I will always wait for you, my child!

The photo project “I will always wait for you, my child!” is dedicated to the 80th anniversary of the Crimean Tatar deportation and was created to tell the stories of those whose hearts have been broken, whose health has been undermined, and whose peace has been taken away because modern Russia is alien to the concepts of justice and freedom. Each woman in the photos is a mother of a political prisoner whose life stopped the moment her child was taken away by security forces.

The Russian repressive system breaks the fates of men and women against whom it fabricates criminal cases for fictitious terrorism, espionage and sabotage. For years it has persecuted activists, journalists, human rights defenders, religious figures and ordinary people who have spoken out loudly against lawlessness, chauvinism and xenophobia. They have suffered detentions, intimidation and beatings, inhumane conditions in pre-trial detention facilities, simulated investigations and trials, harsh sentences for nothing and sentences to colonies hundreds – if not thousands – of kilometers away from home.

But the victims of this powerful and unpunished repressive machine are also the closest people to political prisoners – their parents, spouses and children. The Russian authorities steal years of their lives, depriving them of the simplest and most precious daily joys – breakfasts and dinners together, conversations about their day, smiles, hugs and phone calls.

According to the Mission of the Permanent Representative of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, there are 219 political prisoners, 133 of which are Crimean Tatars, and 244 are minor children who are growing up without a father in the family.

Photos: Halid Aydin, Bilal Zincirli

Stories: Fera Beyan, Zekiye Alimova

The photo project is available in English.