Kazinform, Kazakhstan
March 24 2004

Ukraine grants rights to deportees

Astana. 24 March. KAZINFORM – The Ukrainian Parliament passed the
national rehabilitation draft law, Kazinform reports with reference
to ITAR-TASS.
The governmental document reads that `the state guarantees equal
Constitution rights and residential terms including housing,
employment, education, national, cultural and spiritual growth to
deportees who return to their native land.’ The draft law binds
authorities to establish terms for voluntary return, adaptation and
integration in the Ukrainian Deportees’ Community.

In 1944 nearly 200 thousand Crimean tatars were deported after Crimea
had been freed from fascist oppression. Local Bulgarians, Armenians,
Greeks, 38 people in total, shared the same fate. Earlier, in 1941
over 50 thousand Germans who lived for a century and a half were
deported. They were permitted only in the late 80-es. Since 1988 more
than 260 thousand Crimean tatars, 12 thousand Bulgarians, Armenians,
Greeks and Germans returned to Crimea.