NSDC Secretary Alexander Turchinov made a tough statement on the anniversary of the deportation of Crimean Tatars.

More than 70 years ago, the totalitarian Stalin regime launched a large-scale operation to evict the Crimean Tatars from their native land. About two hundred thousand people in just two days were sent to the places of exile for thousands of kilometers from the Motherland.

Today events in the Crimea are developing in a similar scenario. Putin's Russia, having annexed the peninsula, is trying to destroy the national consciousness, historical memory, cultural traditions and dignity of the Crimean Tatars. All manifestations of disobedience and rejection of annexation are brutally suppressed, activists are arrested and convicted on far-fetched charges.

The persecution of the indigenous people, the prohibition by the Russians of the activities of the Mejlis, which did not cooperate with the occupiers, creating an atmosphere of fear, repression, the transformation of the peninsula into a military base, is far from a complete list of consequences of the occupation of Crimea by Russia.

Aggressors at all times understood only strength, so the answer can only be one - a strong consolidated position of all civilized countries against the aggressive manifestations of Russia's foreign policy. A brutal cruel force will never defeat truth and justice.

I am sure that the Crimean Tatars and those who were forced to leave their homes will return home - in the Ukrainian Crimea!.