The Predicament of the Crimean Tatars, Past and Present / M. Akif Kireçci / Selim Tezcan - Bilig 77. Sayı – Bahar 2016 (original) (raw)
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The Predicament of the Crimean Tatars, Past and Present
This article demonstrates how, with the rise of Russia as a major power in Caucasia and the Black Sea regions, the people of Crimea lost their independence and homeland. In the fifteenth century, two centuries after its conquest by a grandson of Genghis Khan, the Crimea came to house an independent Khanate. Inner struggles in the Khanate and its rivalry with the Genoese traders along the coast led to its vassaldom to the Ottomans. The rivalry that subsequently developed with Russia caused the contested regions to keep changing hands for the next two centuries. By the mid-seventeenth century, the Rus-sians had gained considerable power throughout East Europe. The Russians' increasingly harsh policies and systematic dispossession encouraged the mass emigration of Tatars, who eventually found themselves a minority in their fatherland. The dispossession process ended with the deportation of the entire Tatar population from the Crimea in May 1944. Although the Tatars began returning to the Crimea in large numbers after the collapse of the Soviet Union, they met with a hostile reception and continued to be excluded from the ranks of government.
On 18 March 2014 Russian Federation annexed Crimea, part of Ukraine, after illegally taking military control of its territory and organising an unrecognized referendum on independence of the region. This article’s goal is to analyse how the annexation and following Russification of the political, social and legal system affected the minority of Crimean Tatars and its relations with Russia. Crimean Tatars, in their majority opposing the annexation and Russian policy, have faced political repressions, civil rights abuses and intimidation. Russian policy towards the minority aims at forcing them to accept the ‘new reality’ without granting them freedom of political activities and right to cultivate their cultural heritage, when it’s inconsistent with Russian policy and ideology. The question of Crimea as de facto part of Russia is treated briefly in this article, while its primary goal is to show the developments and complexity of Crimean Tatar-Russian relations.
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The response of the Crimean Tatars politicians, civil society, and nation toward the Russian occupation of Crimea is clear cut and obvious. They have condemned the Russian aggression toward the Ukrainian territorial integrity in national and international levels. This paper aims to analyze the current situation of the Crimean Tatars after the 2014 Crimean Crisis. It investigates how the Crimean Tatars conditions in their homeland have evolved under the Russian occupation forces for the last six years. In order to understand the current situation, it is necessary to examine the chosen trauma, the forced deportation (Sürgün) or Soviet Genocide that was ordered by Stalin in 18 th May 1944. It has played a significant role to shape the Crimean Tatar national identity. Furthermore, the paper focuses on the repercussions of the Crimean crisis from political, social and international perspectives. In the last part, Turkey's reactions toward this regional conflict in the Black Sea region are evaluated.
What do the Crimean Tatars face in Crimea? April 2014. ECMI Issue Brief # 32
The Issue Brief concerns further developments which the Crimean Tatars may experience after the Russian annexation of Crimea. The Crimean Tatars are the second largest minority in the Crimean peninsula, and they are represented by politically active movements with far-reaching claims concerning the status of Crimean Tatars and territorial self-determination. Within less than one month these people as well as their homeland have been transferred to another country with different political and legal systems and potentially a less friendly social environment. Since the contours of the future legal and institutional framework for the accommodation of Crimean Tatars are not fully clear, one can project the major organizational setups and patterns of Russian ethno-politics onto Crimea and tentatively assess their applicability. We can conclude that in a formal sense the Russian rule does not promise the Crimean Tatars much more than they already had in Ukraine, but puts them at risk of a strict police control and pressure. Such arrangements as territorial and non-territorial autonomy, power-sharing, ‘rehabilitation’ of the Crimean Tatars as victims of the past repressions may take place but they would have limited practical sense. Cultural programmes and recruitment of Crimean Tatars to the regional administration are unlikely to be legally guaranteed and will be fully dependent on the discretion of Russian and Crimean authorities.
Crimean Tatar’s Discrimination After Russia’s Annexation
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This thesis discusses the current situation of Crimean Tatars, namely the new challenges that they face after Russia's annexation in 2014. The description of problems, namely discrimination in different aspects, repressions, and violation of their rights are analyzed in this paper. Also, it is significant to understand how this discrimination can affect the lives of Crimean Tatars and the consequences of this. The repressive measures towards Crimean Tatars have not occurred for the first time. One of the historically massive disasters for them was mass deportation under Stalin. This historical period played a significant tragic role in the collective memory of Crimean Tatars. Despite all difficulties and challenges that Crimean Tatars experienced, they could save their national identity, its common elements, and fighting for survival. After Russia's annexation, the context has obtained the similarities as it occurred in the past under Stalin. The assimilation of Crimean Tata...
Post Soviet Conflicts: The Thirty Years’ Crisis, 2020
In 2014, Crimean Tatars’ worst fears became a reality when Russia illegally occupied, and annexed Crimea. Astonished by Russia’s land grab in plain sight, most Western scholars and media outlets focused on the political ramifications and security implications of this invasion on Ukrainian geopolitics as well as on the international community. Yet, the consequences of this annexation on Crimean Tatars, have been overlooked and not been explored comprehensively. This chapter tries to fill this gap by examining the lives of the Crimean Tatars in post-annexation Crimea. To draw an overarching picture of the Russian-Crimean Tatar relations through the lenses of history, the chapter initially examines the first tragedy of Crimean Tatars, the annexation of Crimea by Imperial Russia in 1783. Next, it surveys their second tragedy, the catastrophic event of the mass deportation of Crimean Tatars from their ancestral homeland to exile locations by the Soviet government under Stalin on May 18, 1944. The final part focuses on the implications of the 2014 annexation of Crimea, which is described by Crimean Tatars as their third tragedy. It investigates political repression, human rights violations, baseless arrests, unsubstantiated jail sentences, and hybrid deportations that have been taking place from 2014 up to the present time. The conclusion part brings in some theoretical perspectives and discusses the possible effect of this trilogy of tragedies on the social identity of Crimean Tatars.
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