On April 1, 2021, at a meeting of the Government Committee on Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories and Social Policy, the draft Concept for the Development of the Crimean Tatar Language was supported, developed by the Ministry of Reintegration of the Temporarily Occupied Territories of Ukraine in cooperation with interested authorities, Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people, relevant scientific and educational institutions, non-governmental organizations, experts, including those from the temporarily occupied Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol.

The concept was developed as a priority measure to implement the Decree of the President of Ukraine №78 / 2021 “On certain measures aimed at de-occupation and reintegration of the temporarily occupied territory of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol”. The Mission of the President of Ukraine in the Autonomous Republic contributed to the development of the Concept and supported the position of the Ministry of Reintegration during the consideration of the issue at the government committee.

After approval of the draft Concept by the Government, the next step will be the development of the Strategy for the Development of the Crimean Tatar Language for 2022-2032 and an Action Plan of measures for its implementation.

Deputy Minister for Reintegration of the TOT Rostyslav Zamlynsky emphasized, that the set of measures under the Concept will be aimed at legislative, institutional, organizational, financial, informational and at other kind of support for the functioning of the Crimean Tatar language as the language of one of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, to expand the scope, to encourage to study regardless of ethnicity, a special promotion, especially among young people, which will not only contribute to the preservation and development, but also provide additional preconditions for the restoration of territorial integrity and state sovereignty of Ukraine within internationally recognized borders.

As emphasized in the Concept, according to the UNESCO classification (UNESCO Atlas of the World’s Languages ​​in Danger, 2010), the Crimean Tatar language belongs to the languages ​​that are seriously endangered (severely endangered languages). However, according to experts of the Institute of Oriental Studies of the National Academy of Sciences of Ukraine, due to the negative trends of recent years, the real degree of threat is critical (critically endangered languages).

Work on the revitalization of the Crimean Tatar language will take place in the framework of the International Decade of Indigenous Languages, established by UN General Assembly Resolution 74/396 of December 2, 2019 in order to draw attention to the problem of loss of such languages.

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