It’s evident from the Ukrainian determination to go south, and the russians’ desperate misinformation and distraction efforts to thwart that movement, that Ukraine is planning, in the near future, to return Crimea to its rightful place as an important region of Ukraine. Why are the Ukrainians so determined to do this?
The answer lies with one of the indigenous peoples of Ukraine, whose homeland is Crimea. They are the Crimean Tatars, a largely Muslim group who make up about 13% of Crimea’s population1.
Ukraine has two memory days associated with the Crimean Tatars. One of them relates to their flag. In a separate post I reprinted and commented on the article “Today we raise the Crimean Tatar flag”. The article had appeared on the Presidential website on June 26, 2022, and I was struck by how many things it illustrates about the culture of Ukraine.
The other memory day is May 18, the date in 1944 that Soviet authorities rounded up the Crimean Tatars and removed them to russia and other Soviet countries, an attempt at genocide echoed in what is happening to them today. Last May, in commemoration of this tragic event, the Ukraine flag and the blue Crimean Tatar flag were lowered in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine2.
But, exactly who are the Crimean Tatars? In the 10th century, a *Turkic-speaking, nomadic people called the Cumans appeared in Crimea. They found an amazing variety of people living there from very ancient times — Tauri, Alans, Goths, Scythians, Sarmatians, Greeks, Huns, Bulgars, Khazars, Pechenegs, what would later be Italians, and Circassians.
Over the centuries, particularly the 13th through 17th century, this diverse ethnic conglomerate came together to form the Crimean Tatars, united by their Turkic language, their strong connection to the territory of Crimea, and their Islamic religion. It is important to note that the Crimean Tatars formed as a single people in Crimea, their only homeland.3,4
So the recovery of Crimea by Ukraine is not simply a matter of recovering land, of recovering territory. Although it IS important to respect the territorial integrity of all nation-states, lest the discredited concept of right of conquest be strengthened.
To recover Crimea is to recover Ukrainian citizens; to recover human beings whose welfare is the sworn responsibility of the government of Ukraine. This an especially pressing responsibility in the case of the Crimean Tatars and other indigenous peoples because of their unique cultures, but there is another, more urgent factor.
There has been a repeated, marked pattern of intended genocide by russia toward the Crimean Tatars and other indigenes. Most recently, 79 years ago (May 18, 1944) the Soviet Union rounded up as many Crimean Tatars as they could find and deported them to distant parts of russia or other Soviet countries. Many died on the way to their place of exile, and few ever returned to Crimea.
However, the 1944 deportation was not the first time the russians had tried to get rid of the Crimean Tatars; nor, sadly, would it be the last time. From when they emerged as a distinct cultural group until the mid-19th century, Crimean Tatars made up the majority of Crimea’s population.
By the end of the 19th century, their numbers had declined, although they still were the largest ethnic group in Crimea. The decline in numbers was because the russians, once they annexed Crimea in 1783 (yes, their landgrab now is a repeat performance), ran a program of “physical violence, intimidation, forced resettlement, and legalized forms of discrimination” toward the Tatars through at least 1900.3
And now, in occupied Crimea, they are at it again. For example, in the recent mobilization drive by russia (September 2022) to replenish their army, occupied Crimea wasn’t spared.
Many Crimean men received mobilization notices to join the russian army, proceed to the active front, and fight against their fellow Ukrainian citizens. Even worse, 90% of these notices went to Crimean Tatars, although the Tatars presently only make up about 13% of the population of Crimea1.
The longer the russian occupation of Crimea goes on, the more of these unique people will be imprisoned, abused, mobilized, and/or forcibly deported to russia. Time is of the essence in saving these fellow Ukrainians.
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*Turkic-speaking The Turkic languages are a language family (One of the world’s primary language families) of more than 35 documented languages, spoken by the Turkic peoples of Eurasia from Eastern Europe and Southern Europe to Central Asia, East Asia, North Asia, and West Asia. Among the modern Turkic languages are Turkish, Azerbaijani, Crimean Tatar, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Uzbek, Uyghur and about sixteen more.
Footnotes1. ‘A way to get rid of us’: Crimean Tatars decry Russia’s mobilisation by Shaun Walker in Kyiv, The Guardian, 9-25-23.
2. (Photo) Crimean Tatar flag and Ukraine flag lowered in front of the Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Ukraine on 5-18-23 in memory of the forced deportation of the Crimean Tatar people on May 18, 1944. Posted to Twitter 11-16-23 by Emine Dzheppar, deputy foreign minister of Ukraine.
3. Crimean Tatars article, URL=https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars, via Wikipedia.org.
4. Cumans article, URL= https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cumans, via Wikipedia.org.
Information on Turkic languages from Turkic Languages article, URL = https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Turkic_languages, via Wikipedia.org.
LinksArticle about Mustafa Dzhemilev Article about Mustafa Dzhemilev receiving the Hero of Ukraine award on his 80th birthday, which also is the Day of Remembrance of the Deportation of the Crimean Tatars.
President of Ukraine meeting with the Mejlis President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with and gives an address to representatives of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis on May 18, 2023.
Address of President Zelenskyy May 18, 2022 President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s address on May 18, 2022, the Day of Remembrance of the Genocide of the Crimean Tatar People.
Joint Statement from Crimea Platform II Joint statement released at the close of Crimea Platform II. Among other pleas, it called on the russian federation “to comply with its obligations under international humanitarian law, to immediately and unconditionally release Ukrainian prisoners unjustly detained in Crimea and the territory of Russia, including Nariman Dzhelyalov, the First Deputy Head of the Mejlis of Crimean Tatar people”. Nariman Dzhelyalov had returned to Crimea the previous year after Crimea Platform I and immediately was arrested.
Photo Credits
Photo Credits are in the order that the photos appear.
OldMosque300x229.png. Original photo titled Stary Krym Meczet Chana Uzbeka.jpg.(CC BY-SA 4.0 Int.) by Piotr Matyga (2011) Staryi Krym_Ozbek Han Mosque-built in 1314, via Wikimedia Commons.
loweredFlags300x250.png. Original photo was part of a tweet by Emine Dzheppar, deputy foreign minister of Ukraine, which she posted May 18, 2023 on Twitter. Text of the tweet:
“Today, at MFA_Ukraine we lowered the Crimean Tatar flag to commemorate victims of the forced deportation of indigenous people of Crimea 79 years ago. On 18 May 1944, the Soviet regime started a genocide of Crimean Tatar people to eliminate them and rewrite history of the peninsula.
History repeated itself in 2014. Modern Russia applies the worst repressive practices in Crimea. But it failed before and it will fail now again. Liberation of the Crimean peninsula will put an end [to] perverted imperialistic ambitions and respect for human rights [will] be restored worldwide.”
TatarFamily300x442.png. Original image titled Крымские татары. Мулла.jpg Translation: Crimean Tatars. Mullah.jpg (Public Domain) uploaded by T. Pauly (image dated 1862) Crimean Tatar family and a mullah, via Wikimedia Commons.
President_Mejlis300x194.png 1d89f13d854389a024ac05faec6f8f96_1684410067_extra_large.jpeg by PRESIDENT OF UKRAINE VOLODYMYR ZELENSKYY Official website (CC BY-NC-ND 4.0 Int.) President Volodymyr Zelenskyy meets with and gives an address to representatives of the Crimean Tatar Mejlis on May 18, 2023. From President of Ukraine Official Website www.president.gov.ua/en. If you use this photo, attribute and also link to the site.
Pro-Ukraine_demonstration300x230.png. Original title of photo was Pro-Ukrainian demonstration in Simferopol, 2014.jpg (CC BY-SA 4.0 Int.) by Devlet Geray (2014) Pro-Ukrainian rally near the monument to Shevchenko in Simferopol during the Russian military intervention in Ukraine, via Wikimedia Commons.