The forgotten genocide. Extermination of the Crimean Tatars

The present study was motivated by the authors’ intention to analyse the actions of the USSR authorities in 1944 in Crimea against the local Tatar population. The central thesis of the study is that these actions can be classified as genocide. The study’s starting point is an analysis of the concept of R. Lemkin, who was the first to use the term “genocide”, describing its techniques, means, goals and causes. It is also noted that, in the subsequent period, there emerged a number of concepts related to extermination of populations, with the considerations of R. Lemkin being identified as the foundation for the Convention on the Prevention and Punishment of the Crime of Genocide. The contents of this Convention and the related achievements of the International Criminal Court are analysed. The formal-doctrinal legal method is the primary approach used in the research, both in relation to R. Lemkin’s arguments and in the context of interpreting the Convention, as well as in reporting on the views of the International Criminal Court. The linguistic analysis employs the hermeneutic method, albeit to a limited extent, while in the assessment of the operation of the USSR’s repression apparatus, the axiological method of examining law is utilized. The research findings allow for formulating the conclusion that the deportation of the Tatar population from Crimea in 1944 exhibited all the features of the crime of genocide.