^{photo: screen from ARD video}

I am a Crimean-Tatar by my ethnicity. 

I am a Russian native speaker because I grew up in Crimea where Russian has been the main language since the criminal Stalinist Deportation of all the Crimean Tatar population in 1944. 

I am Ukrainian by my nationality, my beliefs, and my heart. And since 2014 this heart of mine has been heavily bleeding and Russia has been the main reason for this.

The Russian empire, the Soviet union, the Russian federation - same evil with different names.

It is because of the first annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire in the 18th century most of the relatives of my ancestors in Crimea had to flee to Türkiye. 

It is because of the Soviet Union that my grandparents didn’t have a chance to meet in their hometown of Qarasuvbazar which Russians called Belogorsk after they deported all the Crimean Tatars.

Instead, my grandparents met in Ural, a place close to Siberia, where they were deported in 1944 as 15 year old teenagers and had to do a hard work in a logging camp. 

It is because of the Soviet Union that my mother was born in Ural and I myself was born in Tajikistan because Crimean Tatars were not allowed to come back to their homes in Crimea.

It is because of Soviet Union I grew up in a Russian speaking Crimea and I’m not fluent in my mother tongue and I have a russian accent when I try to speak it. 

While before 1944 deportation it was all the other nationalities of Crimea who spoke mostly Crimean Tatar language and didn’t even know Russian language.

It is because of the Russian Federation that I had to leave my home in 2014 when I first moved to Kyiv.

It is because of the Russian Federation that I, instead of enjoying the best years of my life, suffer from recurrent depressions that have been chasing me since 2014. 

But unlike many people in Crimea, I am free here and I am free here to express my opinion. And unlike many people in Ukraine, I am alive. 

The reason why people get together to commemorate the victims of the deportation on day like this is to remember the horror that the war brought and never to let it happen again. 

But can we think of those victims who have long gone while there are Ukrainians who die every day now despite the almost 80-year-old motto “Never again”? 

I hear Westerns saying “You can’t blame all the Russians” or even “How about Russian literature, music, ballet, etc”? 

But the thing is

Russian mentality has nothing to do with ethnicity. 

Russian mentality is a way of thinking and a way of existing. 

Russian mentality normalizes theft and murder.

Russian mentality is normalizing taking innocent people’s lives and their homes.

Russian mentality is normalizing breaking international law and disrespecting any agreements.

And Russian mentality only respects the language of power.

This war has proved it and we as Ukrainians all over the world, regardless of our ethnicity, must show Russia our power and our unity.

Because this is our strength.

Stay united, stay together.

Millet. Vatan. Qırım.

‍Report from the rally via link here.