"Light a flame in your heart!"

On Sunday – May 17, 2015 – there will be a one-hour commemoration event in Berlin on occasion of the 71st anniversary of the deportation of the Crimean Tatars. The event is scheduled for 7:30 pm at Potsdamer Platz. In Ukraine, the "Light a flame in your heart"-campaign has already become a regular event to commemorate the deportation of Crimean Tatars. In Germany, the event will now take place for the first time – organized by the EuromaidanWache Berlin, the Qirimli-initiative, the Society for Threatened Peoples (STP) and by "PRAVO, Berlin Group for Human Rights in Ukraine".

EDITORIAL NOTE: To commemorate the victims of the deportation and to raise awareness of this tragedy, the participants will arrange candles to form the shapes of Crimea as well as the Crimean Tatar "Tamga"-symbol.

Background: On May 18, 1944, the Soviet regime deported the Crimean Tatars – the indigenous people of Crimea – to remote areas of Central Asia, Siberia and the Urals. The deportees suffered from hunger, violence and arbitrariness. About 46 percent of the Crimean Tatar people lost their lives, including many children and elderly people.

Header Photo: Flickr/Markus Gorssalber