Siberian Tatars

Sybyrs, Sibirs

Sıbırlar, Sibirtar
Siberian Tatar folklore group Naza from Omsk Oblast
Total population
6,297 — 210,000
Regions with significant populations
Russia  Tyumen Oblast: 5,711  Khanty-Mansi Autonomous Okrug: 182  Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous Okrug: 98  Omsk Oblast: 138  Novosibirsk Oblast: 24  Sverdlovsk Oblast: 12  Tomsk Oblast: 12  Kemerovo Oblast: 6	6,779[1] (2010 census) – 210,000[2]
Languages
Siberian Tatar, Russian, Tatar
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Altaians, Chulyms, Khakas, Shors, Oirats, Tuvans, Buryats, Kazakhs

Siberian Tatars or Sybyrs/Sibirs (Сыбырлар, сибиртар, Sıbırlar, Sibirtar) are the indigenous Turkic-speaking population of the forests and steppes of Western Siberia, originating in areas stretching from somewhat east of the Ural Mountains to the Yenisey River in Russia. The Siberian Tatars call themselves Yerle Xalıq ("older inhabitants"), to distinguish themselves from more recent Volga Tatar immigrants to the region.^[4]

The word "Tatar" or "Tadar" is also a self-designation by some closely related Siberian ethnic groups, namely the Altaians, Chulyms, Khakas, and Shors.

The 2010 census counted more than 500,000 people in Siberia defining their ethnicity as "Tatar".^[5] About 200,000 of them are considered indigenous Siberian Tatars.^[6] However, only 6,779 of them called themselves "Siberian Tatars".^[5] It is not completely clear which part of those who called themselves "Siberian Tatars" consider themselves to be a separate ethnos and which part as a group into the Tatar people, because the census took into account the Siberian Tatars as a subgroup of the Tatar ethnos.^[5]

As of 2018^[update], the Siberian Tatars do not yet have public education available in their own language. Lessons in the local schools are taught only in the Russian and Volga Tatar languages.