Sejm, the lower chamber of Poland's parliament, passed a resolution on July 12 to commemorate the victims of the Soviet genocide of Crimean Tatars in 1944.
"The deportation of Crimean Tatars from Crimea in 1944 and its consequences were an act of genocide against the Crimean Tatar nation," reads the resolution.
Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people of Crimea.
The Soviet authorities forcibly deported nearly 200,000 Crimean Tatars, including women, children, and the elderly, across thousands of kilometers from Crimea to Central Asia and Siberia in May 1944. An estimated 8,000 Crimean Tatars died in the process. Estimates of total deaths from harsh exile conditions range from 34,000 to over 100,000.
The resolution was supported by 414 deputies, 16 voted against, and two abstained, according to a statement on the Sejm's website.
The resolution also mentioned the Russian illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014, after which "Russia began to persecute the Crimean Tatars living on the peninsula systematically."
"In 2016, Russia, under false allegations, banned the activities of the Mejlis, the Crimean Tatar parliament," reads the resolution.
"Dozens of (Crimean) Tatar activists, including the long-time chairman of the Mejlis Mustafa Dzhemilev, were again expelled from their land, and others found themselves in Russian prisons for many years."
The Sejm stressed that the Russian annexation of Crimea in 2014 was a violation of Ukraine's territorial integrity and the provisions of international law and the United Nations Charter.
(Updated: )
