of Human Rights Work – 65]G378o6<?:6C]D