Turkey will continue to stand by the Crimean Tatars and protect their identity and ensure their welfare, Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Tanju Bilgiç said Wednesday, in a message issued on the occasion of the 78th anniversary of their deportation.

Noting that the Crimean Tatars were forcefully deported under inhumane conditions on May 18, 1944, Bilgiç said a majority of 250,000 Crimean Tatars died during the deportation process and the rest died in the places they arrived in.

"Turkey will always continue to stand by the Crimean Tatars to protect their identities and ensure their welfare and wellbeing," he said.

Bilgiç also commemorated the Circassians who died after being deported by Tsarist Russia 158 years ago.

"The Caucasian peoples have suffered hundreds of thousands of casualties during the Tsarist invasion of Caucasia in the 19th century, and many of those who survived were forced to leave their homelands and seek refuge in Anatolia," Bilgiç said, adding that Turkey commemorates those who were killed in both tragedies.

The Stalin-ruled Soviet Union deported every single Crimean Tatar from the peninsula, accusing the entire nation of collaborating with Nazis. During the act, recognized by Ukraine as genocide, up to 46% of the population died during transportation and in places of exile in Central Asia.

Usually presented as a collective punishment, the deportation is also linked to the Turkish Straits crisis between the USSR and Turkey after World War II. Following the war, Moscow planned to pressure Ankara into granting it a free pass through the Dardanelles and Bosporus. If a conflict were to arise with Turkey in the Black Sea, Crimean Tatars, who have ethnic ties to Turks and share a common history with them from the Ottoman Empire, would pose a threat as an internal enemy.

As the Soviet Union collapsed at the end of the 20th century, Crimean Tatars started returning to their homeland. Ever since then, the people have commemorated the victims of the deportation with mass rallies and prayers.

The 70th anniversary of the nation's tragedy, however, was marked by the Russian occupation of Crimea — strongly opposed by the Crimean Tatars who almost entirely remained loyal to Ukraine.

Although not that great in numbers – currently there are some 300,000 Crimean Tatars in Crimea which make up roughly 13% of the peninsula's total population of 2 million – the nation's cohesion on most matters makes it a formidable political force.

After Crimean Tatars were expelled from the peninsula, systematic efforts were made to erase traces of Turkish culture and other communities.

With the decision of the Soviet Union at the end of 1944, all names of places that were in Turkish were changed to Russian.

Since the Russian annexation, the United Nations, numerous international rights watchdogs and activists have documented increasing persecution of Crimean Tatars over their alignment with Ukraine, including frequent searches at their homes and businesses, detentions and interrogations. The Crimean Tatar Mejlis – the nation's single highest executive-representative body – was banned by Russia as an extremist organization and its leaders were barred from entering the country.