Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan on Monday reiterated the Turkish nation's support for its "Crimean brothers" in the international arena on the occasion of the 82nd anniversary of the Crimean Tatar exile.
"It should not be forgotten that, as Türkiye and the Turkish nation, we will continue to stand by our Crimean brothers and sisters and defend their rights in the international arena," Erdoğan said on the Turkish social media platform NSosyal.
"We remember with sorrow the great losses suffered by our Crimean Tatar Turkish brothers and sisters, who were exiled from their homeland 82 years ago, and I pray for Allah's mercy upon our kin who were martyred during the exile," he added, expressing condolences.
On May 18, 1944, tens of thousands of Crimean Tatars were exiled to Central Asia by Joseph Stalin's Soviet regime, which accused them of collaborating with occupying Nazi forces.
The Crimean Tatars were exiled to various regions within the Soviet territories, in particular Siberia and Uzbekistan. Almost half of them, who endured long months of dire living conditions, are thought to have died of starvation and disease.
