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Crimean Tatars

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The Crimean Tatars (Qırımtatar (aka Qırım, Qırımlı and Qırım türkü), Pl. Qırımtatarlar (aka Qırımlar, Qırımlılar, Qırım türkleri)) are a Turkic ethnic group originally residing in the Crimean peninsula. They speak the Crimean Tatar language.

In modern times, in addition to living in Crimea, there is a large diaspora of the Crimean Tatars in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria, Western Europe and North America. (See Crimean Tatar diaspora for more information)

History

Crimean Tatars are descendants of Turkic (Bulgars, Khazars, Petchenegs and Kypchaks) and non-Turkic (Scythians, Sarmatians, Cimmerians, Alans, Greeks, Goths) peoples who had settled in Eastern Europe as early as the 7th century. The earliest non-Turkic population was assimilated to Turkic. Current name is in use since 13th century when Crimea was occupied by Mongols (or Tatars, as they were known in Europe and Russia). The mountain and coastal Tatars, the Tats have a Caucasian outlook, while those of the steppe and the Nogais retain Central Asian physical features. The Crimean Tatars accepted Islam in the 13th century.

The Crimean Tatars emerged as a people at the time of the Crimean Khanate. The Crimean Khanate was a Turkic-speaking Muslim state which was the strongest power in Eastern Europe until the beginning of the 18th century. The Crimean Tatars adopted Islam in the 13th century and henceforth Crimea became one of the centers of Islamic civilization. According to Baron Igelstrom, there were close to 1600 mosques and religious schools in Crimea in 1783. In Solhat (Eskikırım), the khan Meňli Giray built Zinjirli Medrese (madrassah), an Islamic seminary where one has to bow while entering from its door because of the chain hanging over. This symbolized the Tatar society's respect for learning. Meňli Giray also constructed a large mosque on the model of Hagia Sophia (which was ruined in 1850s). Later, the khans built a greater palace, Hansaray in Bakhchisaray, which survives until today. Sahib I Giray patronized many scholars and artists in this palace. The architect Sinan built a mosque, Cuma Camii, in Kezlev.

In the Crimean area slave trade existed as early as the recorded history. When the Ottomans and Tatars conquered this area, they legitimized the slave trade by the fact that they were captured during the war. Otherwise it was not legitimate according to Islamic law.

Crimean Tatars were known for frequent devastating raids into Ukraine and Russia, 1571 they seized and burned Moscow. For a long time, until the early 18th century Crimean Tatars maintained massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East. One of the most known and important trading ports and slave markets was Kefe. Some researchers estimate that alltogether more than 3 million people, predominantly Ukrainians but also Russians, Belarusians and Poles, were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate in what was called "the harvesting of the steppe". A constant threat from Crimean Tatars supported the appearance of cossackdom.

The Crimean Khanate became a protectorate of the Ottoman Empire in 1475, when the Ottoman grand vezir conquered the coast of Crimea. However, the Ottomans respected the legitimacy of Giray khans to rule in the rest of Crimea and the steppes, because of their Jingizid lineage. The alliance with the Ottomans became an important factor in the survival of the khanate until the 18th century, while its sisters, the Kazan Khanate and the Astrakhan Khanate were destroyed by the increasingly powerful Russian state.

The Ottoman-Russian War of 1768-1774 resulted with the defeat of the Ottomans, and according to the Treaty of Kuchuk-Kainarji (1774) signed after the war, Crimea became independent and Ottomans renounced their political right to protect the Crimean Khanate. Russia violated the treaty and annexed the Crimean Khanate in 1783. After the annexation, under pressure of Slavic colonization, Crimean Tatar began to abandon their homes and move to the Ottoman Empire in continuing waves of emigration. Particularly, the Crimean War of 1853-1856, the laws of 1860-63 and the Ottoman-Russian War of 1877-1878 caused an exodus of the Crimean Tatars. Some researchers estimate that one million Tatars had to abandon their homeland in the 19th century. Many Tatars perished in the process of emigration, many was drawn while crossing the Black Sea. Today the descendants of these Tatars form the Crimean Tatar diaspora in Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey.

Ismail Bey Gaspirali (1851-1914) was a renowned Crimean Tatar intellectual, whose efforts laid the foundation for the modernization of Muslim Tatar culture and the emergence of the Crimean Tatar national identity. The newspaper he published Tercuman /Perevodchik (1883-1914), functioned as a school through which a national conscioussness and modern thinking emerged among the Tatars. His New Method (Usul-ü Cedid) schools, numbered 350 across the peninsula raised a new Tatar elite. This new elite, which included Celebi Cihan and Cafer Seydahmet proclaimed the first democratic republic in the Islamic world in 26 December 1917. However, this republic was short-lived and destroyed by the Bolsheviks in January 1918.

During Stalin's Great Purge, an entire generation of statesmen and intellectuals, such as Veli Ibraimov and Bekir Çobanzade (1893-1937), was destroyed on false charges.

During World War II, the entire Crimean Tatar population in Crimea fell victim to Stalin's oppressive policies. Although a great number of Crimean Tatar men served in the Red Army, the existence of Tatar Legion in the Nazi army and the collaboration of Crimean Tatar religious and political leaders with Hitler during the German occupation of Crimea provided the Soviets with a pretext for accusing the whole Crimean Tatar population of being Nazi collaborators. Modern researchers also point to the fact that a further reason was the geopolitical position of Crimea where Tatars were perceived as a threat. This belief is based in part on an analogy with numerous other cases of deportations of non-Russians from boundary territories (see, e.g., Involuntary settlements in the Soviet Union), as well as the fact that other non-Russian populations, such as Greeks and Armenians have also been removed from Crimea.

All Crimean Tatars were deported en masse, in a form of collective punishment, on 18 May 1944 as special settlers to Uzbek SSR and other distant parts of the Soviet Union. The decree "On Crimean Tatars" describes the resettlement as a very humane procedure. The reality described by the victims in their memoirs was different. 46.3% of the resettled population died of diseases and malnutrition. This event is called Surgun in the Crimean Tatar language.

Although a 1967 Soviet decree removed the charges against Crimean Tatars, the Soviet government did nothing to facilitate their resettlement in Crimea and to make reparations for lost lives and confiscated property.

Today, more than 250,000 Crimean Tatars have returned to their homeland, struggling to re-establish their lives and reclaim their national and cultural rights against many social and economic obstacles.

Mustafa Abdulcemil Kirimoğlu (Jemilev) is the leader of the Crimean Tatars and the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People. They endorsed and supported Viktor Yushchenko in the Ukrainian presidential election, 2004.

See also

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