global-musings:Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: Qırımtatarlar or Qırımlar, Turkish: Kırım Tatarları or
global-musings:Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: Qırımtatarlar or Qırımlar, Turkish: Kırım Tatarları or Kırımlılar, Russian: Крымские Татары, Ukrainian: Кримськi Татари or Кримцi) are a Turkic ethnic group that formed in the Crimean Peninsula in the 13th–17th centuries, primarily from the Turkic tribes that moved to the land now known as Crimea in Eastern Europe from the Asian steppes beginning in the 10th century, with contributions from the pre-Cuman population of Crimea.Crimean Tatars constituted the majority of Crimea’s population from the time of its ethnogenesis until mid-19th century, and the relative largest ethnic population until the end of 19th century. Almost immediately after the liberation of Crimea, in May 1944, the USSR State Defense Committee ordered the removal of all of the Tatar population from Crimea, including the families of Crimean Tatars serving in the Soviet Army – in trains and boxcars to Central Asia, primarily to Uzbekistan. Starting in 1967, some were allowed to return to Crimea, and in 1989 the USSR Parliament condemned the removal of Crimean Tatars from their motherland as inhumane and lawless. Today, Crimean Tatars constitute approximately 12% of the population of Crimea.Historians suggest that inhabitants of the mountainous parts of Crimea lying to the central and southern parts (the Tats), and those of the Southern coast of Crimea (the Yalıboyu) were the direct descendants of the Pontic Greeks, Armenians, Scythians, Ostrogoths (Crimean Goths) and Kipchaks along with the Cumans while the latest inhabitants of the northern steppe represent the descendants of the Nogai Horde of the Black Sea nominally subjects of the Crimean Khan. It is largely assumed that the Tatarization process that mostly took place in the 16th century brought a sense of cultural unity through the blending of the Greeks, Armenians, Italians and Ottoman Turks of the southern coast, Goths of the central mountains, and Turkic-speaking Kipchaks and Cumans of the steppe and forming of the Crimean Tatar ethnic group.However, the Cuman language is considered the direct ancestor of the current language of the Crimean Tatars with possible incorporation of the other languages like Crimean Gothic. -- source link