Missing home
This is a story of Dilyara and Amet — Crimean Tatar couple, whose parents and grandparents were deported from Crimea in 1944 by the Soviet regime.
They both were born in Uzbekistan and later came back to Crimea after the collapse of the USSR. After the Russian annexation of the peninsula in 2014 the couple had to leave Crimea one more time.
Since that time they are changing cities in mainland Ukraine, trying to rebuild their life once again.
Amet’s grandpa Mustafa in Crimea. 1937
While being in the army, Mustafa, Amet’s grandpa
heard from another soldier:
“Don’t go back home to Crimea. Your family is not there anymore.“
Same as her husband Amet, Dilyara was born in the family
of deportees in Uzbekistan.
This is where they first met and started a family.
Parents of Amet’s grandma
Amet, Dilyara and their older son Mustafa in Uzbekistan.
After the collapse of the USSR, Amet, Dilyara and their son moved back to Crimea. A few years later, Kamilka was born. She was the first one in the family, to born in free Crimea.
After the beginning of the Russian-Ukrainian war in 2014, the family had to move again - now to mainland Ukraine.
While here, Dilyara finds here piece teaching kids Crimean Tatar language in Islam cultural centre in Lviv.
Despite the years of non-stop war passing by, the main dream in the family of Dilyara and Amet is still to come back home, to Crimea.
“I have holidays now. I told my parents: When you’re gonna be old, i’ll take you to Crimea, my dear parents".” - note from little Kamilka’s diary.
The idea for the story and the original piece was created in collaboration with Oksana Rasulova, a Ukrainian journalist who works on the periphery of social reporting.