Russian actions are forcing Crimean Tatars to leave the annexed peninsula, Ukraine’s delegate to the U.N. has claimed.
Speaking in Geneva on Friday, Yuri Klymenko said his country would bring up the issue of the historical deportation of Crimean Tatars at the forthcoming 26th session of the U.N. Human Rights Council in June.

"We commemorate the very sad seventieth anniversary of deportation of Crimean Tatars from Ukraine in 1944. Now they are facing a second deportation from Crimea by the Russian side," Klymenko told Anadolu Agency at the U.N. Office in Geneva.
Crimean Tatars were being forced to leave the peninsula, the Permanent Representative of Ukraine to the United Nations added.

Seventy years ago in 1944, nearly 500,000 Crimean Tatars were deported from their homeland by the Soviet Union.

"We were very concerned there were some provocations made by the Russian side in Crimea on May 18. They did not allow Crimean Tatars to commemorate this sad event. For us, this issue is very sensitive," he added.

Klymenko also noted that Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev may appear at the Human Rights Council in June.
The U.N. Human Rights Council will hold its 26th session in Geneva from 10 to 27 June.

PHOTO CAPTION

A Ukrainian soldier shoots with a machine gun during a battle with pro-Russian separatist fighters at Slovyansk, Ukraine, Friday, June 6, 2014.

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