Türkiye on Monday pledged to continue its support for Ukraine's territorial integrity and the rights of Crimean Tatars.
Türkiye's Foreign Minister Mevlüt Çavuşoğlu on Twitter said he met with Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Dzhemilev and Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Emine Dzhaparova.
"We will continue to support the territorial integrity of Ukraine and the rights of Crimean Tatars," Çavuşoğlu added.
Russian forces entered the Crimean Peninsula in February 2014, with Russian President Vladimir Putin formally dividing the region into two separate federal subjects of the Russian Federation the following month.
Crimea's ethnic Tatars have faced persecution since Russia's 2014 takeover of the peninsula, a situation Türkiye has decried.
Türkiye and the United States, as well as the U.N. General Assembly, view the annexation as illegal.
Dzhemilev and the president of the Crimean Tatar National Assembly, Refat Chubarov, were banned from entering the peninsula after the annexation.
The Crimean Tatar National Assembly was branded an "extremist organization" and its activities were banned.
Some 2,500 Crimean Tatars who had direct ties to the assembly and anyone who had relations with it became members of the "extremist organization."
Due to pressure from the Russian administration, thousands of Crimean Tatars had to leave the peninsula.
Arrests of Crimean Tatars at their homes and mosques continue on charges of being members of a "terrorist organization."
In the past, the Stalin-ruled Soviet Union deported every single Crimean Tatar from the peninsula, accusing the entire nation of collaborating with Nazis. During this period of unrest, recognized by Ukraine as genocide, up to 46% of the population died while being transported or once in exile in Central Asia.
Usually presented as a collective punishment, the deportation is also linked to the Turkish Straits crisis between the USSR and Türkiye after World War II. Following the war, Moscow planned to pressure Ankara into granting it a free pass through the Dardanelles and Bosporus. If a conflict were to arise with Türkiye in the Black Sea, Crimean Tatars, who have ethnic ties to Turks and share a common history with them from the Ottoman Empire, would pose a threat as an internal enemy.
As the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of the 20th century, Crimean Tatars started returning to their homeland. Ever since then, the people have commemorated the victims of the deportation with mass rallies and prayers.
The 70th anniversary of the nation's tragedy, however, was marked by the Russian occupation of Crimea – strongly opposed by the Crimean Tatars who almost entirely remained loyal to Ukraine.
Although not that great in numbers – currently there are some 300,000 Crimean Tatars in Crimea who make up roughly 13% of the peninsula's total population of 2 million – the nation's cohesion on most matters makes it a formidable political force.
After Crimean Tatars were expelled from the peninsula, systematic efforts were made to erase traces of Turkish culture and other communities.
Under a Soviet Union order at the end of 1944, the names of all places that were in Turkish were changed to Russian.
Since the Russian annexation, the United Nations, numerous international rights watchdogs and activists have documented increasing persecution of Crimean Tatars over their alignment with Ukraine, including frequent searches at their homes and businesses, detentions and interrogations. The Crimean Tatar Mejlis – the nation's single highest executive-representative body – was banned by Russia as an extremist organization and its leaders were barred from entering the country.
