Crimean Tatar leader issues statement on anniversary of deportation of Chechen and Ingush peoples Tuesday, February 23, 2016 5:59:00 PM

The head of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatars, Refat Chubarov, issued a statement on Tuesday on the anniversary of the forced deportation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples in 1944 to honor the memory of the victims of state repression.

“72 years ago, on February 23rd, by the communist regime of the USSR, a special operation began on the total deportation of the Chechen and Ingush people from their historical lands. Over half a million people were forcibly evicted, about half of the Ingush and Chechen people died from hunger, cold, and hard labor under the regime of the special settlements, which lasted until 1956,” Chubarov wrote.

Chubarov also noted throughout the 20th century, more than a hundred million people died due to social catastrophes at the hands of totalitarian regimes, “but the magnitude of the victims and the catastrophic consequences of the crimes committed by Nazi Germany and the communist Soviet Union demand special attention, especially the Holodomor, the Holocaust, and the deportations.”

The Chechen and Ingush peoples were not the only nationalities to be subjected to forced deportation by the Soviet regime during World War II, as Poles, Lithuanians, Estonians, Latvians, Germans, Crimean Tatars, Crimean Greeks, and many others, all of whom were Soviet citizens, were also forced from their homes and transported to special settlements in the east.

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