Many comments have been published about the outcomes of the Ukraine-Crimea crisis and Russia’s policy toward it with respect to the existing crises in the Middle East — Syria, Iran and Israel-Palestine. A lot has been said about a possible shift in Russia’s approach toward cooperation with the West, which is intensifying pressure on Moscow.
But one of the main repercussions of the recent developments in Ukraine — especially the secession referendum in the Crimea set by the local authorities for March 16 — directly and strongly affects Turkey and the Turkey-Russia relationship. It is partially related to the local Tatars.
About 250,000 Tatars live in the Crimea, around 12-13% of the overall population of which roughly 60% are ethnic Russians (80% of all Crimeans are Russian-speakers). The present-day number of Tatars in the Crimea is a bit more than the number of those who lived there in 1944, when all Tatars and several other ethnic groups were deported following Stalin’s orders. Ten years later, in 1954, then-Prime Minister Nikita Khrushchev transferred the Crimea from the Russian Federation to Ukraine. During World War II, the Tatars were accused of collaboration with the Nazis, who occupied the peninsula from 1941-1944. According to the official data provided by authorities, about 10,000 served in the German army and another 10,000 in the German police force. At the same time, there were famous Tatar war heroes in the Red Army, including two generals, who fought against the Nazis. Only under Khrushchev were all the Tatars rehabilitated, although they were not allowed to settle back in the Crimea much until later, under Mikhail Gorbachev.
But the majority of the Crimean Tatars now live in Turkey. The overall number of the descendants of the Tatar refugees who had come to Turkey in waves beinning in 1783 — when the territory of the Crimean Khanate was occupied by Russia, which had just won the war against the Ottoman Empire — is estimated today at approximately 5 million. Many obtained a high social status, having risen to the ranks of ministers, parliamentarians, wealthy businessmen, generals, and professors.
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