Kipchak branch
Crimean Tatars
The indigenous Turk people of Crimea, whose 1944 deportation and later return shape community life to this day.
Qırımtatarlar / Kırım Tatarları
Crimean Tatars formed in Crimea over many centuries and were the core population of the Crimean Khanate. Large-scale emigration to the Ottoman Empire after 1783 created long-standing communities in Dobruja (Romania and Bulgaria) and Anatolia.
On 18 May 1944 the Soviet authorities deported the entire Crimean Tatar population, mainly to Uzbekistan; a large share of the deportees died in the first years of exile. A mass return to Crimea became possible only from the late 1980s. 18 May is observed by the community as a day of remembrance.
The educator and publisher İsmail Gaspıralı (1851–1914), a Crimean Tatar, championed the motto “unity in language, thought and deed” — the source of GCTCH’s own motto.
- Language
- Crimean Tatar (Kipchak, with Oghuz features in the southern dialects)
- Branch
- Kipchak
- Homeland
- The Crimean Peninsula
- Also living in
- Bulgaria, Kazakhstan, Romania, Türkiye, Ukraine, Uzbekistan and wider diaspora
Key dates
15th century
The Crimean Khanate is established.
1783
Crimea is annexed by the Russian Empire; waves of emigration to the Ottoman Empire follow.
1883
İsmail Gaspıralı begins publishing the newspaper Tercüman in Bakhchysarai.
18 May 1944
Deportation of the entire Crimean Tatar population by the Soviet authorities.
Late 1980s onward
Mass return of Crimean Tatars to Crimea.
Heritage
- Bakhchysarai, former capital of the Crimean Khanate
- Qaytarma folk dance and a rich tradition of instrumental music
- The Jadid reform-education movement associated with İsmail Gaspıralı
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Crimean Tatar”
- B. G. Williams, The Crimean Tatars: The Diaspora Experience and the Forging of a Nation (Brill, 2001)