Six years ago, on March 16, 2014, Moscow orchestrated a referendum to try to legitimize its occupation of Ukraine’s Crimea, an action neither the Crimean Tatars nor the international community has recognized. Since that time, Russian officials have cracked down on dissidents in the region. And the Crimean Tatars, who have led the resistance to Russian control, have been the hardest hit. As a result, some are now saying they are suffering from “a hybrid deportation,” one that Russian President Vladimir Putin may well succeed at. The current expulsion is far less dramatic, but could ultimately be as serious as Joseph Stalin’s deadly, forced deportations in 1944. Moreover, the move is likely to trigger future radicalization of the Crimean Tatars, causing more problems ahead for the Russian occupiers.
Russia's War Against Ukraine
OP-ED
Paul Goble: Crimean Tatars suffering from ‘hybrid deportation’
Crimean Tatars flag waves at the ceremony commemorating the victims of the 1944 deportation of the indigenous people of Crimea, the Crimean Tatars, at Sofiyivska Square in Kyiv on May 18, 2018.
