Appeal of the World Tatar Council to the public and fraternal peoples in connection with the next anniversary of the deportation of Chechens and Ingush

Dear compatriots, brothers and sisters!

Today, we address you with a heavy heart. February 23, 1944, marks one of the darkest dates in the history of the peoples of the Caucasus and all people of good will. On that day, Operation Lentil began—the mass deportation of Chechens and Ingush to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Approximately 650,000 people were uprooted, homeless, and sent thousands of kilometers into the unknown.

We Tatars know well the pain of losing our homeland and the bitterness of unjust accusations. The deportation of 1944 was part of a monstrous state policy that, in 1943–1944, fell upon entire peoples: Kalmyks, Karachays, Balkars, Crimean Tatars, Nogais, Meskhetian Turks, Pontic Greeks, Bulgarians, Crimean Roma, Kurds, and many others. During the war, representatives of 61 nationalities were deported under accusations of collaborationism, which were automatically extended to the entire nation.

Historians have long since proven what we've always felt: the true motives behind these deportations were not so much military circumstances as pre-war conflicts with the regime, geopolitical games, the intrigues of local authorities, and the personal will of the tyrant. To this day, not a single document has been found that would confirm actual accusations of treason. Peoples were punished based on suspicion, whim, and ethnicity.

Today, on the day of remembrance for the victims of the deportation of the Chechens and Ingush, the Council of World Tatars declares: the tragedy of one people is the tragedy of all. We share the pain of the Chechen and Ingush peoples, just as we remember the pain of our own fathers and grandfathers.

The memory of deportations is an important element of our shared identity, our discourse on freedom and struggle. No nation should be declared an enemy. No family should have to endure the horror of a midnight knock on the door and a command to pack up in half an hour. Yet, such events are becoming increasingly commonplace today. Entire nations are being declared enemies by the Putin regime. They are being tried for dissent, for asserting their rights to their language, culture, identity, and statehood...

We call for the preservation of historical truth. Sooner or later, all those responsible will be punished by the court of history.

Let's not forget and let's not allow it to happen again!

February 23, 2026