Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: qırımtatarlar, къырымтатарлар) or Crimeans (Crimean Tatar: qırımlılar, къырымлылар) are a Turkicethnic group and nation native to Crimea. The formation and ethnogenesis of Crimean Tatars occurred during the 13th–17th centuries, uniting Cumans, who appeared in Crimea in the 10th century, with other peoples who had inhabited Crimea since ancient times and gradually underwent Tatarization, including Ukrainian Greeks, Italians, Ottoman Turks, Goths, Sarmatians and many others.[10] Despite the popular misconception, Crimean Tatars are not a diaspora of or subgroup of the Tatars.
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.[11][12]Russia attempted to purge Crimean Tatars through a combination of physical violence, intimidation, forced resettlement, and legalized forms of discrimination between 1783 and 1900. Between Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 1783 and 1800, somewhere between 100,000 and 300,000 Crimean Tatars emigrated. However, this did not result in the complete eradication of Crimean Tatar cultural elements (at least not under the Romanov dynasty; however, under the Soviets, the Crimean Tatars were almost completely driven from the Crimean peninsula).[13]
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 a result of the deportations.[14] 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 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.[15][16] The current Russian administration considers them a "national minority", but not an indigenous people,[17][18] 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).[19][20][21][22] Today, Crimean Tatars constitute approximately 15% of the population of Crimea.[23] There remains a Crimean Tatar diaspora in Turkey and Uzbekistan.
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^"Recensamant Romania 2002". Agentia Nationala pentru Intreprinderi Mici si Mijlocii (in Romanian). 2002. Archived from the original on 13 May 2007. Retrieved 5 August 2007.