On May 25, Ukraine House in Denmark hosted a special edition of its series “Taste of Ukraine”, dedicated to the Crimean Tatar people—their history, their struggle, and their resilient identity.
The event took place in the shadow of May 18 which marks the deportation of Crimean Tatars by the Soviet regime in 1944, a historical trauma that continues to shape the destiny and identity of Ukraine’s indigenous people.
More than a dinner, the evening became a space of communal remembrance, a moment to pause and confront the long history of oppression and reflect on the enduring fight for identity and belonging.
Historical trauma
The deportation of 1944 was more than an episode of forced relocation—it was an act of cultural and physical erasure, a genocide.
During the event, participants heard reflections on this historical trauma and its intergenerational impact offered by Gulnara Abdulayeva, a Crimean Tatar historian and author.
She talked about her people not just as an academic subject but as a living memory carried by families, passed through silence, stories, and survival:
“There wasn’t a single Crimean Tatar family that wasn’t affected by the deportation. Even in my own family—just women—survived however they could. This wasn’t just history. It’s a living wound passed from generation to generation.”
Entire families were uprooted from their homeland in Crimea, given minutes to gather their belongings, and transported in cattle cars to unfamiliar lands in Central Asia.
Nearly half of those deported perished due to hunger, disease, and the brutal conditions of exile. This was not only a tragedy for a people, but a wound to Ukrainian history itself—one that still bleeds today under Russia’s ongoing occupation of Crimea, and the repression of Crimean Tatars who remain on the peninsula.
Pilaf, dolma and mercimek
Though food was served, it was not the focus but tools that preserve Crimean Tatar identity. Dishes such as shurpa, veal pilaf, dolma, chibereki, mercimek and fultu were edible stories—reminders of lost kitchens, recovered traditions, and the strength to preserve a culture in exile.
Two chefs from the celebrated Musafir restaurant in Kyiv, Zemfira and Tetyana, who traveled to Copenhagen for the event, brought more than just food and their talent, but the memory of home, the language of heritage, and the sensory expression of continuity of Crimean Tatar culture of hospitality, where every guest is a dear guest.
