Deputy Director of the Special Commission of the Kurultay for the Study of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People

Many historical parallels exist between Ukrainian and Crimean Tatar experiences under Soviet rule, including deportation and mass starvation. Oral histories of Crimean Tatars who lived through the famine of 1921-22, the Holodomor of 1932-33, and the deportation of 1944 reveal that witnesses perceived a direct association between these events and Stalinist policies. Through the analysis of existent and new oral histories, Bekirova will investigate how memories of the tragedies of deportation and starvation, and their association with Stalinist policies, have been preserved and transmitted across generations of Crimean Tatars.