Russian mobilization of Crimean Tatars tantamount to ‘ethnic cleansing,’ official says
Mykhailo Podolyak (Photo:president.gov.ua)
By disproportionately targeting indigenous Crimean Tatars, Russia is pretreating an ethnically-motived genocide in occupied Crimea, Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak said in a Twitter post on Sept. 25.
According to Podolyak, the ongoing forced mobilization is a tragedy for the Crimean Tatar people.
“Sending citizens of occupied territories to war is nothing else but an attempt to ethnically cleanse the peninsula of people who are disloyal to Moscow,” said Podolyak.
Moscow-appointed “governor” of Crimea, Sergey Aksyonov earlier said that the “partial” mobilization in Crimea would conclude on Sept. 25. Human rights watchdog CrimeaSOS warned that 90% of mobilization notices on the peninsula were served to Crimean Tatars, which could effectively lead to genocide.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy urged citizens in occupied territories to avoid the call-up by any means and attempt to leave to Ukraine-controlled territory.
The president’s Crimean representative Tamila Ravil Qizi Tasheva posted a bulletin, outlining the steps to avoid getting forcibly mobilized by the Russian occupation regime.
Putin declared “partial” mobilization in Russia on Sept. 21, ostensibly planning to call-up 300,000 men to the Russian army.
Several Russian media later reported that up to 1.2 million men are going to get mobilized, with ethnic minorities across Russia bearing the brunt of the call-up.
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