The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic people group living in:

• Homeland: Crimean peninsula,
• Places of deportation: republics of the former Soviet Union, (See Surgun (http://www.iccrimea.org/surgun60.html) for details)
• Diaspora: Bulgaria, Romania, Turkey, Western Europe and North America.

Crimean Tatars speak the Crimean Tatar language.

Crimean Tatars ancestors are all steppe peoples migrated to Crimea till 12th century, such as Scythians, Goths, Kumans and Kipchaks. Current name is in use since 13th century when Crimea was occupied by Mongols (or Tatars, as they was known in Europe and Russia).

Between the 15th and 18th centuries they constituted Crimean Khanate, allied with the Ottomans, which prospered until it fell under Russian rule. Before its annexion, it used to be a major power in Eastern Europe with diplomatic relations with Sweden, Poland and other countries in Europe.

Continued persecusion, slavic colonization, the Crimean War of 1853 and the laws of 1860-63 and 1874 caused an exodus (ethnic cleansing) of the Crimean Tatars faced with a tough choice between freedom and homeland. Many abandoned their admirably irrigated fields and gardens and moved to the Ottoman Empire (today's Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey). Those of the south coast, mixed with Greeks and Italians, were well known for their skill in gardening, their honesty and their laborious habits. The mountain Tatars closely resemble those of the Caucasus, while those of the steppes–the Nogais–are decidedly of a mixed origin from Turks and Mongols.

Ismail Bey Gaspirali (1851-1914) was an outstanding intellectual, whose efforts laid the foundation for the survival of his people in their homeland.

During the Great Purge, an entire generation of statesmen and intellectuals, such as Veli Ibrahim and Bekir Sidki Cobanzade (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. They were unjustly accused of being Nazi collaborators and deported en masse, in a form of collective punishment, on 18 May 1944 to Central Asia and other distant parts of the Soviet Union. 46.3% of the population died of disease and malnutrition. This event is called Surgun (http://www.iccrimea.org/surgun60.html) 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 Kirimoglu (Dzhemilev, 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

• Crimean Tatar diaspora
• Crimean Khanate
• List of Crimean Tatars
• Giray Dynasty
• Nogay

Web links

• Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People (http://www.qurultay.org/eng/default.asp)
• International Committee for Crimea (http://www.iccrimea.org)
• Crimean Tatars by H. B. Paksoy (http://www.angelfire.com/on/paksoy/crimean.html)
• Ismail Bey Gaspirali (http://www.iccrimea.org/gaspirali/)
• Tatar.Net (http://www.tatar.net/)
• UNDP Crimea Integration and Development Programme (http://www.undp.crimea.ua/)
• Crimea-L mailing list (http://groups.yahoo.com/group/crimea-l/)