THE DEPORTATION OF THE CRIMEAN TATARS: THE STORY OF KURTASANOVA KHATIDZHE
The tragedy that took place on May 18, 1944 changed the lives of Crimean Tatars forever. This pain is unforgettable.
Just think for a moment - all death, suffering, and pain were made by man.
To understand the pain of others is a gift from God, and I am happy that we have a lot of gifted people who can understand a person’s problem and respect the rights of all others.
How terrible it would be, if God left selfish people without the gift of understanding people’s pain. It is not enough to be born as a human. We have to follow the rules of morality to be different from animals.
We are all the same human beings, seeking happiness, peace, and freedom. We all want to see bright futures for our children, our nation, and our country. We are all equal in front of death.
We can’t ignore this pain and suffering.
I would like to share the story of my mother’s life; she was born into a family of six children, where everyone was taught to love and respect human beings. Like any other parents, her parents wanted to see their children healthy and happy. The day before May 18th, my grandmother had to leave the village, so she had asked her aunt to stay with the children until morning. At that time she could not have imagined even in her worst nightmares what was to happen the next day. She did not think that it would be the last time she kissed some of her children. She was a perfect mother, despite the fact that it was not easy to handle 6 children without a husband. My mother, being 12 years old, was the oldest child in the family and the youngest was only 8 months old.
In the early morning of May 18, all children were woken up by being kicked by soldiers. All households were ordered to be ready in 15 minutes. Her aunt was crying, children were yelling, no one knew what to do. Everyone was in fear and panic. It is very difficult to understand what you need to take with yourself in 15 minutes when there are 6 children crying and yelling. My mother took a doll to entertain her sisters and brothers; it was all that came in her mind. They went in the clothes that they were wearing. The soldiers pushed the children and aunt outside and locked the door of the house. The soldiers were so brutal that my mother thought they were going to be killed, and decided to leave her doll for other children.
My mother, with all her sisters and brothers and aunt, were loaded in a cargo train wagon. When they came to Uzbekistan, they had no food, no shelter, no parents…only the stigma of traitors. Her aunt was crying every day, trying to find a little bit of food to save the children. My mother’s youngest brother died first. There was nothing to eat, no home to live in, no parents to protect their children. Just strangers with stereotypes…
For 6 -7 months her mother was trying to find them. She had come in another wagon and was under enormous stress, terrified of having lost her children. Her grief was endless; the thought that she had lost her children was killing her. A person who has not experienced this would never be able to fully understand the extent of her feelings.
Finally, when she found her children, her emotions overwhelmed her. By then she had already lost three of her children. A month later the aunt also died. My grandmother was left with only three children. She did not know what to do and where to go. Every day she struggled to feed her children. At one point the children were so hungry that they asked their mother to kill a cat in order to feed them. What can a mother feel when her children are starving, asking for help, but everything she could do was not enough. During the night the children hugged their mother to feel her love and the warmth of her body, but one day their mother’s body wasn’t warm anymore.
As children, they were very scared and started to cry and scream, begging for help. One of the neighbors came to help with the dead body. He helped to move their mother’s body to the big pit for dead bodies, where they were torn by dogs. After grandmother’s death, only three children were left alone, homeless, hungry, and lonely. My mother was the oldest among them. She was almost 13 years old by that point, and it was her responsibility to take care of her sisters. She knocked on each door asking about jobs, for food, but it was so hard. One day, when she came back, she saw one of her sisters dying because she had eaten a poisonous plant. They put the dead body of her sister into the pit where their mother’s body was. Only two of them were left. My mother saw her sister barely moving because of the hunger; she was on the edge of death. My mother knew that she couldn’t lose her sister, because she was all that was left from the family. She put her sister on her back and walked 18 kilometers, afraid of hungry dogs and strangers on the way to the orphanage, but she was so eager to save her sister’s life with big love, and this made her move, despite all of the obstacles.
Finally, they found the house for orphans. They were exhausted. My mother said that you could see the ribs through their clothes. In the orphanage they got a chance to survive. They were so afraid of losing each other, and her sister even hid under her desk when she was studying. Both of them got excellent marks and became doctors, despite the hardships they went through in their lives.
I remember when I was a child my mother taught me to pray. She said never pray just for yourself, because you can’t be happy when people around you are unhappy. My mother has always been a true hero for me. Despite her suffering, she never lost love and respect for others.
