Nadiye Seydamet: “When I wanted to drink water, they pointed a machine gun at me”.

Nadia Seydamet was born in the village of Ozenbash, Bakhchysarai region. She was fated to leave her native village twice: the first time it was burned down by the Germans and the second time it was when the Soviet soldiers ev [...]

Sofia Yalpachik: “It was very scary”.

Sofia Yalpachik, born in 1937, is a Karaite from Bakhchysarai. She remembers the deportation of the Crimean Tatars very well. She remembers how terrible it was: dogs were howling, cows were mooing, and sheep were bleating. Si [...]

Ayshe Bekirova: “I was born when trees were blooming”.

The caves of her native village Biryuk Sayuren, Bakhchisaray region, where they hid from German bombs remain in the memory of Ayshe Bekirova. The life path of Ayshe Bekirova was full of losses. Out of nine children, only thre [...]

Aider Alimov: “Uzbeks were told that we have horns”.

That day - May 18, 1944 - Aidar Alimov remembered well. At five in the morning, the soldiers kicked open the door and gave the family five minutes to pack. Aydar Bey's mother, distraught, with five children in her arms, hardl [...]

Tair Usta: “I swore to return to Crimea”.

When Soviet soldiers knocked on the door of the Usta family home, Tair Bey was only 7 years old. There were eight children at home that day. The only things their mother took on the road were the Koran and a sewing machine. U [...]

Shikurie Ablaeva: “I still don’t understand how we survived».

Shikurie Ablaeva managed to finish 4 classes before the war took away her brother. Shikurie's mother was sent into exile with seven children, without taking anything with them. In Uzbekistan, they faced grueling work, hunger, [...]

Murvet Ganieva: “A policeman lives in our house”

The house where Murvet Ganieva was born is still in Yalta. She even managed to visit it after the exile, but it already had other owners. And Murvet herself never moved home after all these years of exile. After all, her own [...]

Nadyr Aziyev: ‘We treated soldiers who later evicted us’

Nadyr Aziyev was born in 1935 in the village of Saraymen near Edy Kuyu in a family of teachers. ccording to the recollections of Nadir bey, the village of Saraymen was large: it had both a madrasa and an orphanage, and a plac [...]

Shevkiye Azizova: ‘We were told to marry soldiers so that we would not be evicted’

Shevkiye Azizova from the village of Arbat tells about the terrifying days of the war and horrible exile. Those events will remain etched in her memory for the rest of her life. On the day of the exile, her father was not at [...]

Lenure Belialova: ‘We were helped by an Uzbek who was one of the soldiers who deported us’.

Lenure Belialova’s father was the head of the collective farm in his village. When the Germans came to Crimea, he went into the forest and became a guerilla. Yet his family was not saved from exile. On that day, May 18, mothe [...]