What is the ICC?

The International Committee for Crimea (ICC) is a group of people interested in promoting the Crimean Tatar cause. They are descendants of Crimean Tatars living in diaspora, Tatars who have returned to Crimea after a fifty-year forced exile, and friends of Crimean Tatars. Our members live in the U.S.A, Turkey, Germany, Holland, Romania, and Ukraine.

The ICC provides a platform where dedicated and active Crimean Tatars and friends of Tatars can meet and share information, ideas, and experiences. Through Crimea-L, an Internet discussion group, and this Web site, the ICC aims to create and maintain a network of Crimean Tatars and friends of Tatars in different parts of the world.

The ICC was founded in the summer of 1997 by Idil Noyan-Izmirli, with the assistance of Mehmet Tutuncu and members of Turkistan-L, an Internet discussion group. Ms. Noyan-Izmirli directed the initial activities of the ICC. In February 1999 the group adopted a set of Bylaws. The ICC is managed by an Executive Board, and the languages of the ICC are English, Turkish, and Crimean Tatar. Because most ICC communications take place via the Internet, however, English remains the primary language.

Individual members of the ICC may engage in a variety of activities, which fall under the following categories:

To assist in the resettlement of Crimean Tatars in their native land by supporting NGO programs and providing humanitarian aid.
To remain informed about the official and non-official policies that affect the current Tatar population in Crimea, Ukraine.
To promote understanding and appreciation of the history and culture of Crimean Tatars in their native land as well as in diaspora.
To support historical research and gather documentation on the devastating effects of governmental policies (e.g. deportation) on the Crimean Tatar population.

We stand for the repatriation of Crimean Tatars, who were unjustly deported en masse from their homeland by Soviet authorities on 18 May 1944. Crimean Tatars have the right to live in their homeland in peace, free of social and economic prejudices against them. We look forward to the day when Crimean Tatars are recognized once again as people with full citizenship rights, as people with a history and culture who inhabited the Crimean peninsula for centuries.