Crimean Tatars

The Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people of the Crimean peninsula, whose fate has been especially tragic. They are closely related to other Turkic peoples of Kipchak origin.

The Bakhchisaray Khan Palace, residence of the Crimean khans, in a historic photograph (Unknown Russian photographer (public domain); Public domain; Wikimedia Commons)

Deportation and return

In 1944 the Soviet occupation authorities deported the entire Crimean Tatar people from Crimea to Central Asia and Siberia. The deportees were allowed to return only in the late 1980s, in the final years of the Soviet Union. Under Ukraine the Crimean Tatars were protected; the peninsula's later situation is once again difficult for them.

The fate of the Crimean Tatars is an example of how the occupation authorities expelled whole peoples from their homeland.

See also

• The fall of Kazan and Tatarstan

• The Lipka Tatars

• The Kryashens: Christianized Tatars

• History of the Tatars

• The Golden Horde

• Edigü (Yedigei)

• Sürgün — the deportation of the Crimean Tatars

Sources: Crimean Tatars.