Chechen journalist and writer, Mayrbek Taramov gave a short speech at the protest held in Brussels, Belgium on February 23, 2014, due to the 70th anniversary of the deportation of the entire Chechen-Ingush people into Central Asia and Siberia.

Here it is:

Peace be Upon You! I welcome warmly all who gathered here at the rally!

Chechens remember well the phrase of the Kremlin, which was used by some politicians, including in Western countries, that Chechnya is Russia’s internal affair. However, not everyone knows the background of this bloody saying.

70 years ago during the eviction of the Chechen people from their ancestral living territory, Beria,Stalin’s closest associate, publicly stated: “Deportation of peoples is an internal affair of the USSR “. And with Russia – successor to the USSR, it continues to being an internal matter.

After 60 years, namely 26 February 2004, the European Parliament adopted a resolution in which the deportation of the Chechen people has been recognized as an act of genocide on the part of Russia. The resolution was advisory in nature, but any country in the world responded to the European Parliament. Thus, the modern civilized world said that killing nations may be an internal affair of a separate state, in this case Russia.

The result was not slow in coming, Russia, feeling filled with impunity, has arranged a new genocide. 50 years after the deportation, there is a new state crime: Russian troops invaded the Chechen Republic of Ichkeria which had declared its sovereignty. This time 250,000 Chechen civilians – far more than the deportation of the Chechen people, became victims of the Kremlin’s genocide. And again the genocide took place with the tacit involvement of the world community.

How come civilized countries couldn’t prevent genocide twice in 50 years? Russia twice crossed all human rights lines, including genocide – the worst crime against humanity, which does not apply the statute of limitations. Thus, for example, the tragedy of the Chechen people can state a terrible fact that human rights, as such, do not exist in the world. Then why do these international institutions like the UN, PACE and the European Parliament on spend huge amounts of money on the content?

After the genocide in Chechnya , Russia arranged a new crime: it invaded a part of Georgia’s territory which is recognized by the world community, but there is a civilized community shows its helplessness.

And so, as a result of Western impotence – the events in Ukraine where the present day bloodshed. And if God forbid, Russia will be able to split Ukraine, sow civil war there, rejection of Crimea and eastern regions of Ukraine, all these crimes will lie on the conscience of the United States and the European Community.

While civilized communities forget the lessons of history, they should know the truth: “The past never dies – it reminds us about ourselves in the present.”

In conclusion, I want to say a few things about the Chechen youth. You are in the heart of Europe, you have the opportunity to receive education, to become highly qualified specialists. It is your duty to protect the future of our state, our people, no, not with a gun or a machine gun – those are things of the past, as once the bow and arrow was. The newest weapon is knowledge in the field of information technology and international law.

And if you do not comprehend this knowledge, you will not become experts in the field of jurisprudence and international law, you will doom your people to perish. I beg you, I implore you – do not let another genocide happen to your people.

Thank you very much for your attention!

Mayrbek Taramov

23.02.2014 – Brussels, Belgium

*Text was translated by Waynakh Online and edited by Michael Capobianco