Crimean Tatars Research Articles

Language in the Context of the Reflex Behavior Theory and Psychology: Ukrainian Reality and Prospects

We consider the genesis and prospects of native language for Russian speaking Ukrainians, as well as the state language for all residents of our state (Ukrainians, Russians, Hungarians, Romanians and Crimean Tatars, Gagauz and other regional groups and national minorities).

The Past, Present, and Future of the Crimean Tatars in the Discourse of the Muslim Community of Crimea

This co-authored article is an extensive excerpt from Natalya Kouts' and Elmira Muratova's 2012 interview project “The past, present, and future in the discourse of the Muslim community of Crimea.” It features discourses of Crimean Tatar leaders and their followers concerning their bitter historical legacies, including Russian Empire annexation and Soviet period en masse deportation. It also analyzes politically sensitive attitudes toward the Crimean Tatar Mejlis, and toward the possibility of further autonomy or statehood for Crimean Tatars.

Rights and Dignity of Indigenous Peoples of Ukraine in Revolutionary Conditions and Foreign Occupation

A detailed legal review is provided, analyzing the current and historical situation of the Crimean Tatars, Karaites, and Krymchaks as “indigenous peoples” of Crimea. The author argues that their status was better within a relatively civil society-oriented Ukraine after Kiev's “dignity revolution,” than as endangered groups under the 2014 occupation by Russia. Crimean Tatar historical deportation and return is discussed, as well as recent laws of Ukraine and Russia, in the context of United Nations human rights standards.

Vozgrin, V. E. Istoriia krymskikh tatar (review)

SEER, 92, 3, JULY 2014 556 together of the larger historical narrative with the Kremlin specifics that will make this book attractive. One way or the other, for an intelligent, wellresearched , engagingly-written and often surprising history of a key cultural icon of Russia and of the country itself, Red Fortress is heartily recommended. Department of History Theodore R. Weeks Southern Illinois University, Carbondale Vozgrin, V. E. Istoriia krymskikh tatar. Four volumes. Tezis, Simferopol, 2013. 870 + 938 + 879 + 619 pp. Illustrations. Notes. Appendices. Bibliography. Index. UkrH 600.00. In the Crimean crisis of 1855 there was no shortage of scholarly and popular works giving an insight into the history of the Crimea and of the Crimean Tatars. For the 2014 crisis there is just this one magisterial survey which, because of its sympathetic treatment of the Crimean Khanate and the Tatar population, has brought so much antagonism upon its author that it cannot be bought in the Russian Federation (the author is still a Professor of Modern History in St Petersburg, but accusations of Russophobia resulted in him losing his position in the Russian Academy of Sciences). The sole source of copies at the time of writing appears to be the Simferopol shop of ATR, the Tatar television service (www.atra.ua). Modern archaeological excavations have given little new information on the history of the Crimea in antiquity and the classical period. More recently, the Ottoman archives have revealed (see Alexander Bennigsen et al, Le Khanat de Crimée, Mouton, 1976) the degree to which the Crimean khans were independent of the Golden Horde and the Sublime Porte (recently published Turkish presidential archives are now revealing more). This gives the lie to the Russian view underlying V. D. Smirnov’s Krymskoe khanstvo of 1886 that the Khanate was essentially an instrument of pan-Islamic and pan-Turkic hostility to Russia. Vozgrin takes the more plausible view that the Crimean Khanate and Muscovite Russia should be seen as competing successor states to the Golden Horde, that the Khanate’s ravages on the steppes and raids on Moscow were politically rational acts to protect its borders, and that the Khanate would willingly ally itself to any of the steppe powers, including the Don Cossacks and Muscovy, to maintain a balance in its own interests (for instance, the Khan would not necessarily obey the Ottomans’ call to attack Poland). What emerges from the immense amount of detail — anthropological, economic, as well as political — marshalled by Vozgrin is the degree to which the Khanate was a religiously tolerant state, comparable with El Andaluz, allowing several varieties of Judaism and Christianity to flourish. The khans, REVIEWS 557 although in principle subject to the approval of the Sultan, were effectively answerable to the beys of the leading Genghisid clans, and their autocracy limited to foreign policy, diplomacy and justice. By the mid eighteenth century, despite appalling destruction by Russian forces in 1736, Bakhchisarai and the port of Gözlev (Eupatoria) were cities foreign travellers compared favourably to Rotterdam, and Tatars had high levels of literacy both male and female. The miracle is that the Tatars survived at all: they were treated far worse than most of the other nations absorbed into the Russian empire by force or fraud at the end of the eighteenth century. The systematic razing of cities, cemeteries, orchards and forests was matched only by the deportations, which took on almost genocidal proportions and were regularly repeated: 1786, 1812, 1860, 1880 and, of course, May 1944, when the entire peninsula was purged of Tatars. Vozgrin (a native of Simferopol, but an ethnic Russian) does not skirt around the brutality of Russian occupation: the Tatars were victims of a peculiar libel, perhaps stemming from their burning of Moscow in 1571: Catherine the Great called them a ‘nest of predators and robbers’, just as Stalin branded them ‘a traitor nation’, although there were probably fewer collaborationists in the Crimea than in Pskov, Kiev or Kharkov. True, the Nazis had been persuaded that the Ostrogoths (who did in actual fact establish a kingdom in the Crimea and whose language was spoken there a thousand years after it had died out elsewhere) were the ancestors of the...

Історично обумовлені особливості фізичної культури кримськотатарського народу

Purpose: The fundamentals of physical culture of the Crimean Tatar people are considered and its features are specified. Material: research issues are studied on the basis of major literary and historical publications amounting to 82 sources. Results: It is found that the Crimean Tatars had rich experience in application of physical culture, not only in everyday life but also in religious ceremonies. Folk games, dances, wrestling and religious ceremonies are analysed. Crimean Tatars used means of physical culture for the formation of physical qualities, strengthening health at national holidays. Conclusions. Introduction of physical culture of Crimean Tatars had an educational impact on human dignity. After the deportation to their historical homeland Crimean Tatars have the opportunity to revive the national physical culture.

The Crimean Tatars: A Quarter of a Century after Their Return

The article looks at the position of the Crimean Tatars, seventy years after their mass Deportation from Crimea in 1944, and twenty-five years since they were able to begin to return to Crimea in 1989. It concentrates on the politics of their position since Viktor Yanukovych was elected President of Ukraine in 2010, looking at arguments within their ranks and at government attempts to play ‘divide and rule’.

Captive Turks: Crimean Tatars in Pan-Turkist Literature

It has become accepted that, during the Soviet period, Turkey ‘ignored the plight’ of the Crimean Tatars, who were brutally deported to Central Asia by Stalin in 1944. This narrative of Turkish indifference with respect to the Crimean Tatar ‘question’ overlooks a corpus of material that tells something of a different story. This corpus is literary. The Crimean Tatars figured centrally in Pan-Turkist poems and pulp fiction novels as protagonists whose victimization by the Communist regime was represented in order to provoke outrage and action, not silence and passivity. These literary texts seek to elicit in the reader what can be called ‘irredentist solidarity’, a convergence of fellow-feeling that involves a total identification of the Other as the same.

Sürgün, Vatana Dönüş ve Kültürel Canlanma: Kırım Tatarlarında 'Özgün' Kültürü Ye

Following the weakening of the Golden Horde state, the Crimean Khanate was founded in the mid-fifteenth century (Azade-Rorlich 2000; Fisher 1978: 1-8). Starting in 1475, the Crimean Khanate came under the suzerainty of the Ottoman Empire until the Kucuk Kaynarca Treaty was signed at the end of the Ottoman Russian War in 1774. Crimea was annexed and the Crimean Khanate was abolished by Russian Empire in 1783. After the annexation, the Crimean Tatars started to migrate to the Ottoman Empire. These migrations especially increased after the Crimean War (1853-1856). The Crimean Tatars who deported to the Central Asia and Siberia after World War II, however, obtained right to repatriate to their homeland in 1989. This paper focuses on the interaction of the Crimean Tatars with other ethnic groups both in Central Asia during the deportation years and in Crimea following their return to the homeland, and the impact of interaction with other ethnic groups on the Crimean Tatars’ ethnic identity and culture is examined. In this paper, a constructionist approach is adopted, with special attention given to the role of interaction with different cultures and state policies in shaping ethnic and cultural identities. Emphasizing the necessity of distinguishing ethnic and national identities from cultural identity, I argue that ‘hybridity’, as one of the new concepts aiming to challenge static and essentialist approaches to ethnicity and culture, is more useful in explaining cultural content rather than the notion of the ethnic boundary.

Kırım Türklerinin 1944 Sürgününün 70. Yılında Kültür ve Sanattaki İz Düşümleri Üzerine Düşünceler

Crimean peninsula which is located in an ancient Dasht-i Kipchak Turkish homeland, has been the meeting point of the communities throughout history. Considering the past of this place chronologically; it can be seen documents about domination of Russians after Tavrlar, Scythians, Huns, Cumans, Kipchaks, Altinordu, Khanates and Ottoman periods.After getting out of safekeeping of Ottoman, in 1774, Crimean Khanate was invaded by Russians and life was turned out to be darkness for the people who lived there. During the years of Second World War, all the people living there, were expelled to various countries in Asia on May 18, 1944, claiming that they collaborated with the Germans. After returning from the painful exile in different parts of the USSR to Crimea, from the 1980s, even though occurred at intervals, exile in the Crimea could not be expressed as “genocide” enough. Crimean Tatars, by finding ways of collaboration and cooperation in the Diaspora, should get their fundamental rights which were taken away. They should study in humane and friendly way; and in line with the principles developed by democratic societies.Crimean Turks are called as “Tatar” these days. Whatever it is called, the important thing is human dignity. Although the names, memories, works of art were hidden, numerous Turkish values are saved in documents; If there are traces of the past in his heart and mind. The voice of Gaspirali Ismail still valid in Bakhchisaray, Simferopol and other geographies which says: “The unity in language, ideas, and work”.

THE GENETICS OF CRIMEAN KARAITES

The ancestral origins of the Turkic-speaking Crimean Karaites have at times been contentious with several competing theories. This study uses genetic science to help clarify to what extent, if any, these people are related to other Karaite communities and/or to Rabbinical Jews who had ancestors who lived in ancient Israel. The main alternative theory contends that they may descend from the Turkic-speaking Khazars who converted to Judaism prior to the documented establishment of any Karaite communities north of the Black Sea. The data set used to make genetic comparisons between populations contains hundreds of thousands of samples from around the world. Some of the samples come from people whose ancestors lived on the Crimean peninsula (including, but not limited to, Crimean Tatars, Crimean Rabbinical Jews, and Crimean Armenians) while others came from members of ethnic groups (Karachays, Uygurs, Kazakhs, Chuvashes, Ossetians, and many others) who inhabit the North Caucasus, the Volga River region, and Central Asia, some of whom may have had a genetic affinity with the Khazars. 33 Crimean Karaite uniparental lineages (19 Y-DNA and 14 mtDNA), two Lithuanian Karaite Y-DNA lineages, and one Western Ukrainian Karaite mtDNA lineage are compared to the other data. By and large, the results show that Crimean Karaites are often closely related to other Jews, both Karaite and Rabbinical, but have little affinity with other Turkic-speaking peoples or with non-Jewish peoples who inhabit lands that were once part of Khazaria.

Przejawy mobilizacji politycznej tatarskiej zbiorowości etnokulturowej w Autonomicznej Republice Krymu w latach 1991‑2014

Examples of Political Mobilization Tatar Ethno‑Cultural Communities in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea in the Years 1991‑2014
 In this article author analyzes process of political emancipation of the Crimean Tatars and describes the issue of self‑organization of the Crimean Tatars and the main structures and organizations created by the Tartar community. It focuses on internal political rivalries and external opposition to the Majlis and Kurultai. The text examines the results of the elections to the Kurultai, the Verkhovna Rada of The Autonomus Republic of Crimea and local government bodies in the years 2001‑2013. The author also examines the reaction of the Crimean Tatars on the annexation of the Crimea in 2014.

РОМАНТИЧНИЙ ОРІЄНТАЛІЗМ: УКРАЇНСЬКА МОДЕЛЬ

The purpose of this paper is to present the Ukrainian model of Romantic orientalism. The imago-poetics’ main assumptions of Frontier Eastern, Caucasian, Egyptian are discovered. The ethnic character of an Asian (romanticized Crimean Tatars and Nogai people) is also analyzed.

Combining identity and integration: comparative analysis of schools for two minority groups in Ukraine

This article analyses school systems for two of Ukraine’s minorities, the Hungarians and the Crimean Tatars with the aim of assessing their success in promoting ethnocultural identity and social integration of the minority youth. I demonstrate that the exclusive instruction in Hungarian ensures the reproduction of group language knowledge and identity among the minority members but perpetuates their inability to communicate in the majority language and thus limits their social mobility. In contrast, the limited scope of education in Crimean Tatar exacerbates the problem of its poor knowledge by the group members and, therefore, vulnerability of their cultural identity. I argue that the introduction of bilingual education is the best way to solve the two groups’ educational problems.

The Mongol Conquests in World History by Timothy May (review)

Reviewed by: The Mongol Conquests in World History by Timothy May Anne F. Broadbridge The Mongol Conquests in World History. By Timothy May. London: Reaktion Books, 2012. 320 pp. $45.00 (cloth). This work is part of the Globalities series, which investigates big ideas, big changes, and big events in the context of the big picture. The Mongols are therefore natural for inclusion, and May has used them to write a synthetic work designed for a general audience. Thus, although he does refer to some academic controversies and occasionally offers his own scholarly opinions, his overarching aim is to give a broad picture of Mongol activities and their extraordinary impact on practically everyone. This he does very well. The book is divided into two main sections. In the first, May narrates the rise of Chinggis Khan (d. 1227), the course of the Mongol conquests, and the establishment of the Great Mongol Empire. He then follows that empire through its dissolution in the 1260s, down to the politically fractured history of the subsequent Mongol-influenced [End Page 696] states. This section is clear and easy to read, which is no mean feat considering the convolutions of the historical material. May has therefore done a real service to general readers interested in Chinggis Khan. In the second section, May models a theory of the “Chinggis Exchange” on Alfred Crosby’s 1972 concept of the Columbian Exchange, which explained the way Columbus’s discovery of the Americas led to the transmission of biological matter between continents, which in turn transformed politics, economics, and society. Although the comparison is compelling and the theoretical potential of a Chinggis Exchange significant, May does not fully elaborate this idea, even though it would have strengthened the second half of the book. Nevertheless, the material within these chapters reflects his conviction of the Mongols’ worldwide importance and does suggest the possibilities that the concept of a Chinggis Exchange could provide. Chapter 4 (“Pax Mongolica and Trade”) provides a useful general survey of policy, routes, and developments in trade under Chinggis Khan and his son Ögedei (r. 1229–1241) and in the post-empire khanates. To highlight the global impact of the Mongols, May draws “international” connections, like noting that a London fish market collapsed after Russian merchants stayed home to prepare for Mongol invaders and reminding us that Columbus stumbled across the Americas while seeking the Grand Khan. In chapter 5 (“New Forms of Warfare”), May analyzes the Mongols’ impact on warfare, especially during the Crusades, and in Eastern Europe and Russia, China, Japan, and the Muslim Middle East. He compares the roles of gunpowder versus naphtha weapons in the premodern era, and ends with Chinggis Khan’s influence on twentiethcentury warfare in Britain, Germany, the Soviet Union, the United States, and Israel. This chapter is particularly strong and reflects May’s well-known expertise in all realms of Chinggis Khan’s military. Chapter 6 (“The Mongol Administration”) tackles a topic that May acknowledges is both huge and little studied, but it achieves only mixed results. Although it does provide a nuts-and-bolts description of administration and administrative terminology in and after the empire, ranging even to the Crimean Tatars and Temür, some trends in Mongol administration (like the financial reforms of the 1230s) could have used elaboration, and questions of impact are (perhaps of necessity) left unanswered. May opens chapter 7 (“Religion and the Mongols”) by asking why the Mongols did not immediately convert to a world religion, then hypothesizes about the reasons that Christianity made only modest [End Page 697] inroads on the Mongols while Islam and Buddhism eventually spread among them. Although an interesting point of departure, much of this chapter is speculative, and this reviewer would have liked to see these arguments fleshed out in more detail. Chapter 8 covers the Black Death, which originated in the Mongol Empire and spread because of the empire’s robust trade, a fact known by Mongol specialists but not by many others. May spends this brief but gripping section detailing the rise of the plague and its enormous impact on Europe, the Middle East, and the Mongol khanates, two of which (the Yuan and the...

Political Participation and Representation of Crimean Tatars and Other Formerly Deported People (FDPs): Needs Assessment

Persons belonging to national minorities have the right to effective participation in cultural, social and economic life and in public affairs, in particular those affecting them. It is important to stress from the onset that the Crimean Tatars see themselves as indigenous to Crimea and have a strong political agenda. They ascribe great importance to political participation and representation, not only to solve pressing problems such as housing, education, culture and employment, but also as a precursor to more formalized and institutionalized self-governance as practised by the Crimean Tatar Qurultay (assembly) and Milli Mejlis (executive body) , even though neither is yet recognized as such by the Ukrainian State. Other FDPs also see the relevance of political participation and representation to resolving resettlement issues, support for cultural continuity and preservation of their language. However, the Crimean Greeks, Germans, Armenians and Bulgarians have never expressed any aspiration to political self-determination or self-governance. In general, they are also less politically mobilized than the Crimean Tatars. This is explained by a number of internal and external factors, most notably the manner of repatriation – the Crimean Tatars’ return was both on a larger scale and more synchronized than that of the other FDPs. The study was carried out by means of in-depth interviews with stakeholders and experts, including officials and deputies (both current and former, of various levels), Mejlis leaders, Crimean Tatar civic organizations, leaders of cultural organizations of other FDPs, candidates for the 2012 national Ukraine elections, journalists, political party chiefs of staff and NGO leaders (for a list of interviewees see Appendix 1). Media and document analysis supplemented the data obtained from the interviews.

Socio-Economic Dimensions of the Integration of the Formerly Deported Peoples in Crimea

The present study examines the view different groups of Formerly Deported Peoples (FDPs) take of how well and how completely their socioeconomic needs have been fulfilled since their return to Crimea. The following FDP categories and geographic locations were selected for focus groups: • Crimean Tatars in Simferopol; • Crimean Tatars from the squatter settlements near Simferopol; • Crimean Tatars in a rural steppes rayon (Nizhnegorsk); • Greeks in Chernopolye village (Belogorsk district); • Bulgarians in Koktebel’. The following spheres of socio-economic integration were assessed in each focus group: • employment and education; • housing; • health care. In each sphere the following aspects of the socioeconomic integration process were explored: • general needs of FDPs with regard to the socioeconomic integration/adaptation and specific needs of the sub-categories within FDP groups; • assessment of respondents’ own group’s situation compared with that of other groups, including other groups of FDPs, and perceptions of intragroup inequalities; • expectations of privileged treatment ‑ how perceived and apportioned amongst FDPs; • performance of relevant State institutions (national, Republican, most notably the Republican Committee on Inter-ethnic Relations and Deported Citizens [Reskomnats], and local) as well as the FDPs’ representative (informal) institutions and actors (the Milli Mejlis and local mejlises, ethnocultural organizations and prominent individuals) as regarded by different FDP constituencies; • individual and collective strategies to cope with socio-economic challenges, including how to achieve equality in socio-economic rights.

Needs Assessment for the Crimean Tatars and Other Formerly Deported Peoples of the Crimea

Crimea, now part of independent Ukraine, is regarded by many Russians as part of their historical “homeland”, but is also home to many other ethnic traditions. It is currently the only region of Ukraine with a majority population of ethnic Russians, but is also home to almost 300,000 of the former deported peoples (FDPs), mainly Crimean Tatars, who were expelled under Stalin in the 1940s and have only able to return since the late 1980s. Their homecoming has been difficult. There is, however, not even a basic legal framework to define their position. The socio-economic status of the returnees remains extremely difficult. Some progress has been made in integration in the last twenty years, but not as much as was expected when the USSR disappeared in 1991. Rather, time itself is a factor, with a lack of progress leading to some signs of radicalization on all sides. Although much was done to help with the immediate problems of return in the mid-1990s, many longer-term tasks remain and the potential for future conflict remains high.

Legal Aspects of Return and Legalization in Ukraine of Formerly Deported Persons (FDPs)

This article proposes a number of firm recommendations to improve the legal framework so that returns are less administratively and financially burdensome, and to eliminate the risks of returnees becoming stateless. It is based on a detailed review of legislation affecting the return of Crimean Tatars, as well as the practical experience of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in over fifteen years of assisting persons belonging to formerly deported peoples to acquire Ukrainian citizenship.

Fragmented Islam and Inter-Ethnic Conflict in Crimea

While examining the two Spiritual Administrations as well as the other independent/unregistered groups, the focus should be not only on their fundamental ideologies, but also on the political objectives of those viewpoints for which they are being utilized. Accordingly, the research questions of this article will focus on the following themes: 2.1 What are the religious and political (if any) short and long-term goals and aspirations of DUMK and DTsMK in Crimea? Is there any common ground between these two Muftiyats? 2.2 What are the opinions of DUMK and DTsMK about the other “independent” Islamic factions in Crimea? 2.3 What are the religious and political (if any) short and long-term goals of the HUT, Salafis, and Ar’Raid in Crimea? Is there any common ground between these groups vis-a-vis the future aspirations? 2.4 What are the major structural factors that set the grounds for the evolution of these ideologies on the peninsula? What kind of influences do these groups have on the majority of the Crimean Tatars and on the Ukrainian Muslims in general? 2.5 What are the opinions of HUT, Salafis, and Ar’Raid’s on transnational Islamic movements and violence around the globe? 2.6 What are these group’s views of the Ukrainian state, the European West, and the United States?

On Revitalization of the Language and Culture of the Crimean Tatars and Other Formerly Deported People in Crimea, Ukraine: Assesment of Needs and Recommendations

This article focuses mainly on language and those aspects of culture that are directly related to its revitalization vis-a-vis Crimean Tatars; other aspects fall outside the immediate scope of this study. The article examines the needs of other FDPs in terms of linguistic and cultural revival. Recommendations to State authorities in Kiev, regional authorities in Crimea, FDPs themselves, and the international community, aimed at generating a new and improved framework for revitalizing language and culture more generally are proposed. Against the background of Crimean political landscape, this research employed multi-method data collection that drew on semi-structured, face-to-face in-depth interviews, participant observation,and content analysis of documents and Crimean newspapers. The data collection took place in 2012, summer.