It was undoubtedly an act of genocide and ethnocide.

Officially, 183,144 Crimean Tatars were deported from Crimea; according to Tatar sources, the number reached 228,500, and during the first year and a half, 110,000 of them died. 32,000 «NKVD» officers took part in the operation. People were given several to 30 minutes for packing up.

Most of those deported were sent to special settlements in Uzbekistan, some of them - to GULAG.

The deportation was also a means to 'de-Tatar' the peninsula. Other means included destruction of cultural and historical monuments and replacement of historic names with new ones, like 'Soviet,' 'Pervomaisk,' 'Krasnogvardeysk,' and other. Citizens from Russia and other republics were moving to Crimea.

Mass return of Crimean Tatars to their homeland began in late 1980s. It seemed that despite household difficulties, the peace has come and they could live freely on their own land. However, the Crimean land again became an object of Russian aggression in 2014, and Crimean Tatars are currently being repressed in a Stalin-like manner.