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Home , Crimean Khanate, Crimean Tatar language, Kipchaks

84 I Crimean them, as they firmly believe that descent should play a central role. When the So­ viet state crumbled, Cossack paramilitary Crimean Tatars are the native Turkic peo­ troops stepped in on their own initiative to ple of the Crimean peninsula, located on maintain law and order. The Cossack orga­ the northern shores of the . Ac­ nization was granted recognition through cording to the 2001 census, the population the establishment of public financial sup­ of () is 2,031,000, of which p011, the founding of military academies the Crimean Tatars constitute around forCossack recruits, and separate Cossack 15 percent (Russians make up 65-70% and military units in the Russian army during 10-15%). Apart from those Yeltsin's presidency. Support is neverthe­ who returned to Crimea from exile under less not firm,and many of the decrees grant­ the Soviets, there are also Crimean Tatars ing special rights have stalled living elsewhere in Ukraine, , in the Duma. Cossacks are proponents the Russian Federation, Tajikistan, and of Russian nationalism and have been in­ other ex-Soviet Republics. It is estimated volved in violent episodes directed at other that the total population of Crimean Tatars ethnic and religious minorities. The sup­ ranges from300,000 to 500,000 within the port of the Cossack movement and its po­ territory of the former (except litical projects has lost some of its clout, as Ukraine). Large diasporic communities of the Russian state has become consolidated. Crimean Tatars also reside in other coun­ Cossackdom nevertheless remains a potent tries, such as (around 5,000,000), political symbol in . (30,000), the United States Hege Toje (30,000), (15,000), and Gennany (20,000). Crimean Tatars adhere to Sunni . Their language includes elements of Further Reading and Oghuz, the two principal Tur­ Longworth, Phillip. The Cossacks. London: Constable, 1969. kic groups. In terms of grammar and vo­ cabulary, modern Crimean O'Rourke, Shane. The Cossacks. New York: Manchester University Press, 2007. is closely related to the Turkish spoken in O'Rourke, Shane. Warriors and Peasants: The Turkey. in Late Imperial Russia. New The earliest known existence of Turkic York: St. Martin's Press, 2000. peoples in Crimea dates to the time of the Seaton, Albert. The Horsemen of the : Huns who, during their westward drive, in­ The Story of the Cossacks. London: Bodley vaded parts of the Crimean peninsula in the Head, 1985. second half of the 4th century CE. By the Skinner, Barbara. "Identity Formation in Rus­ end of the 7th century, Crimea had become sian Cossack Revival." -Asia Stud­ part of the Turkic Khazar Empire. With the ies 46, no. 6 (1994): 1017-1037. Toje, Hege. 2006. "Cossack Identity in the gradual disintegration of the Khazar Em­ New Russia: Cossack Revival and pire, a new wave of , the Local Politics." Europe-Asia Studies 58, no. , invaded the steppes north of 7 (2006): 1057-1077. the Black Sea, and a large group of them Crimean Tatars I 8S forced their way into Crimea, where they with the whereby the settled down during the early 10th cen­ Crimean Khanateaccepted Ottoman over­ tury. Within less than a century, another lordship. Henceforth,Crimean Tatar armies influx of Turkic horsemen, the joined the military expeditions of the Otto­ (), followed the Pechenegs. The mans upon the request of the Sultan. Cumans dominated Crimea formore than The Crimean remained a two centuries, with the exception of certain mighty power in Eastern European poli­ coastal cities ruled by the Byzantines and tics for the succeeding three centuries. As later by the Venetians and Genoese. The its dominions extended from the North Cumans left a very strong cultural and lin­ Caucasus to the Dnestr River, the ­ guistic legacy in the contemporary culture ate essentially played the role of a buffer of Crimean Tatars. state between Muscovy and the Ottoman In the 1240s, the armies of the Mon­ territories. During the 16th and 17th cen­ gol Genghis Khanoccupied Crimea. Soon turies, the effectively after, when the Great Chinghiside Empire curbed the southward expansion of Mus­ practically disintegrated, Crimea became covy. The Treaty of Kti�tik Kaynarca in part of the western branch of the Mongo­ 1774 terminated the Ottoman lian Empire, the . Within less over the khanate. Following a decade of than a century, the Golden Horde became civil strife actively provoked by Russia, thoroughly Turkified and Islamicized, as Empress Catherine II formally annexed ethnic Turkic peoples far outnumbered Crimea to the in 1783. Mongolians. Several Turkic tribes and The characteristic feature of Russian groups settled in Crimea then and gradu­ rule was vigorous effort by the tsarist ally amalgamated with the conquered pop­ administration to colonize and Slavicize ulation, which also included many Turkic Crimea. Repressive Russian rule and the elements. Thus, and Islam­ large-scale expropriations led to massive ization of the largest part of the penin­ emigration of Crimean Tatars to Otto­ sula ensued throughout this era. Since the man Turkey. As a result, from the 1860s 13th century the Turkic-Muslim (as well on, Crimean Tatars effectively lost their as the Turkified and Islamicized) popu­ status as the majority population in the lation of Crimea has come to be called Crimea. "Crimean Tatars." Still, the national education drive of Upon the disintegration of the Golden the Crimean Tatar reformist ismail Horde, a Chinghiside prince, Hac1 Geray, Gasp1rah resulted in initiating a whole­ after unsuccessfully attempting to seize sale national movement. By the 1910s, a the throne of the Golden Horde, settled Crimean Tatar intelligentsia and a number in Crimea and declared himself the Khan of underground groups aiming at the libera­ of Crimea around 1428. His domains in­ tion of the Crimean Tatar people came into cluded Crimea and the Kipchak Steppes existence. With the outbreak of the March situated north of the Crimea. In 1475,. 1917 Revolution in Russia, these nation­ Mengli Geray I concluded an agreement alist groups soon took control of Crimean 86 I Crimean Tatars

Tatar affairs in Crimea. In November , and , where survivors 1917, direct democratic elections led to were assigned to special settlements re­ the formationof a Crimean Tatar Qurultay sembling concentration camps without ad­ (National Parliament). In December, the equate housing, means of subsistence, or Qurultay declared an independent Crimean social facilities, and without permission Democratic Republic. After a brief armed to leave their designated settlements for struggle, Russian Bolsheviks invaded the 16 years. peninsula and succeeded in ove1ihrowing In the meantime, the authorities eradi­ the newborn republic. Up to 1920, Crimea cated virtually every trace of Crimean Tatar changed hands three times between the culture. Russian toponyms replaced all White and Red Russian armies, neither of Tatar ones, while even the term "Crimean which sympathized with the national aspi­ Tatar" was removed from the encyclope­ rations of Crimean Tatars. dias and censuses. A massive settlement of In November 1920, the Red Army fi­ Russians in Crimea commenced. In 1954, nally invaded and occupied Crimea, and Crimea was incorporated into the Ukrai­ in October 1921, the Crimean Autono­ nian SSR. mous Soviet Socialist Republic (Crimean In 1956, the Crimean Tatar National ASSR) was declared. Crimean Tatars, like Movement was formed in exile to demand other national groups in the Soviet Union, the return to the homeland. It became one suffered under the dekulakization, that is, of the earliest national-democratic move­ the collectivization of agriculture, the fam­ ments in the post-Stalinist Soviet Union. ines, and the Great Te1rnrof the 1920s and The Soviet response was the imprison­ 1930s. By 1938, the Crimean Tatar national ment, arrest, and harassment of the ac­ intelligentsia was virtually liquidated. tivists of the movement. However, the Soon after the beginning of the Ger­ Crimean Tatar National Movement, with man-Russian war during World War II, the conspicuous support of the Crimean the German armies occupied Crimea Tatar population in exile, continued its in the fall of 1941. In April 1944, how­ activities. The flowof petitions with tens ever, the Red Army recaptured the penin­ of thousands of signatures, numerous sula fromthe Germans. On May 18, 1944, deputations to , and mass dem­ the entire Crimean Tatar population, to onstrations and meetings persisted. This the last person, was depmied fromCrimea state of affairs lasted until Gorbachev's by the People's Commissariat for Public policies of perestroika and glasnost. Affairs (Narodnyy Komissariat Vnutren­ In July 1987, the Crimean Tatar Na­ nikh Del-NKVD) and Red Army troops. tional Movement organized its first public The dreadful journey, which took place meeting on Red Square in Moscow. Fol­ in sealed cattle cars crammed with peo­ lowing this event, the government formed ple without adequate food, water, or sani­ a number of successive state commissions tary and medical care, lasted at least three to deal with the Crimean Tatar problem, weeks and cost half of the deportees their but none took any concrete or constructive lives. The cars were destined forthe Urals, steps to enable Crimean Tatars to reclaim Croats I 87 their homeland. Frustrated by such delays, their rights previous to the deportation, the a centralized Organization of the Crimean threateningly high rates of child deaths, Tatar National Movement (OCTNM) low living standards, landlessness, and un­ formedin exile in 1989, defied the Soviet employment as well as the strong desire authorities, and urged exiled Crimean Ta­ for national educational and cultural insti­ tars to return to the Crimea illegally. tutions continue to trouble Crimean Tatar In January 1991, the leadership of the society. Crimean regional Communist Party de­ Hakan Kirimli clared the establishment of the Crimean ASSR. Crimean Tatars vigorously opposed Further Reading this new formation,arguing that this did not Allworth, Edward, ed. Tatars of the Crimea: constitute the reestablishment of the fo1mer Their Struggle fo r Survival. Durham, NC: Crimean ASSR in which Crimean Tatars Duke University Press, 1988. had enjoyed their preeminent status as the Kmmal, Edige. Der nationale Kampf der native people. Upon the initiative of the Krimtiirken (The National Struggle of the OCTNM, elections for the Qurultay were Crimean Tatars). Emsdetten/Westfallen: Lechte, 1952. conducted among Crimean Tatars in exile Kmmh, Hakan. National Movements and Na­ and in Crimea. On June 22, 1991, the sec­ tional Identity among the Crimean Tatars ond Qurultay convened in Akmescit (Sim­ (/905-/9/6). Leiden: E.J. Brill, 1996. ferepol).The Qurultay thereupon delegated Lazzerini, Edward James. "ismail Bey its powers between its plenary sessions to Gasprinskii and Muslim Modernism in Rus­ the Milli Meclis (National Council), which sia, 1878-1914." PhD diss., University of was elected from among the Qurultay Washington, 1973. deputies. Sheehy, Ann, and Bohdan Nahaylo. The Although the Qurultay and Milli Meclis Crimean Tatars and Germans: So­ viet Treatment of Two National Minorities. have not been granted an unequivocal rec­ London: Minority Rights Group, 1989. ognition on the part of the Ukrainian gov­ ernment since their foundation, they act as representative bodies of the Crimean Tatar people. Throughout the Croats 1990s a number of diplomatic crises oc­ curred between Ukraine and Russia over Croats, or Croatians (Hrvati, pl.), are the the status of Crimea. While the Russian majority population in Croatia, a south­ population of the peninsula stood for eastern European country with 4 million the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the people (2001) having Zagreb as its capital. Crimean Tatars staunchly refused such a A worldwide diaspora, estimated at about possibility and defended the Ukrainianter­ the same size, includes those living in the ritorial integrity. neighboring countries of Bosnia-Herze­ Currently, the problems of Crimean govina, Serbia, and Slovenia after the dis­ Tatar returnees are still far from being solution of Yugoslavia; descendants of solved. The issues of the restoration of Croats who moved to present-day Austria,