58-TH ANNIVERSARY OF DEPORTATIONS MARKED IN CRIMEA

SIMFEROPOL, JUNE 26, ARMENPRESS:The Crimea region in Ukraine is marking the 58th anniversary of the deportation of Bulgarians, Armenians and Greeks from the peninsular, Interfax reported. On Monday morning, top officials from the Crimean Supreme Council and Cabinet, as well as heads and members of national cultural communities of Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks in the autonomy, laid flowers at the monument at Simferopol°s railway stations, from where representatives of these peoples were deported to settlements in Siberia, the Urals and Central Asia on June 24-26, 1944. Twenty-five Bulgarian families, victims of the deportation, have been presented with keys for new apartments. These apartments were built in line with a program aimed at assisting peoples who were deported from the Crimea. The document also outlined the size of financing to be spent on this program. More than 15,000 Greeks, 12,500 Bulgarians and over 9,500 Armenians were deported from the Crimea as German accomplices. The relevant decree was issued by the USSR State Defense Council on June 2, 1944, and was signed by its chairman Josef Stalin. A month earlier, on May 18, 1944, some 200,000 Crimean Tatars were deported from the Crimea under another decree of the USSR State Defense Council. On August 18, 1941, around 62,000 Germans had to leave the peninsular. Crimean Deputy Prime Minister Edip Gafarov told journalists that Crimea is currently home to some 4,000 Armenians, Bulgarians and Greeks, as well as some 1,500 Germans, who were victims of the deportations.