169-478: Crimean Tatar may refer to: Crimean Tatars , an ethnic group Crimean Tatar language , a language of the Crimean Tatars Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Crimean Tatar . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to
338-713: A campaign with all his troops (80,000) to gain access to the Black Sea, he was surrounded by the army of the Crimean Khan Devlet II Giray , finding himself in a hopeless situation. And only the betrayal of the Ottoman vizier Baltacı Mehmet Pasha allowed Peter to get out of the encirclement of the Crimean Tatars. When Devlet II Giray protested against the vizier's decision, his response was: "You should know your Tatar affairs. The affairs of
507-701: A coup d'état led by Pavlo Skoropadskyi , which yielded the Ukrainian State under the German protectorate, and the attempt to restore the UNR under the Directorate ultimately failed as the Ukrainian army was regularly overrun by other forces. The short-lived West Ukrainian People's Republic and Hutsul Republic also failed to join the rest of Ukraine. The result of the conflict was a partial victory for
676-587: A famine known as the Holodomor or the "Great Famine", which was recognized by some countries as an act of genocide perpetrated by Joseph Stalin and other Soviet notables. Following on the Russian Civil War and collectivisation, the Great Purge , while killing Stalin's perceived political enemies, resulted in a profound loss of a new generation of Ukrainian intelligentsia , known today as
845-520: A memorandum consisting of 17,500 pages of text in 29 volumes to the UN's International Court of Justice about racial discrimination against Crimean Tatars by Russian authorities in occupied Crimea and state financing of terrorism by Russian Federation in Donbas . In the 2001 Ukrainian census , 248,200 Ukrainian citizens identified themselves as Crimean Tatars with 98% (or about 243,400) of them living in
1014-694: A "national minority", but not an indigenous people, and continues to deny that they are titular people of Crimea, even though the Soviet Union considered them indigenous before their deportation and the subsequent dissolution of the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Crimean ASSR). Today, Crimean Tatars constitute approximately 15% of the population of Crimea. A Crimean Tatar diaspora remains in Turkey and Uzbekistan. The Crimean Tatar language
1183-547: A European leader in industrial production and an important centre of the Soviet arms industry and high-tech research, though heavy industry still had an outsided influence. The Soviet government invested in hydroelectric and nuclear power projects to cater to the energy demand that the development carried. On 26 April 1986, however, a reactor in the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant exploded, resulting in
1352-700: A bid to get rid of Russian dependence, but they were crushed in the Battle of Poltava (1709). The Hetmanate's autonomy was severely restricted since Poltava. In the years 1764–1781, Catherine the Great incorporated much of Central Ukraine into the Russian Empire , abolishing the Cossack Hetmanate and the Zaporozhian Sich , and was one of the people responsible for the suppression of
1521-448: A concubine of Sultan Suleiman . In retaliation, the lands of Crimean Tatars were being raided by Zaporozhian Cossacks , armed Ukrainian horsemen, who defended the steppe frontier – Wild Fields – against Tatar slave raids and often attacked and plundered the lands of Ottoman Turks and Crimean Tatars. The Don Cossacks and Kalmyk Mongols also managed to raid Crimean Tatars' land. The last recorded major Crimean raid, before those in
1690-667: A devastating 30-year war amongst Russia, Poland, the Crimean Khanate , the Ottoman Empire , and Cossacks , known as " The Ruin " (1657–1686), for control of the Cossack Hetmanate. The Treaty of Perpetual Peace between Russia and Poland in 1686 divided the lands of the Cossack Hetmanate between them, reducing the portion over which Poland had claimed sovereignty to Ukraine west of the Dnieper river. In 1686,
1859-519: A further blow to Moscow's influence in Ukraine. Finally, amid a full-scale war with Russia, Ukraine was granted candidate status to the European Union on 23 June 2022. A broad anti-corruption drive began in early 2023 with the resignations of several deputy ministers and regional heads during a reshuffle of the government. Ukraine is the second-largest European country , after Russia, and
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#17327652325722028-592: A hundred years later, in 1767, there were 4 million people living in the Crimean khanate, and in 1778, that is, just eleven years later, all the Christians were evicted from its territory by the Russian authorities, which turned out to be about 30 thousand, mostly Armenians and Greeks, and there were no Ukrainians among them. Also, according to more reliable modern sources than Evliya's data, slaves never constituted
2197-504: A limited number of seats in the 1994 Crimean parliamentary election . Nonetheless, they faced constant discrimination from the authorities of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea , which was primarily governed by ethnic Russians and directed towards Russian interests. Under the presidency of Viktor Yushchenko , increased attention was paid to Crimean Tatars, with trials for crimes against humanity beginning for those involved in
2366-899: A long time, until the late 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East which was one of the important factors of its economy. One of the most important trading ports and slave markets was Kefe . According to the Ottoman census of 1526, taxes on the sale and purchase of slaves accounted for 24% of the funds, levied in Ottoman Crimea for all activities. But in fact, there were always small raids committed by both Tatars and Cossacks , in both directions. The 17th century Ottoman writer and traveller Evliya Çelebi wrote that there were 920,000 Ukrainian slaves in
2535-729: A member of the Council of Europe , the World Trade Organization , and the OSCE . It is in the process of joining the European Union and has applied to join NATO. The name of Ukraine is frequently interpreted as coming from the old Slavic term for 'borderland' as is the word krajina . Another interpretation is that the name of Ukraine means "region" or "country." In the English-speaking world during most of
2704-605: A national consciousness and modern thinking emerged among the entire Turkic-speaking population of the Russian Empire . After the Russian Revolution of 1917 this new elite, which included Noman Çelebicihan and Cafer Seydamet Qırımer proclaimed the first democratic republic in the Islamic world, named the Crimean People's Republic on 26 December 1917. However, this republic was short-lived and abolished by
2873-509: A part of the broader Russian Civil War , devastated the whole of the former Russian Empire , including eastern and central Ukraine. The fighting left over 1.5 million people dead and hundreds of thousands homeless in the former Russian Empire's territory. The eastern provinces were additionally impacted by a famine in 1921 . During the inter-war period, in Poland , Marshal Józef Piłsudski sought Ukrainian support by offering local autonomy as
3042-881: A result of the deportations. Starting in 1967, a few were allowed to return and in 1989 the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union condemned the removal of Crimean Tatars from their motherland as inhumane and lawless, but only a tiny percent were able to return before the full right of return became policy in 1989. The Crimean Tatars have been members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since 1991. The European Union and international indigenous groups do not dispute their status as an indigenous people and they have been officially recognized as an indigenous people of Ukraine as of 2014. The current Russian administration considers them
3211-675: A result there were many documented hate crimes against Crimean-Tatar civilians by Uzbek Communist loyalists. In the 1950s the "special settler" regime ended, but Crimean Tatars were still kept closely tethered to Central Asia; while other deported ethnic groups like the Chechens , Karachays , and Kalmyks were fully allowed to return to their native lands during the Khrushchev thaw, economic and political reasons combined with basic misconceptions and stereotypes about Crimean Tatars led to Moscow and Tashkent being reluctant to allow Crimean Tatars
3380-477: A second deportation for them. A last-resort method to avoid a second deportation was self-immolation, famously used by Crimean Tatar national hero Musa Mamut , one of those who moved to Crimea without a residence permit. He doused himself with gasoline and committed self-immolation in front of police trying to deport him on 23 June 1978. Mamut died of severe burns several days later, but expressed no regret for having committed self-immolation. Mamut posthumously became
3549-533: A significant part of the Crimean population. Russian professor Glagolev writes that there were 1.800.000 free Crimean Tatars in the Crimean Khanate in 1666, it also should be mentioned that a huge part of Ukraine was part of the Crimean Khanate, that is why Ukrainians could have been taken into account in the general population of the Khanate by Evliya (see Khan Ukraine ). Some researchers estimate that more than 2 million people were captured and enslaved during
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#17327652325723718-516: A sort of frozen state until the early hours of 24 February 2022, when Russia proceeded with an ongoing invasion of Ukraine. Russian troops control about 17% of Ukraine's internationally recognized territory, which constitutes 94% of Luhansk Oblast , 73% of Kherson Oblast , 72% of Zaporizhzhia Oblast , 54% of Donetsk Oblast and all of Crimea, though Russia failed with its initial plan, with Ukrainian troops recapturing some territory in counteroffensives. The military conflict with Russia shifted
3887-751: A symbol of Crimean Tatar resistance and nationhood, and remains celebrated by Crimean Tatars. Other notable self-immolations in the name of the Crimean Tatar right of return movement include that of Shavkat Yarullin, who fatally committed self-immolation in front of a government building in protest in October 1989, and Seidamet Balji who attempted self-immolation while being deported from Crimea in December that year but survived. Many other famous Crimean Tatars threatened government authorities with self-immolation if they continued to be ignored, including Hero of
4056-590: A vassal state of the Ottoman Empire , with great autonomy after 1580. At the same time, the Nogai hordes, not having their own khan, were vassals of the Crimean one, Muskovy and Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth paid annual tribute to the khan (until 1700 and 1699 respectively). In the 17th century, the Crimean Tatars helped Ukrainian Cossacks led by Bohdan Khmelnytsky in the struggle for independence, which allowed them to win several decisive victories over Polish troops. In 1711, when Peter I of Russia went on
4225-599: A way to minimise Soviet influence in Poland's eastern Kresy region. However, this approach was abandoned after Piłsudski's death in 1935, due to continued unrest among the Ukrainian population, including assassinations of Polish government officials by the Organisation of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN); with the Polish government responding by restricting rights of people who declared Ukrainian nationality. In consequence,
4394-804: Is Hoverla at 2,061 metres (6,762 ft), and the Crimean Mountains , in the extreme south along the coast. Ukraine also has a number of highland regions such as the Volyn-Podillia Upland (in the west) and the Near-Dnipro Upland (on the right bank of the Dnieper). To the east there are the south-western spurs of the Central Russian Upland over which runs the border with Russia. Near the Sea of Azov are
4563-507: Is a member of Kipchak languages of the Turkic language family. It has three dialects and the standard language is written in the central dialect. Crimean Tatar has a unique position among the Turkic languages because its three "dialects" belong to three different (sub)groups of Turkic. This makes the classification of Crimean Tatar as a whole difficult. UNESCO ranked Crimean Tatar as one of
4732-612: Is also widespread. Occasionally, song competitions take place between young men and women during Crimean holidays and weddings. Ritual folklore includes winter greetings, wedding songs, lamentations and circular dance songs (khoran). Epic stories or destans are very popular among the Crimean Tatars, particularly the destans of "Chora batyr", "Edige", " Koroglu ", and others. On the Nowruz holiday, Crimean Tatars usually cook eggs, chicken soup, puff meat pie (kobete), halva , and sweet biscuits. Children put on masks and sing special songs under
4901-411: Is celebrated as one of eleven Ukrainian national holidays. The republic was heavily damaged by the war, and it required significant efforts to recover. More than 700 cities and towns and 28,000 villages were destroyed. The situation was worsened by a famine in 1946–1947, which was caused by a drought and the wartime destruction of infrastructure, killing at least tens of thousands of people. In 1945,
5070-555: Is considered a middle power in global affairs, and the Ukrainian Armed Force is the fifth largest armed force in the world in terms of both active personnel as well as total number of personnel with the eighth largest defence budget in the world. The Ukrainian Armed Forces also operates one of the largest and most diverse drone fleets in the world. It is a founding member of the United Nations , as well as
5239-496: Is considered the direct ancestor of the current language of the Crimean Tatars with possible incorporations of the other languages, like Crimean Gothic . The fact that Crimean Tatars' ethnogenesis took place in Crimea and consisted of several stages lasting over 2500 years is proved by genetic research showing that the gene pool of the Crimean Tatars preserved both the initial components for more than 2.5 thousand years, and later in
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5408-657: Is more prevalent in Steppe Tatar cuisine. Many Uzbek dishes were incorporated into Crimean Tatar national cuisine during exile in Central Asia since 1944, and these dishes have become prevalent in Crimea since the return. Uzbek samsa , laghman , and Crimean Tatar : plov ( pilaf ) are sold in most Tatar roadside cafes in Crimea as national dishes. In turn, some Crimean Tatar dishes, including chibureki , have been adopted by peoples outside Crimea, such as in Turkey and
5577-553: Is now rarer, and style guides advise against its use. US ambassador William Taylor said that using "the Ukraine" implies disregard for Ukrainian sovereignty. The official Ukrainian position is that "the Ukraine" is both grammatically and politically incorrect. 1.4 million year old stone tools from Korolevo , western Ukraine, are the earliest securely dated hominin presence in Europe. Settlement by modern humans in Ukraine and its vicinity dates back to 32,000 BC, with evidence of
5746-469: Is the nation's capital and largest city , followed by Kharkiv , Dnipro , and Odesa . Ukraine's official language is Ukrainian . During the Middle Ages , Ukraine was the site of early Slavic expansion and the area later became a key centre of East Slavic culture under the state of Kievan Rus' , which emerged in the 9th century. The state eventually disintegrated into rival regional powers and
5915-727: The Primary Chronicle , the Rus' people initially consisted of Varangians from Scandinavia . In 882, the pagan Prince Oleg (Oleh) conquered Kyiv from Askold and Dir and proclaimed it as the new capital of the Rus'. Anti-Normanist historians however argue that the East Slavic tribes along the southern parts of the Dnieper River were already in the process of forming a state independently. The Varangian elite, including
6084-596: The Autonomous Republic of Crimea . An additional 1,800 (or about 0.7%) lived in the city of Sevastopol , also on the Crimean peninsula , but outside the border of the autonomous republic. This territory was annexed by Russia in 2014 . About 150,000 remain in exile in Central Asia , mainly in Uzbekistan . According to Tatar activists, Eskişehir Province houses about 150,000 Crimean Tatars. Some activists set
6253-537: The Balkars , a highland ethnic group from the Caucasus , being most genetically akin to the Crimean Tatars. Furthermore, the hypothesis positing a substantial impact of Slavic populations on the genetic makeup of the Crimean Tatars is also refuted by genetic studies, which reveal no significant influx of "Slavic" genetic material into the Crimean Tatar gene pool despite prolonged proximity. The preliminary phase of
6422-499: The Belavezha Accords and made Ukraine a founding member of the much looser Commonwealth of Independent States (CIS), though Ukraine never became a full member of the latter as it did not ratify the agreement founding CIS. These documents sealed the fate of the Soviet Union, which formally voted itself out of existence on 26 December. Ukraine was initially viewed as having favourable economic conditions in comparison to
6591-699: The Bolshevik uprising in January 1918. As a part of the Russian famine of 1921 the Peninsula suffered widespread starvation. More than 100,000 Crimean Tatars starved to death, and tens of thousands of Tatars fled to Turkey or Romania. Thousands more were deported or killed during the collectivization in 1928–29. The Soviet government's "collectivization" policies led to a major nationwide famine in 1931–33 . Between 1917 and 1933, 150,000 Tatars—about 50% of
6760-583: The COVID-19 pandemic , which arrived in 2020, were made much harder by low vaccination rates and, later in the pandemic, by the ongoing invasion. From the political perspective, one of the defining features of the politics of Ukraine is that for most of the time, it has been divided along two issues: the relation between Ukraine, the West and Russia, and the classical left-right divide. The first two presidents, Kravchuk and Leonid Kuchma , tended to balance
6929-458: The Chernobyl disaster , the worst nuclear reactor accident in history. Mikhail Gorbachev pursued a policy of limited liberalization of public life, known as perestroika , and attempted to reform a stagnating economy . The latter failed, but the democratization of the Soviet Union fuelled nationalist and separatist tendencies among the ethnic minorities, including Ukrainians. As part of
Crimean Tatar - Misplaced Pages Continue
7098-552: The Cossack Hetmanate , which existed until 1764 (some sources claim until 1782). After Khmelnytsky suffered a crushing defeat at the Battle of Berestechko in 1651, he turned to the Russian tsar for help. In 1654, Khmelnytsky was subject to the Pereiaslav Agreement , forming a military and political alliance with Russia that acknowledged loyalty to the Russian monarch. After his death, the Hetmanate went through
7267-644: The Crimean Khanate on the Crimean Peninsula and the surrounding steppes; the Khanate orchestrated Tatar slave raids . Over the next three centuries, the Crimean slave trade would enslave an estimated two million in the region. In 1569, the Union of Lublin established the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , and most of the Ukrainian lands were transferred from Lithuania to the Crown of
7436-410: The Dnieper ( Dnipro ), Seversky Donets , Dniester and the Southern Bug as they flow south into the Black Sea and the smaller Sea of Azov . To the southwest, the Danube Delta forms the border with Romania. Ukraine's regions have diverse geographic features, ranging from the highlands to the lowlands. The country's only mountains are the Carpathian Mountains in the west, of which the highest
7605-406: The Euromaidan to oppose Yanukovych's refusal to sign the European Union–Ukraine Association Agreement . By the end of the protests on 21 February 2014, he fled from Ukraine and was removed by the parliament in what is termed the Revolution of Dignity , but Russia refused to recognize the interim pro-Western government, calling it a junta and denouncing the events as a coup d'état sponsored by
7774-459: The Executed Renaissance . Following the Invasion of Poland in September 1939, German and Soviet troops divided the territory of Poland. Thus, Eastern Galicia and Volhynia with their Ukrainian population became part of Ukraine. For the first time in history, the nation was united. Further territorial gains were secured in 1940, when the Ukrainian SSR incorporated the northern and southern districts of Bessarabia , Northern Bukovina , and
7943-421: The Grand Duchy of Lithuania to invite Hacı Giray to rule in the Crimea. He became the founder of the Giray dynasty , which ruled until the annexation of the Crimean Khanate by Russia in 1783. Hacı I Giray was a Jochid descendant of Genghis Khan and of his grandson Batu Khan of the Golden Horde . During the reign of Meñli I Giray , Hacı's son, the army of the Great Horde that still existed then invaded
8112-412: The Gravettian culture in the Crimean Mountains . By 4,500 BC, the Neolithic Cucuteni–Trypillia culture was flourishing in wide areas of modern Ukraine, including Trypillia and the entire Dnieper - Dniester region. Ukraine is considered to be the likely location of the first domestication of the horse . The Kurgan hypothesis places the Volga-Dnieper region of Ukraine and southern Russia as
8281-499: The Hertsa region from the territories the USSR forced Romania to cede , though it handed over the western part of the Moldavian Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic to the newly created Moldavian SSR . These territorial gains of the USSR were internationally recognized by the Paris peace treaties of 1947 . German armies invaded the Soviet Union on 22 June 1941, initiating nearly four years of total war . The Axis initially advanced against desperate but unsuccessful efforts of
8450-401: The Holodomor , a human-made famine . The German occupation during World War II in Ukraine was devastating, with 7 million Ukrainian civilians killed, including most Ukrainian Jews . Ukraine gained independence in 1991 as the Soviet Union dissolved , and declared itself neutral . A new constitution was adopted in 1996. A series of mass demonstrations, known as the Euromaidan , led to
8619-496: The Kingdom of Poland and the Grand Duchy of Lithuania . From the mid-13th century to the late 1400s, the Republic of Genoa founded numerous colonies on the northern coast of the Black Sea and transformed these into large commercial centers headed by the consul, a representative of the Republic. In 1430, the region of Podolia was incorporated into Poland, and the lands of modern-day Ukraine became increasingly settled by Poles . In 1441, Genghisid prince Haci I Giray founded
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#17327652325728788-412: The Metropolitanate of Kyiv was annexed by the Moscow Patriarchate through a synodal letter of the Ecumenical Patriarch of Constantinople Dionysius IV , thus placing the Metropolitanate of Kyiv under the authority of Moscow . An attempt to reverse the decline was undertaken by Cossack Hetman Ivan Mazepa (1639–1709), who ultimately defected to the Swedes in the Great Northern War (1700–1721) in
8957-440: The Ottoman Empire . Due to the oppression by the Russian administration and colonial politics of Russian Empire, the Crimean Tatars were forced to immigrate to the Ottoman Empire. Further expulsions followed in 1812 for fear of the reliability of the Tatars in the face of Napoleon's advance. Particularly, the Crimean War of 1853–1856, the laws of 1860–63, the Tsarist policy and the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) caused an exodus of
9126-409: The Principality of Galicia–Volhynia . Daniel of Galicia , son of Roman the Great , re-united much of south-western Rus', including Volhynia , Galicia , as well as Kyiv. He was subsequently crowned by a papal envoy as the first king of Galicia–Volhynia (also known as the Kingdom of Ruthenia ) in 1253. In 1349, in the aftermath of the Galicia–Volhynia Wars , the region was partitioned between
9295-401: The Red , White , Black and Green armies , with the Poles, Hungarians (in Transcarpathia ), and Germans also intervening at various times. An attempt to create an independent state, the left-leaning Ukrainian People's Republic (UNR), was first announced by Mykhailo Hrushevsky , but the period was plagued by an extremely unstable political and military environment. It was first deposed in
9464-506: The Red Army . In the battle of Kyiv , the city was acclaimed as a " Hero City ", because of its fierce resistance . More than 600,000 Soviet soldiers (or one-quarter of the Soviet Western Front ) were killed or taken captive there, with many suffering severe mistreatment . After its conquest, most of the Ukrainian SSR was organised within the Reichskommissariat Ukraine , with the intention of exploiting its resources and eventual German settlement. Some western Ukrainians, who had only joined
9633-534: The Romanov dynasty , the Crimean Tatars were almost completely driven from the Crimean peninsula under the Soviets. Almost immediately after retaking of Crimea from Axis forces , in May 1944, the USSR State Defense Committee ordered the deportation of all of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea, including the families of Crimean Tatars who had served in the Soviet Army. The deportees were transported in trains and boxcars to Central Asia , primarily to Uzbekistan . The Crimean Tatars lost 18–46 percent of their population as
9802-429: The Russian Empire . Ukrainian nationalism developed and, following the Russian Revolution in 1917, the short-lived Ukrainian People's Republic was formed. The Bolsheviks consolidated control over much of the former empire and established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic , which became a constituent republic of the Soviet Union when it was formed in 1922. In the early 1930s, millions of Ukrainians died in
9971-500: The Russo-Turkish War (1768–74) took place during the reign of Peter the Great (1682–1725). However, Cossack raids continued after that time; Ottoman Grand Vizier complained to the Russian consul about raids to Crimea and Özi in 1761. In 1769 one last major Tatar raid, which took place during the Russo-Turkish War , saw the capture of 20,000 slaves. Nevertheless, some historians, including Russian historian Valery Vozgrin and Polish historian Oleksa Gayvoronsky have emphasized that
10140-450: The Second Polish Republic , which annexed the Western Ukrainian provinces, as well as a larger-scale victory for the pro-Soviet forces, which succeeded in dislodging the remaining factions and eventually established the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Soviet Ukraine). Meanwhile, modern-day Bukovina was occupied by Romania and Carpathian Ruthenia was admitted to Czechoslovakia as an autonomous region. The conflict over Ukraine,
10309-415: The Sublime Porte are entrusted to me. You do not have the right to interfere in them" . Treaty of the Pruth was signed, and 10 years later, Russia declared itself an empire. In 1736, the Crimean Khan Qaplan I Giray was summoned by the Turkish Sultan Ahmed III to Persia . Understanding that Russia could take advantage of the lack of troops in Crimea, Qaplan Giray wrote to the Sultan to think twice, but
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#173276523257210478-439: The Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) signed after the war, Crimea became independent and the Ottomans renounced their political right to protect the Crimean Khanate. After a period of political unrest in Crimea, Russia violated the treaty and annexed the Crimean Khanate in 1783. After the annexation, the wealthier Tatars, who had exported wheat, meat, fish and wine to other parts of the Black Sea, began to be expelled and to move to
10647-452: The United States and Brazil . Some of the Ukrainians settled in the Far East, too. According to the 1897 census , there were 223,000 ethnic Ukrainians in Siberia and 102,000 in Central Asia . An additional 1.6 million emigrated to the east in the ten years after the opening of the Trans-Siberian Railway in 1906. Far Eastern areas with an ethnic Ukrainian population became known as Green Ukraine . Ukraine plunged into turmoil with
10816-535: The Yamnaya archaeological culture , and the "European" (N3a3) and "Asian" (N3a5) Neolithic variants of haplogroup N3 in Northern Eurasia . These findings may reflect not only the genetic legacy of the Scythians and Sarmatians but also more ancient affiliations between the populations of mainland Eastern Europe and the Crimean Peninsula. The genetic composition of the Crimean Tatars is primarily constituted by five predominant haplogroups : R1a , R1b , J2 , G2a3b1 and E1b1b1 , which together account for 67% of
10985-400: The linguistic homeland of the Proto-Indo-Europeans . Early Indo-European migrations from the Pontic steppes in the 3rd millennium BC spread Yamnaya Steppe pastoralist ancestry and Indo-European languages across large parts of Europe. During the Iron Age , the land was inhabited by Iranian -speaking Cimmerians , Scythians , and Sarmatians . Between 700 BC and 200 BC it
11154-428: The "Tat" descendants of Tatarized Goths and other Turkified peoples. The genetic composition of the Crimean Tatars is distinguished by the presence of two predominant patterns: the so-called "sea pattern" and the "steppe pattern". The former is believed to have originated from Mediterranean populations , while the latter is attributed to the nomadic tribes of the Great Eurasian steppe . The primary contributor to
11323-420: The "sea pattern" of the Crimean Tatars is not the later migrations of Greeks from the Byzantine Empire , but rather the ancient populations from the city-states of the Eastern Mediterranean dating back to the 7th to 5th centuries BC. This assertion is further substantiated by the analysis of the Crimean Tatar gene pool as revealed by the Human Origins full-genome panel data. Geneticists have concluded that
11492-442: The 11th and 12th centuries, the nomadic confederacy of the Turkic -speaking Cumans and Kipchaks was the dominant force in the Pontic steppe north of the Black Sea. The Mongol invasions in the mid-13th century devastated Kievan Rus'; following the Siege of Kyiv in 1240 , the city was destroyed by the Mongols. In the western territories, the principalities of Halych and Volhynia had arisen earlier, and were merged to form
11661-513: The 1930s. However, as a consequence of Stalin's new policy, the Ukrainian peasantry suffered from the programme of collectivization of agricultural crops. Collectivization was part of the first five-year plan and was enforced by regular troops and the secret police known as Cheka . Those who resisted were arrested and deported to gulags and work camps. As members of the collective farms were sometimes not allowed to receive any grain until unrealistic quotas were met, millions starved to death in
11830-431: The 20th century, Ukraine (whether independent or not) was referred to as "the Ukraine". This is because the word ukraina means 'borderland' so the definite article would be natural in the English language; this is similar to Nederlanden , which means 'low lands' and is rendered in English as " the Netherlands ". However, since Ukraine's declaration of independence in 1991, this usage has become politicised and
11999-574: The 20th century, at least 800 thousand Tatars left Crimea. Today the descendants of these Crimeans form the Crimean Tatar diaspora in Bulgaria, Romania and Turkey. Ismail Gasprali (1851–1914) was a renowned Crimean Tatar intellectual, influenced by the nationalist movements of the period, whose efforts laid the foundation for the modernization of Muslim culture and the emergence of the Crimean Tatar national identity. The bilingual Crimean Tatar-Russian newspaper Terciman -Perevodchik he published in 1883–1914, functioned as an educational tool through which
12168-540: The Communist Party of the Soviet Union from 1964 to 1982. However, it was he and his appointee in Ukraine , Volodymyr Shcherbytsky , who presided over the extensive Russification of Ukraine and who were instrumental in repressing a new generation of Ukrainian intellectuals known as the Sixtiers . By 1950, the republic had fully surpassed pre-war levels of industry and production. Soviet Ukraine soon became
12337-474: The Crimea acquired the name "Tatars", the Islamic religion and Turkic language, and the process of consolidating the multi-ethnic conglomerate of the Peninsula began, which has led to the emergence of the Crimean Tatar people. Over several centuries, on the basis of Cuman language with a noticeable Oghuz influence, the Crimean Tatar language has developed. At the beginning of the 13th century in
12506-471: The Crimea but only 187,000 free Muslims. However, the Ukrainian historian Sergey Gromenko considers this testimony of Çelebi a myth popular among ultranationalists, pointing out that today it is known from the writings on economics that in the 17th century, the Crimea could feed no more than 500 thousand people. For comparison, according to the notes of the Consul of France to Qırım Giray khan Baron Totta ,
12675-657: The Crimea from the Golden Horde may be counted since the beginning of princess (khanum) Canike 's, the daughter of the powerful Khan of the Golden Horde Tokhtamysh and the wife of the founder of the Nogai Horde Edigey , reign in the peninsula. During her reign she strongly supported Hacı Giray in the struggle for the Crimean throne until her death in 1437. Following the death of Canike, the situation of Hacı Giray in Crimea weakened and he
12844-752: The Crimea from the north, Crimean Khan won the general battle, overtaking the army of the Horde Khan in Takht-Lia, where he was killed, the Horde ceased to exist, and the Crimean Khan became the Great Khan and the successor of this state. Since then, the Crimean Khanate was among the strongest powers in Eastern Europe until the beginning of the 18th century. The Khanate officially operated as
13013-532: The Crimea, the majority of the population, which was already composed of a Turkic people — Cumans, became a part of the Golden Horde . The Crimean Tatars mostly adopted Islam in the 14th century and thereafter Crimea became one of the centers of Islamic civilization in Eastern Europe. In the same century, trends towards separatism appeared in the Crimean Ulus of the Golden Horde. De facto independence of
13182-575: The Crimean Khan. It is largely assumed that the Tatarization process that mostly took place in the 16th century brought a sense of cultural unity through the blending of the Greeks , Italians , Ottoman Turks of the southern coast, Goths of the central mountains and Turkic -speaking Kipchaks and Cumans of the steppe and forming of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group. However, the Cuman language
13351-402: The Crimean Khanate. After a period of political unrest in Crimea, Imperial Russia violated the treaty and annexed the Crimean Khanate in 1783. The main population of the Crimean khanate were Crimean Tatars, along with them in the Crimean khanate lived significant communities of Karaites , Italians , Armenians , Greeks , Circassians and Roma . In the early 16th century under the rule of
13520-406: The Crimean Tatar language at the local level among areas with the deported populations. The conclusion that "no basis to renew autonomy and grant Crimean Tatars the right to return" triggered widespread protests. Less than two years after Gromyko's commission had rejected their request for autonomy and return, pogroms against the deported Meskhetian Turks were taking place in Central Asia. During
13689-417: The Crimean Tatar language, and 13 of them only do so in the first three grades. Squatting in Crimea has been a significant method for Crimean Tatars to rebuild communities in Crimea destroyed by the deportations. These squats have sometimes resulted in violence by Crimean Russians, such as the 1992 Krasny Ray events, in which the security forces of the separatist Republic of Crimea (not to be confused with
13858-435: The Crimean Tatar people are Tauri , Scythians , Sarmatians , Alans , Ancient Greeks , Crimean Goths , Huns , Bulgars , Khazars , Pechenegs , Cumans , Italians . The consolidation of this diverse ethnic conglomerate into a single Crimean Tatar people took place over the course of centuries. The connecting elements in this process were the commonality of the territory, the Turkic language and Islamic religion . By
14027-533: The Crimean Tatars has been strongly influenced by Russian historians, who have rewritten the history of the Crimean Khanate to justify the annexation of Crimea in 1783, and, especially, then by Soviet historians who distorted the history of Crimea to justify the 1944 deportation of the Crimean Tatars . The Russo-Turkish War (1768–1774) resulted in the defeat of the Ottomans by the Russians, and according to
14196-424: The Crimean Tatars, as a distinct ethnic group, were formed directly within Crimea, rather than migrating to the region, thereby affirming their status as the indigenous inhabitants of Crimea. Contrary to hypotheses suggesting that the gene pool of the Crimean Tatars was significantly influenced by Central Asian populations or Mongolic groups , genetic research indicates a considerable divergence from both, with
14365-573: The Crimean khans passed part of Nogays (Mangyts), who roamed outside the Crimean Peninsula , moving there during periods of drought and starvation. The majority of the population professed Islam of the Hanafi stream; part of the population – Orthodox, Monotheletism, Judaism; in the 16th century. There were small Catholic communities. The Crimean Tatar population of the Crimean Peninsula was partially exempt from taxes. The Greeks paid dzhyziya,
14534-576: The Donets Ridge and the Near Azov Upland. The snow melt from the mountains feeds the rivers and their waterfalls . Significant natural resources in Ukraine include lithium , natural gas, kaolin , timber and an abundance of arable land . Ukraine has many environmental issues. Some regions lack adequate supplies of potable water. Air and water pollution affects the country, as well as deforestation, and radiation contamination in
14703-610: The Great (980–1015), who introduced Christianity . During the reign of his son, Yaroslav the Wise (1019–1054), Kievan Rus' reached the zenith of its cultural development and military power. The state soon fragmented as the relative importance of regional powers rose again. After a final resurgence under the rule of Vladimir II Monomakh (1113–1125) and his son Mstislav (1125–1132), Kievan Rus' finally disintegrated into separate principalities following Mstislav's death, though ownership of Kyiv would still carry great prestige for decades. In
14872-655: The Italians were in a privileged position due to the partial tax relief made during the reign of Meñli Geray I . By the 18th century the population of the Crimean khanate was about 500 thousand people. The territory of the Crimean khanate was divided into Kinakanta (governorships), which consisted of Kadylyk, covering a number of settlements. Until the beginning of the 18th century, the Crimean Nogays were known for frequent, at some periods almost annual, slave raids into present-day 'mainland' Ukraine and Russia. For
15041-597: The Kingdom of Poland , becoming de jure Polish territory. Under the pressures of Polonisation , many landed gentry of Ruthenia converted to Catholicism and joined the circles of the Polish nobility ; others joined the newly created Ruthenian Uniate Church . Deprived of native protectors among the Ruthenian nobility, the peasants and townspeople began turning for protection to the emerging Zaporozhian Cossacks . In
15210-603: The North Caucasus. Ukraine Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe . It is the second-largest European country after Russia , which borders it to the east and northeast. It also borders Belarus to the north; Poland and Slovakia to the west; Hungary , Romania and Moldova to the southwest; with a coastline along the Black Sea and the Sea of Azov to the south and southeast. Kyiv
15379-803: The Northern Black Sea region , uniting Mediterranean populations with those of the Eurasian Steppe . Crimean Tatars constituted the majority of Crimea's population from the time of ethnogenesis until the mid-19th century, and the largest ethnic population until the end of the 19th century. Russia attempted to purge Crimean Tatars through a combination of physical violence, intimidation, forced resettlement, and legalized forms of discrimination between 1783 and 1900. From Russia's annexation of Crimea in 1783 to 1800, between 100,000 and 300,000 Crimean Tatars emigrated. While Crimean Tatar cultural elements were not completely eradicated under
15548-693: The OUN to create a homogeneous Ukrainian state without a Polish minority living within its borders, and to prevent the post-war Polish state from asserting its sovereignty over areas that had been part of pre-war Poland. After the war, the UPA continued to fight the USSR until the 1950s. At the same time, the Ukrainian Liberation Army , another nationalist movement, fought alongside the Nazis. In total,
15717-463: The Soviet Gulag system. Starting in 1944, Crimean Tatars lived mostly in Central Asia with the designation as "special settlers", meaning that they had few rights. "Special settlers" were forbidden from leaving small designated areas and had to frequently sign in at a commandant's office. Soviet propaganda directed towards Uzbeks depicted Crimean Tatars as threats to their homeland, and as
15886-583: The Soviet Union Abdraim Reshidov . In the later years of the Soviet Union, Crimean Tatar activists held picket protests in Red Square. After a prolonged effort of lobbying by the Crimean Tatar civil rights movement, the Soviet government established a commission in 1987 to evaluate the request for the right of return, chaired by Andrey Gromyko . Gromyko's condescending attitude and failure to assure them that they would have
16055-694: The Soviet Union and the Chairman of the USSR State Defense Committee. Although a great number of Crimean Tatar men served in the Red Army and took part in the partisan movement in Crimea during the war, the existence of a Tatar Legion in the Nazi army and the collaboration of some Crimean Tatar religious and political leaders with Hitler during the German occupation of Crimea provided the Soviet leadership with justification for accusing
16224-523: The Soviet Union in 1939, hailed the Germans as liberators, but that did not last long as the Nazis made little attempt to exploit dissatisfaction with Stalinist policies. Instead, the Nazis preserved the collective-farm system, carried out genocidal policies against Jews , deported millions of people to work in Germany , and began a depopulation program to prepare for German colonisation. They blockaded
16393-505: The Sultan was persistent. As it was expected by Qaplan Giray, in 1736 the Russian army invaded the Crimea, led by Münnich , devastated the peninsula, killed civilians and destroyed all major cities, occupied the capital, Bakhchisaray , and burnt the Khan's palace with all the archives and documents, and then left the Crimea because of the epidemic that had begun in it. One year after the same
16562-669: The Tatars will accept Russian passports or whether the autonomy sought would be within the Russian or Ukrainian state have been deferred pending further discussion. As of 2016 , the Mejlis worked in emergency mode in Kyiv . After the annexation of Crimea by Russian Federation, Crimean Tatars were persecuted and discriminated by Russian authorities, including cases of torture , arbitrary detentions , forced disappearances by Russian security forces and courts. On 12 June 2018, Ukraine lodged
16731-538: The Tatars; 12,000 boarded Allied ships in Sevastopol to escape the destruction of shelling, and were branded traitors by the Russian government. Of total Tatar population 300,000 of the Taurida Governorate about 200,000 Crimean Tatars emigrated. Many Crimean Tatars perished in the process of emigration, including those who drowned while crossing the Black Sea. In total, from 1783 till the beginning of
16900-547: The Ukrainian SSR became one of the founding members of the United Nations (UN), part of a special agreement at the Yalta Conference , and, alongside Belarus, had voting rights in the UN even though they were not independent. Moreover, Ukraine once more expanded its borders as it annexed Zakarpattia , and the population became much more homogenized due to post-war population transfers , most of which, as in
17069-475: The United States , European Union , and NATO . Ukraine is a unitary state and its system of government is a semi-presidential republic . A developing country , it is the poorest country in Europe by nominal GDP per capita and corruption remains a significant issue. However, due to its extensive fertile land , pre-war Ukraine was one of the largest grain exporters in the world . Ukraine
17238-526: The United States. Even though Russia had signed the Budapest memorandum in 1994 that said that Ukraine was to hand over nuclear weapons in exchange of security guarantees and those of territorial integrity, it reacted violently to these developments and started a war against its western neighbour . In late February and early March 2014, it annexed Crimea using its Navy in Sevastopol as well as
17407-511: The advancement of Ukrainian science and culture. This period was cut short when Joseph Stalin became the leader of the USSR following Lenin's death. Stalin did away with the NEP in what became known as the Great Break . Starting from the late 1920s and now with a centrally planned economy , Soviet Ukraine took part in an industrialisation scheme which quadrupled its industrial output during
17576-644: The annexation of Crimea – reportedly around 2,000 by 23 March. On 29 March 2014, an emergency meeting of the Crimean Tatars representative body, the Kurultai , voted in favor of seeking "ethnic and territorial autonomy" for Crimean Tatars using "political and legal" means. The meeting was attended by the Head of the Republic of Tatarstan and the chair of the Russian Council of Muftis . Decisions as to whether
17745-832: The beginning of World War I , and fighting on Ukrainian soil persisted until late 1921. Initially, the Ukrainians were split between Austria-Hungary, fighting for the Central Powers , though the vast majority served in the Imperial Russian Army , which was part of the Triple Entente , under Russia. As the Russian Empire collapsed, the conflict evolved into the Ukrainian War of Independence , with Ukrainians fighting alongside, or against,
17914-473: The border. Yurts or nomadic tents have traditionally played an important role in the cultural history of Crimean Tatars. There are different types of yurts; some are large and collapsible, called "terme", while others are small and non-collapsible (otav). Two types of alphabet are in use: Cyrillic and Latin. Initially Crimean Tatars used Arabic script. In 1928, it was replaced with the Latin alphabet. Cyrillic
18083-468: The case of Germans and Crimean Tatars , were forced. As of 1 January 1953, Ukrainians were second only to Russians among adult " special deportees ", comprising 20% of the total. Following the death of Stalin in 1953, Nikita Khrushchev became the new leader of the USSR, who began the policies of De-Stalinization and the Khrushchev Thaw . During his term as head of the Soviet Union, Crimea
18252-477: The competing visions of Ukraine, though Yushchenko and Yanukovych were generally pro-Western and pro-Russian, respectively. There were two major protests against Yanukovych: the Orange Revolution in 2004, when tens of thousands of people went in protest of election rigging in his favour (Yushchenko was eventually elected president), and another one in the winter of 2013/2014, when more gathered on
18421-593: The comprehensive analysis of complete Y-chromosomes, undertaken at the Laboratory of Genomic Geography of the N. I. Vavilov Institute of General Genetics of the Russian Academy of Sciences , focused on three specific haplogroups — G1 , N3 , and R1b — unveiled connections between the Crimean Tatars and the genomes of individuals from the Bronze Age steppes of Eurasia, specifically those associated with
18590-455: The deportations. However, issues of land failed to be resolved. Following news of Crimea's independence referendum organized with the help of Russia on 16 March 2014, the Kurultai leadership voiced concerns of renewed persecution, as commented by a U.S. official before the visit of a UN human rights team to the peninsula. At the same time, Rustam Minnikhanov , the president of Tatarstan
18759-531: The emergence of the Ilmen Slavs and Krivichs . Following an Avar raid in 602 and the collapse of the Antes Union, most of these peoples survived as separate tribes until the beginning of the second millennium. The establishment of the state of Kievan Rus' remains obscure and uncertain. The state included much of present-day Ukraine, Belarus and the western part of European Russia . According to
18928-416: The end of the 15th century, the main prerequisites that led to the formation of an independent Crimean Tatar ethnic group were created: the political dominance of the Crimean Khanate was established in Crimea, the Turkic languages ( Cuman-Kipchak on the territory of the khanate) became dominant, and Islam acquired the status of a state religion throughout the Peninsula. By a preponderance Cumanian population of
19097-482: The entire Crimean Tatar population of being Nazi collaborators. Some modern researchers argue that Crimea's geopolitical position fueled Soviet perceptions of Crimean Tatars as a potential threat. This belief is based in part on an analogy with numerous other cases of deportations of non-Russians from boundary territories , as well as the fact that other non-Russian populations, such as Greeks , Armenians and Bulgarians were also removed from Crimea (see Deportation of
19266-473: The establishment of a new government in 2014 after a revolution . Russia then unilaterally annexed Ukraine's Crimean Peninsula , and pro-Russian unrest culminated in a war in the Donbas between Russian-backed separatists and government forces in eastern Ukraine. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Since the outbreak of war with Russia , Ukraine has continued to seek closer ties with
19435-404: The euphemism that eventually became standard of "citizens of Tatar nationality who formerly lived in Crimea", angering many Crimean Tatars who realized it meant they were not even seen as Crimean Tatars by the government. In addition, the Soviet government did nothing to facilitate their resettlement in Crimea and to make reparations for lost lives and confiscated property. Before the mass return in
19604-603: The fighting in World War II took place on the Eastern Front . The total losses inflicted upon the Ukrainian population during the war are estimated at 6 million, including an estimated one and a half million Jews killed by the Einsatzgruppen , sometimes with the help of local collaborators. Of the estimated 8.6 million Soviet troop losses, 1.4 million were ethnic Ukrainians . The Victory Day
19773-461: The genetic diversity, whereas other haplogroups are classified as minor, each contributing between 1% and 5% to the overall genetic makeup of the Crimean Tatars. The Crimean Tatars were formed as a people in Crimea and are descendants of various peoples who lived in Crimea in different historical eras. The main ethnic groups that inhabited the Crimea at various times and took part in the formation of
19942-615: The government's policy towards the West. Shortly after Yanukovych fled Ukraine, the country signed the EU association agreement in June 2014, and its citizens were granted visa-free travel to the European Union three years later. In January 2019, the Orthodox Church of Ukraine was recognized as independent of Moscow, which reversed the 1686 decision of the patriarch of Constantinople and dealt
20111-659: The growing nationalist movement. While conditions for its development in Austrian Galicia under the Habsburgs were relatively lenient, the Russian part (historically known as " Little Russia " or "South Russia") faced severe restrictions, going as far as banning virtually all books from being published in Ukrainian in 1876. Ukraine, like the rest of the Russian Empire, joined the Industrial Revolution later than most of Western Europe due to
20280-697: The intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Crimean_Tatar&oldid=861870227 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages Language and nationality disambiguation pages Crimean Tatars Crimean Tatars ( Crimean Tatar : qırımtatarlar , къырымтатарлар ) or Crimeans ( Crimean Tatar : qırımlılar , къырымлылар ) are an East European Turkic ethnic group and nation indigenous to Crimea . The formation and ethnogenesis of Crimean Tatars lasted over 2500 years in Crimea and
20449-492: The largest country entirely in Europe. Lying between latitudes 44° and 53° N , and longitudes 22° and 41° E ., it is mostly in the East European Plain . Ukraine covers an area of 603,550 square kilometres (233,030 sq mi), with a coastline of 2,782 kilometres (1,729 mi). The landscape of Ukraine consists mostly of fertile steppes (plains with few trees) and plateaus, crossed by rivers such as
20618-521: The last major Cossack uprising, the Koliivshchyna . After the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 1783, the newly acquired lands, now called Novorossiya , were opened up to settlement by Russians. The tsarist autocracy established a policy of Russification , suppressing the use of the Ukrainian language and curtailing the Ukrainian national identity. The western part of present-day Ukraine
20787-450: The maintenance of serfdom until 1861. Other than near the newly discovered coal fields of the Donbas , and in some larger cities such as Odesa and Kyiv, Ukraine largely remained an agricultural and resource extraction economy. The Austrian part of Ukraine was particularly destitute , which forced hundreds of thousands of peasants into emigration, who created the backbone of an extensive Ukrainian diaspora in countries such as Canada ,
20956-641: The mid-17th century, a Cossack military quasi-state, the Zaporozhian Host , was formed by Dnieper Cossacks and Ruthenian peasants. Poland exercised little real control over this population, but found the Cossacks to be useful against the Turks and Tatars , and at times the two were allies in military campaigns . However, the continued harsh enserfment of Ruthenian peasantry by Polish szlachta (many of whom were Polonized Ruthenian nobles ) and
21125-464: The most endangered languages that are under serious threat of extinction ( severely endangered ) in 2010. However, according to the Institute of Oriental Studies , due to negative situations, the real degree of threat has elevated to critically endangered languages in recent years, which are highly likely to face extinction in the coming generations. The Crimean Tatars are subdivided into six sub-ethnic groups: Historians suggest that inhabitants of
21294-415: The mountainous parts of Crimea lying to the central and southern parts (the Tats), and those of the Southern coast of Crimea (the Yalıboyu) were the direct descendants of the Pontic Greeks , Scythians , Ostrogoths ( Crimean Goths ), and Kipchaks along with the Cumans while the latest inhabitants of the northern steppe represent the descendants of the Nogai Horde of the Black Sea, nominally subjects of
21463-409: The national level figure as high as 6 million, which is considered an overestimation. Crimean Tatars in Turkey mostly live in Eskişehir Province , descendants of those who emigrated in the late 18th, 19th and early 20th centuries. The Dobruja region of Romania and Bulgaria is home to more than 27,000 Crimean Tatars, with the majority in Romania and approximately 3,000 on the Bulgarian side of
21632-415: The new currency, the hryvnia , fell sharply in late 1998 partially as a fallout from the Russian debt default earlier that year. The legacy of the economic policies of the nineties was the mass privatization of state property that created a class of extremely powerful and rich individuals known as the oligarchs . The country then fell into a series of sharp recessions as a result of the Great Recession ,
21801-460: The non-violent Crimean Tatar movement did not lead to any desire for Crimean Tatars to leave Central Asia. In effect, the government was punishing Crimean Tatars for being Stakhanovites while rewarding the deported nations that contributed less to the building of socialism, creating further resentment. A 1967 Soviet decree removed the charges against Crimean Tatars on paper while simultaneously referring to them not by their proper ethnonym but by
21970-408: The north, to 11–13 °C (51.8–55.4 °F) in the south. Precipitation is highest in the west and north and lowest in the east and southeast. Western Ukraine, particularly in the Carpathian Mountains, receives around 120 centimetres (47.2 in) of precipitation annually, while Crimea and the coastal areas of the Black Sea receive around 40 centimetres (15.7 in). Water availability from
22139-592: The northeast from the 1986 accident at the Chernobyl Nuclear Power Plant. The environmental damage caused by the Russian invasion of Ukraine has been described as an ecocide , the destruction of Kakhovka Dam , severe pollution and millions of tonnes of contaminated debris is estimated to cost over USD 50 billion to repair. Ukraine is in the mid-latitudes, and generally has a continental climate , except for its southern coasts, which have cold semi-arid and humid subtropical climates . Average annual temperatures range from 5.5–7 °C (41.9–44.6 °F) in
22308-478: The northern steppe regions of the Crimea. The Mongol conquest of the Kipchaks led to a merged society with a Mongol ruling class over a Kipchak speaking population which came to be dubbed Tatar and which eventually absorbed other ethnicities on the Crimean peninsula like Italians, Greeks, and Goths to form the modern day Crimean Tatar people; up to the Soviet deportation, the Crimean Tatars could still differentiate among themselves between Tatar, Kipchak, Nogays, and
22477-424: The number of ethnic Ukrainians who fought in the ranks of the Soviet Army is estimated from 4.5 million to 7 million; half of the Pro-Soviet partisan guerrilla resistance units, which counted up to 500,000 troops in 1944, were also Ukrainian. Generally, the Ukrainian Insurgent Army's figures are unreliable, with figures ranging anywhere from 15,000 to as many as 100,000 fighters. The vast majority of
22646-464: The other regions of the Soviet Union, though it was one of the poorer Soviet republics by the time of the dissolution. However, during its transition to the market economy, the country experienced deeper economic slowdown than almost all of the other former Soviet Republics . During the recession, between 1991 and 1999, Ukraine lost 60% of its GDP and suffered from hyperinflation that peaked at 10,000% in 1993. The situation only stabilized well after
22815-541: The peoples inhabiting Crimea ). All 240,000 Crimean Tatars were deported en masse , in a form of collective punishment , on 17–18 May 1944 as "special settlers" to the Uzbek Soviet Socialist Republic and other distant parts of the Soviet Union . This event is called Sürgün in the Crimean Tatar language ; the few who escaped were shot on sight or drowned in scuttled barges, and within months half their number had died of cold, hunger, exhaustion and disease. Many of them were re-located to toil as forced labourers in
22984-407: The perestroika era, Crimean Tatars made up only 1.5% of Crimea's population, since government entities at all levels took a variety of measures beyond the already-debilitating residence permit system to keep them in Central Asia. The abolition of the special settlement regime made it possible for Crimean Tatar rights activists to mobilize. The primary method of raising grievances with the government
23153-898: The pogroms, some Crimean Tatars were targeted as well, resulting in changing attitudes towards allowing Crimean Tatars to move back to Crimea. Eventually a second commission, chaired by Gennady Yanaev and inclusive of Crimean Tatars on the board, was established in 1989 to reevaluate the issue, and it was decided that the deportation was illegal and the Crimean Tatars were granted the full right to return, revoking previous laws intended to make it as difficult as possible for Crimean Tatars to move to Crimea. 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. One-third of them are atheists, and over half that consider themselves religious are non-observant. As of 2009, only 15 out of 650 schools in Crimea provided education in
23322-419: The population at the time—either were killed or forced out of Crimea. During Stalin 's Great Purge , statesmen and intellectuals such as Veli İbraimov and Bekir Çoban-zade were imprisoned or executed on various charges. In May 1944, the entire Crimean Tatar population of Crimea was exiled to Central Asia, mainly to Uzbekistan, on the orders of Joseph Stalin, the General Secretary of the Communist Party of
23491-418: The post-2014 government of the same name) attacked a Crimean Tatar squat near the village of Krasny Ray. As a result of the attack on the Krasny Ray settlement, Crimean Tatars stormed the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea , leading to the release of 26 squatters who had been abducted by the Crimean security forces. Crimean Tatars were recognised as an indigenous people by the 1996 Constitution of Ukraine , and granted
23660-439: The post-war Soviet Union that had been devastated by both WWI and later the civil war. The NEP was successful at restoring the formerly war-torn nation to pre-WWI levels of production and agricultural output by the mid-1920s, much of the latter based in Ukraine. These policies attracted many prominent former UNR figures, including former UNR leader Hrushevsky, to return to Soviet Ukraine, where they were accepted, and participated in
23829-406: The right of return ended up concerning members of the Crimean Tatar civil rights movement. In June 1988 he issued an official statement that rejected the request for re-establishment of a Crimean Tatar autonomy in Crimea and supported only allowing an organized return of a few more Crimean Tatars, while agreeing to allow the lower-priority requests of having more publications and school instruction in
23998-540: The role of the slave trade in the economy of the Crimean Khanate is greatly exaggerated by modern historians, and the raiding-dependent economy is nothing but a historical myth. According to modern researches, livestock occupied a leading position in the economy of the Crimean Khanate, Crimean Khanate was one of the main wheat suppliers to the Ottoman Empire. Salt mining, viticulture and winemaking, horticulture and gardening were also developed as sources of income. Several modern historians have argued that historiography on
24167-420: The ruling Rurik dynasty , later assimilated into the Slavic population. Kievan Rus' was composed of several principalities ruled by the interrelated Rurikid kniazes ("princes"), who often fought each other for possession of Kyiv. During the 10th and 11th centuries, Kievan Rus' became the largest and most powerful state in Europe, a period known as its Golden Age. It began with the reign of Vladimir
24336-404: The same right of return; the same decree that rehabilitated other deported nations and restored their national republics urged Crimean Tatars who wanted a national republic to seek "national reunification" in the Tatar ASSR in lieu of restoration of the Crimean ASSR, much to the dismay of Crimean Tatars who bore no connection to or desire to "return" to Tatarstan. Moscow's refusal to allow a return
24505-512: The so- called little green men ; after this succeeded, it then launched a proxy war in the Donbas via the breakaway Donetsk People's Republic and Luhansk People's Republic . The first months of the conflict with the Russian-backed separatists were fluid, but Russian forces then started an open invasion in Donbas on 24 August 2014. Together they pushed back Ukrainian troops to the frontline established in February 2015, i.e. after Ukrainian troops withdrew from Debaltseve . The conflict remained in
24674-480: The so-called parade of sovereignties , on 16 July 1990, the newly elected Supreme Soviet of the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic adopted the Declaration of State Sovereignty of Ukraine . After a failed coup by some Communist leaders in Moscow at deposing Gorbachov, outright independence was proclaimed on 24 August 1991. It was approved by 92% of the Ukrainian electorate in a referendum on 1 December. Ukraine's new President , Leonid Kravchuk, went on to sign
24843-430: The start of the Russo-Ukrainian War in 2014, and finally, the full-scale invasion by Russia in starting from 24 February 2022. Ukraine's economy in general underperformed since the time independence came due to pervasive corruption and mismanagement, which, particularly in the 1990s, led to protests and organized strikes. The war with Russia impeded meaningful economic recovery in the 2010s, while efforts to combat
25012-422: The suppression of the Orthodox Church alienated the Cossacks. The latter did not shy from taking up arms against those they perceived as enemies and occupiers, including the Catholic Church with its local representatives. In 1648, Bohdan Khmelnytsky led the largest of the Cossack uprisings against the Commonwealth and the Polish king , which enjoyed wide support from the local population. Khmelnytsky founded
25181-414: The territory with a Ukrainian ethnic majority. Although this brought conflict with Nazi Germany, at times the Melnyk wing of the OUN allied with the Nazi forces. From mid-1943 until the end of the war, the UPA carried out massacres of ethnic Poles in the Volhynia and Eastern Galicia regions, killing around 100,000 Polish civilians, which brought reprisals. These organized massacres were an attempt by
25350-468: The time of the Crimean Khanate. Polish historian Bohdan Baranowski assumed that in the 17th century Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth (present-day Poland , Ukraine , Lithuania and Belarus ) lost an average of 20,000 yearly and as many as one million in all years combined from 1500 to 1644. One of the most famous victims of the Tatar slave trade was a young woman from Ruthenia , captured during her wedding who came to be known as Roxelana (Hürrem Sultan),
25519-436: The transport of food on the Dnieper River. Although the majority of Ukrainians fought in or alongside the Red Army and Soviet resistance , in Western Ukraine an independent Ukrainian Insurgent Army movement arose (UPA, 1942). It was created as the armed forces of the underground Organization of Ukrainian Nationalists (OUN). Both organizations, the OUN and the UPA, supported the goal of an independent Ukrainian state on
25688-454: The underground Ukrainian nationalist and militant movement, which arose in the 1920s gained wider support. Meanwhile, the recently constituted Soviet Ukraine became one of the founding republics of the Soviet Union . During the 1920s, under the Ukrainisation policy pursued by the national Communist leadership of Mykola Skrypnyk , Soviet leadership at first encouraged a national renaissance in Ukrainian culture and language . Ukrainisation
25857-431: The windows of their neighbours, receiving sweets in return. The traditional cuisine of the Crimean Tatars has similarities with that of Greeks , Italians , Balkan peoples, Nogays , North Caucasians, and Volga Tatars , although some national dishes and dietary habits vary between different Crimean Tatar regional subgroups; for example, fish and produce are more popular among Yaliboylu Tatar dishes while meat and dairy
26026-448: Was de jure declared one of the three official languages of Crimea. It was also announced that Crimean Tatars will be required to relinquish coastal lands on which they squatted since their return to Crimea in the early 1990s and be given land elsewhere in Crimea. Crimea stated it needed the relinquished land for "social purposes", since part of this land is occupied by the Crimean Tatars without legal documents of ownership. The situation
26195-496: Was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR , formally as a friendship gift to Ukraine and for economic reasons. This represented the final extension of Ukrainian territory and formed the basis for the internationally recognized borders of Ukraine to this day. Ukraine was one of the most important republics of the Soviet Union, which resulted in many top positions in the Soviet Union being occupied by Ukrainians, including notably Leonid Brezhnev , General Secretary of
26364-444: Was caused by the inability of the USSR (and later Ukraine) to sell the land to Crimean Tatars at a reasonable price instead of giving back to the Tatars the land owned before deportation, once they or their descendants returned from Central Asia (mainly Uzbekistan). As a consequence, some Crimean Tatars settled as squatters, occupying land that was and is still not legally registered. Some Crimean Tatars fled to Mainland Ukraine due to
26533-423: Was destroyed by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century. The area was then contested, divided, and ruled by a variety of external powers for the next 600 years, including the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth , the Austrian Empire , the Ottoman Empire , and the Tsardom of Russia . The Cossack Hetmanate emerged in central Ukraine in the 17th century, but was partitioned between Russia and Poland, and absorbed by
26702-433: Was dispatched to Crimea to quell Crimean Tatars' concerns and to state that "in the 23 years of Ukraine's independence the Ukrainian leaders have been using Crimean Tatars as pawns in their political games without doing them any tangible favors". The issue of Crimean Tatar persecution by Russia has since been raised regularly on an international level. On 18 March 2014, the day Crimea was annexed by Russia, and Crimean Tatar
26871-402: Was done by another Russian general — Peter Lacy . Since then, the Crimean Khanate had not been able to recover, and its slow decline began. The Russo-Turkish War of 1768 to 1774 resulted in the defeat of the Ottomans by the Russians, and according to the Treaty of Küçük Kaynarca (1774) signed after the war, Crimea became independent and the Ottomans renounced their political right to protect
27040-420: Was endowed with piped water, sewerage and a theatre where Molière was performed in French, while the port of Kezlev stood comparison with Rotterdam and Bakhchysarai , the capital, was described as Europe's cleanest and greenest city. In 1441, an embassy from the representatives of several strongest clans of the Crimea, including the Golden Horde clans Shırın and Barın and the Cumanic clan — Kıpçak, went to
27209-406: Was forced to leave Crimea for Lithuania. The Crimean Tatars emerged as a nation at the time of the Crimean Khanate , an Ottoman vassal state during the 16th to 18th centuries. Russian historian, doctor of history, Professor of the Russian Academy of Sciences Ilya Zaytsev writes that analysis of historical data shows that the influence of Turkey on the policy of the Crimea was not as high as it
27378-583: Was introduced in 1938 based on the Russian alphabet. The Cyrillic alphabet was the only official one between 1938 and 1997. All its letters coincide with those of the Russian alphabet. The 1990s saw the start of the gradual transition of the language to the new Latin alphabet based on the Turkish one. The songs (makam) of the nomadic steppe Crimean Tatars are characterized by diatonic, melodic simplicity and brevity. The songs of mountainous and southern coastal Crimean Tatars, called Crimean Tatar : Türkü , are sung with richly ornamented melodies. Household lyricism
27547-522: Was not only based on a desire to satisfy the new Russian settlers in Crimea, who were very hostile to the idea of a return and had been subject to lots of Tatarophobic propaganda, but for economic reasons: high productivity from Crimean Tatar workers in Central Asia meant that letting the diaspora return would take a toll on Soviet industrialization goals in Central Asia. Historians have long suspected that violent resistance to confinement in exile from Chechens led to further willingness to let them return, while
27716-419: Was part of the Scythian kingdom. From the 6th century BC, Greek , Roman , and Byzantine colonies were established on the north-eastern shore of the Black Sea , such as at Tyras , Olbia , and Chersonesus . These thrived into the 6th century AD. The Goths stayed in the area, but came under the sway of the Huns from the 370s. In the 7th century, the territory that is now eastern Ukraine
27885-475: Was part of the Soviet-wide policy of Korenisation (literally indigenisation ), which was intended to promote the advancement of native peoples, their language and culture into the governance of their respective republics. Around the same time, Soviet leader Vladimir Lenin instituted the New Economic Policy (NEP), which introduced a form of market socialism , allowing some private ownership of small and medium-sized productive enterprises, hoping to reconstruct
28054-417: Was petitioning. Many for the right of return gained over 100,000 signatures; although other methods of protest were occasionally used, the movement remained completely non-violent. When only a small percentage of Crimean Tatars were allowed to return to Crimea, those who were not granted residence permits would return to Crimea and try to live under the radar. However, the lack of a residence permit resulted in
28223-410: Was reported in old Turkish sources and Imperial Russian ones. The Turkic-speaking population of Crimea had mostly adopted Islam already in the 14th century, following the conversion of Ozbeg Khan of the Golden Horde . By the time of the first Russian invasion of Crimea in 1736, the Khan's archives and libraries were famous throughout the Islamic world, and under Khan Krym-Girei the city of Aqmescit
28392-497: Was subsequently split between Russia and Habsburg -ruled Austria after the fall of the Polish–Lithuanian Commonwealth in 1795. The 19th century saw the rise of Ukrainian nationalism. With growing urbanization and modernization and a cultural trend toward romantic nationalism , a Ukrainian intelligentsia committed to national rebirth and social justice emerged. The serf-turned-national-poet Taras Shevchenko (1814–1861) and political theorist Mykhailo Drahomanov (1841–1895) led
28561-448: Was the centre of Old Great Bulgaria . At the end of the century, the majority of Bulgar tribes migrated in different directions, and the Khazars took over much of the land. In the 5th and 6th centuries, the Antes , an early Slavic people, lived in Ukraine. Migrations from the territories of present-day Ukraine throughout the Balkans established many South Slavic nations. Northern migrations, reaching almost to Lake Ilmen , led to
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