1/? The 18th of May is the day of the Soviet mass deportation of Crimean Tatars, the indigenous people of Crimea. This cleansing and displacement of Crimean Tatars, longstanding supporters of the Palestinian struggle, is rightfully compared to Nakba in its violence and structure.
2/? In 1944, USSR accused Crimean Tatars, as it did other indigenous people under the Soviet rule like Ingush, of collaborating as a "nation" with the Nazi Germany. Today, Crimean Tatars are hunted down by Russians on the occupied territories.
3/? Collage I did extracting the irrigation network constructed by the Soviet State from the Crimean land. The Soviet channels on the collage are the core reason for the neverending droughts on the Peninsula, as it destroyed indigenous water infrastructure.
5/? One of the core nodes in such indigenous water infrastructures were fountains, like this one in Hurzuf (19th century), none of which are functional today.
6/? Orlenok children's camp built on the Crimean land, acquired through violence and dispossession. It works as a facade of joy, behind which the Crimean Tatar land is kept hidden. When Crimean Tatars managed to reclaim the right to return to their land in 1989, these resorts ...
7/? ...were cited by Russian authorities as reasons for a shortage of soi. The extensive settler infrastructure, still aestheticized through Soviet postcards, was a reason for Crimean Tatars to have 'no soil' to claim back. It was secured for settlers through infrastructure.
8/? The demonstration of Crimean Tatars in Moscow in 1987. The banner says “Motherland or Death!”. Bekir Umerov archive.
9/? I would highly recommend learning more about the deportation dergipark.org.tr/tr/download/ar… and the article we co-authored with @DccSasha Anti-Colonialism and Decolonisation: USSR and Palestine on the connection between the struggle of Crimean Tatars and Soviet support of Palestine
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