Today, the Ukrainian World Congress (UWC) joins Ukraine and Crimean Tatar communities worldwide in celebrating the Qırımtatar Milliy Bayraq Künü – Crimean Tatar National Flag Day.
The Crimean Tatars’ national flag, Kök Bayraq, is deeply rooted in the Crimean Tatar People’s history and traditions and has long been recognized as a symbol of the Crimean Tatar struggles for freedom, dignity, and national identity. Today, Ukrainians and friends of Ukraine worldwide regard the Crimean Tatar national flag as one of the symbols of resistance to the Russian occupation of Crimea.
The origins of the light blue flag with a yellow coat of arms (the Tamğa) in its upper left corner go back to the creation of the Crimean Khanate. The flag was first officially introduced in 1917 by the First Crimean Tatar Kurultai. During the Soviet times, the flag was prohibited and re-established again as a national symbol in June 1991 by the Second Kurultai.
With the Russian occupation of Crimea in 2014, Crimean Tatars were again under repression in their homeland. The Russian Federation brought back terror, intimidation, and persecution of the Crimean Tatar and Ukrainian communities based on political, cultural, and religious intolerance and has also been implementing a policy of artificial population replacement in Crimea. The Kök Bayraq was once again de-facto prohibited by the occupiers.
Today, as the Armed Forces of Ukraine move closer to Crimea, the pro-Ukrainian resistance in the peninsula becomes more visible, and the Russian myth about “historically Russian Crimea” collapses.
While celebrating the Crimean Tatar national symbol, the UWC once again calls on the international democratic community to stand iron-clad with Ukraine as it prepares to liberate all its occupied territories, including Crimea, from the brutal genocidal Russian occupation.
United, we will win, and Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar Flags of Freedom will once again fly over the free Ukrainian Crimea!
#CrimeaisUkraine! Qırım – bu, Ukraina!
Сover: litgazeta.com.ua
