Today is the Day of the Crimean Tatar Flag!

The flag of the Crimean Tatars was approved by the first Kurultai after the fall of the Russian Empire in 1917, and the elite of the Ukrainian People’s Republic came to this meeting. Subsequently, after decades of repression, deportation and return to their homeland, it was renewed and adopted as the national flag by the second Kurultai only in 1991, on June 26, which is the date that became Flag Day in 2010.

In 2014, the blue flag with a golden tamga became a symbol not only of the Crimean Tatars but also of resistance to the occupation. Despite the so-called “bans” of the occupation administrations, on June 26, thousands of our citizens organized folk festivities and a concert, but instead of the city center, they took place on the outskirts. For the first time, the Day of the Crimean Tatar Flag in Crimea was celebrated surrounded by metal detectors, occupation forces, police cars, and even snipers on neighboring buildings.

And since that day, the flag of the indigenous people has become a target of the occupiers: attacks on cars with flags, banning peaceful gatherings on the occasion of memorable dates for the Crimean Tatars, stopping car rallies with Crimean Tatar symbols… All this pressure has only increased over the years of occupation – last year alone, on the eve of this holiday, more than fifty activists in the occupied Crimea received so-called “warnings about the inadmissibility of gatherings” from the FSB.

On the eve of June 26, many activists in the occupied Crimea receive “warnings” from the Russian Federal Security Service about unauthorized gatherings. In essence, these “warnings” are threats to prevent any events honoring the Crimean Tatar flag: people are threatened with extremism charges. Human rights activists report that this week more than 50 activists in occupied Crimea received such warnings from the FSB.

Today we call on everyone to raise the Crimean Tatar flag alongside the national flag as a symbol of the unity of the Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar peoples!