The Crimean Tatars

The pearl in the tsar's crown -- Dispossession: the loss of the Crimean homeland -- Dar al Harb: the nineteenth-century Crimean Tatar migrations to the Ottoman Empire -- Vatan: the construction of the Crimean fatherland -- Soviet homeland: the nationalization of the Crimean Tatar identity in the USSR -- Surgun: the Crimean Tatar exile in Central Asia -- Return: the Crimean Tatar migrations from Central Asia to the Crimean Peninsula

This volume provides the most up-to-date analysis of the ethnic cleansing of the Crimean Tatars, their exile in Central Asia and their struggle to return to the Crimean homeland. It also traces the formation of this diaspora nation from Mongol times to the collapse of the Soviet Union. A theme which emerges through the work is the gradual construction of the Crimea as a national homeland by its indigenous Tatar population. It ends with a discussion of the post-Soviet repatriation of the Crimean Tatars to their Russified homeland and the social, emotional and identity problems involved.

The first in a series of volumes to discuss the history and development of the non-Russian nationalities in the Soviet Union. --"Professor Fisher's excellent book is brief but clear and succinct. It should be required reading for all students of Russian and European History."--Slavic Review

In the early morning hours of May 18, 1944 the Russian army, under orders from Stalin, deported the entire Crimean Tatar population from their historical homeland. Given only fifteen minutes to gather their belongings, they were herded into cattle cars bound for Soviet Central Asia. Although the official Soviet record was cleansed of this affair and the name of their ethnic group was erased from all records and official documents, Crimean Tatars did not assimilate with other groups or disappear. This is an ethnographic study of the negotiation of social memory and the role this had in the growth of a national repatriation movement among the Crimean Tatars. It examines the recollections of the Crimean Tatars, the techniques by which they are produced and transmitted and the formation of a remarkably uniform social memory in light of their dispersion throughout Central Asia. Through the lens of social memory, the book covers not only the deportation and life in the diaspora but the process by which the children and grandchildren of the deportees 'returned' and anchored themselves in the Crimean Penininsula, a place they had never visited.

This book explains the unexpected mobilization of the Crimean Tatar diaspora in recent decades through an exploration of the exile experiences of the Crimean Tatars in Central Asia, Middle East, Eastern Europe, and North America. This book adds to the growing literature on diaspora case studies and is essential reading for researchers and students of diasporas, migration, ethnicity, nationalism, transnationalism, identity formation and social movements. Moreover, this book is relevant both for specialists in Crimean Tatar Studies and for the larger fields of Communist, Post-Communist, Middle Eastern, European, and American studies.

Examines the situation of the Crimean Tatars since the breakup of the USSR and of their continuing strutle to find peace and acceptance in a homeland.

Taking as its starting point the ethnogenesis of this ethnic group during the Mongol period (13th century), this volume traces their history through Islam, the Ottoman and the Russian Empires (15th and 17th century). The author discusses how Islam, Russian colonial policies and indigenous national movements shaped the collective identity of this victimized ethnic group. Part two deals with the role of forced migration during the Russian colonial period, Soviet nation-building policies and ethnic cleansing in shaping this people's modern national identity. This work therefore also has wider applications for those dealing with the construction of diasporic identities. Taking a comparative approach, it traces the formation of Crimean Tatar diasporas in the Ottoman Balkans, Republican Turkey, and Soviet Central Asia (from 1944). A theme which emerges through the work is the gradual construction of the Crimea as a national homeland by its indigenous Tatar population. It ends with a discussion of the post-Soviet repatriation of the Crimean Tatars to their Russified homeland and the social and identity problems involved.

The Crimean Tatars have often been ignored in the Crimean studies. Whereas the Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people, the owners of the land, faced deportations multiple times and managed to arise each time. They have returned to homeland after 50 years of struggle to build their own civilisation once they had it before the horrific deportation of 1944 ‘Every Crimean Tatar, elderly, men, women, children; they all had bright lights in their eyes. The light of hope! The hope to build their home in the land of their ancestors. They had nothing in their possessions to start with. They did not have a roof over their heads, living in tents. But they had the light of hope. Soon, it will be ten years of living under the Russian control and the light in the people’s eyes are disappearing. Once Crimea becomes free, we have a lot to do!’ Quote from Safinar Djemileva, wife of the Crimean Tatar leader Mustafa Djemilev, during a visit to her in exile in Istanbul 1 July 2023 This book is a short history of the Crimean Tatars based on the Crimean Tatars perspective.