16 October 2025

A Year Since Estonia Recognized the Deportation of the Crimean Tatars as an Act of Genocide

A year ago, on October 16, 2024, the Parliament of the Republic of Estonia (Riigikogu) adopted a statement recognizing the deportation of the Crimean Tatars by the Soviet regime in 1944 as an act of genocide.

In its statement, Estonia condemned the mass persecution, extermination, and forced deportation of the Crimean Tatar people from Crimea in 1944. The Estonian government emphasized that, following the occupation of Crimea in 2014, the Russian Federation continues this totalitarian policy against representatives of the indigenous peoples: the occupation authorities detain and torture civilians, deprive them of access to education in their native language, and seek to destroy the national identity of the Crimean Tatars by all possible means.

Estonia’s recognition of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide was adopted on the eve of the Third Parliamentary Summit of the Crimea Platform. The decision was the result of joint efforts by the Representation of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea / Crimea Platform Office, in cooperation with the Verkhovna Rada of Ukraine, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine, the Embassy of Ukraine in Estonia, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, and other partners.

We express our gratitude to partner countries for their solidarity with Ukraine and for supporting the recognition of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide — in particular, Latvia, Lithuania, the House of Commons of Canada, Poland, Estonia, the Senate of the Czech Republic, and the Lower House of the Parliament of the Netherlands.

The Representation calls on all international partners to continue recognizing the deportation of the Crimean Tatars as an act of genocide and to support Ukraine’s struggle for the de-occupation of Crimea.