ANKARA
Anadolu Agency on Monday embraced an oral and visual historical project about Crimean Tatars, prepared by the Presidency for Turks Abroad and Related Communities (YTB).
A protocol was signed at the presidency’s headquarters in Ankara, attended by Anadolu Agency’s Board Chairman and Director General Senol Kazanci and the institution’s head Kudret Bulbul.
The historical effort, dubbed “Oral History Work of 1944 Crimean Tatar Exile,” included oral and visual material about the exile of Crimean Tatars.
Kazanci said the material had “great” importance in terms of remembering the history of Crimean Tatars who experienced major trauma in 1944 as a result of being forced into exile.
“This effort has established strong ties between the past and the present,” said Kazanci, congratulating those whom he called the masterminds of the project and others who contributed to it.
Kazanci called this work a “hand-over of a flag,” adding that the agency will advance the voice of Crimean Tatars and all oppressed people around the world.
Meanwhile, Bulbul said the institution aimed to record all incidents in Crimea through the project and make it available to filmmakers and other media institutes through translations into several languages.
“This work will be conveyed to many locations via Anadolu Agency and evaluated in national and international research,” said Bulbul.
YTB launched the venture in 2013 and the documentary project is composed of interviews with hundreds of victims out of the thousands exiled by Soviet leader Joseph Stalin on May 18, 1944.
Around 250,000 Crimean Tatars were taken from their homes and forced to migrate to another region thousands of kilometers away.
