We invite Everyone to the Photo Exhibition “Adult Crimean Childhood”

The "United by a Flag - #LIBERATECRIMEA" is an international action, in which the Crimean Tatar national flag will travel for 9 months to several countries around the world, with the aim of bringing together people of different nationalities and religions who are not indifferent to the fate of the Crimean Tatar people and Ukraine.

At 16.00 at the Museum of the Occupation of Latvia, Raiņa Bulvāris 7 will be a meeting with the political leader of Crimean Tatars and the leader of the public organization Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People, Refat Chubarov, and will also be attended by representatives of the Ukrainian Embassy in Latvia, the Ukrainian community, as well as politicians and journalists from Latvia.

The meeting will be followed by opening of the exhibition “Adult Crimean Childhood”. It is made by the Russian journalist Anton Naumaluk and dedicated to the children of Crimean political prisoners. The parents of these children have been subjected to long-standing criminal cases and litigation, so the children have been separated from their parents for years. The purpose of the exhibition is to show their daily lives and the constant wait for their parents’ return.

The children in the pictures are no different from other children - they go to school, to kindergarten. But the realities of Crimean childhood differ in that they were forced to become adults to soon. The pictures are not just about the children, they are also about their parents who, behind bars, miss the chance to watch their children grow.

After the event at the Museum of the Occupation, from 17:40 to 19:00 in front of the Freedom monument, the international campaign “United by a Flag - #LIBERATECRIMEA” will lay a large Crimean Tatar on which people from all over the world can write their wishes for the Crimean Tatar people.

The campaign started in Kyiv in October 2018, when the 3 by 4.5 metre flag travelled to Australia, then to the United States, and Canada, and is now "traveling" across Europe. On 26 June 2019, it will return to Ukraine to mark Crimean Tatar Flag Day with representatives from across the world reminding the public that Crimea is an integral part of Ukraine.

The aim of the campaign is to draw the public's attention to the illegal annexation of Crimea by Russia in 2014, as well as to support the Crimean Tatar people who want to live freely in their native land, the Crimean Peninsula, which is an integral part of the territory of Ukraine.