Exactly three years have passed since the referendum in Crimea, following which the peninsula returned to Russia. Looking back, one can clearly see the achievements of the republic in building a multinational, cultural and multi-confessional society, in which equality of opportunities for economic, social, cultural and spiritual development representatives of all nations and nationalities living on the peninsula. This ensures peace and harmony and is one of the most important conditions successful development and prosperity of the republic, which both local and federal authorities regularly talk about.

It is these successes of the region that answer the question of how their life has changed over the past three years, since Crimea became Russian.

The Internet portal "" asked them to tell about their vision of what changes have occurred in the lives of the inhabitants of the multinational peninsula over the past three years, how interethnic relations are being built in Crimea today and what contributes to maintaining peace and harmony in the republic.

Suleiman Bakhshyshev, 59 years old, Bakhchisaray district:

My life has changed in the last three years better side. I am a disabled pensioner. I have a decent pension, benefits for utilities. The state gives me free medicines. Crimea began to improve. Repair roads, install traffic lights. The result is already evident, it is clear that a lot of work is being done.

Zade Aliyeva, 37 years old, Dzhankoy, teacher:

Well, firstly, a law on the rehabilitation of the Crimean Tatars was immediately adopted. And if we take the changes, then mosques, playgrounds, kindergartens are being built. I know that queues for kindergartens have decreased; even if they exist, they are no longer the same as in Ukraine.

Emran Saidametov, 42 years old, Simferopol district, civil servant:

I myself work for the state, I have never been involved in business, entrepreneurship. I studied and have been working for 15 years. And my wife works at school. There are no salary delays, everything is fine. So now our financial situation has become a little better, we even allowed ourselves to go on vacation last summer.

Artur Tataris, 48 ​​years old, Bakhchisaray, unemployed:

Let's hope that everything that changes will give good results. We still have everything ahead. I would like to wish unity to our people.

Saide Murtazaeva, 21 years old, student of KIPU:

I confess that I did not take part in the 2014 referendum. However, it should be noted that the situation in the Crimea has changed for the better. The adaptation period ended fairly quickly. Three years later, I can say with confidence that order has now been restored in Crimea in all areas, many jobs have been provided, decent salaries, pensions and preferential payments.

Murat Yazydzhiev, employee of the I. Gasprinsky Media Center:

I can speak openly about this: while the Russian Federation returned Crimea, the Crimean Tatars as a people were rehabilitated, programs for the improvement of the deported peoples of Crimea began to work, they began to reckon with us. Under Ukraine, we were used only before the elections. Our language became the state language in the Republic of Crimea, which was not the case in Ukraine. IN public institutions There are more Crimean Tatars than under Ukraine. Continue?

Usein Minsanov, 45 years old, Saki district, Ivanovka village:

I am a rural worker, as I worked 10 years ago, and now I am working. Yes, there are different programs, my friend won a grant and received money for development Agriculture. We receive pensions on time, we live in our homeland, and everything is calm here. That's the main thing!

Dilyara Sufyanova

Scientists are endless disputes and discussions about the origin of the Crimean Tatars. Today, researchers find the roots of the Crimean Tatar people in the archaeological cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages, which once developed in the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea.

Representatives of one of these cultures - Kizil-Kobinsky - are the Taurians, the natives of the Crimean peninsula.

This is discussed in the material of the historian, ATR TV presenter Gulnara Abdulla, published by 15 minutes.

It is the Tauri, which are known from the 10th century BC. e., and became one of the main components of the emerging indigenous people of the Crimea. They inhabited the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula and undoubtedly left their mark on the material culture of the Crimean peoples. The Cimmerians, known from the 10th to the 7th century BC, have common related roots with the Taurians. e. However, they never mixed with each other. The Cimmerians occupied a vast steppe territory between the Don and the Dniester, the steppe part of the Crimea and Taman. Some researchers argue that in the first half of the 7th century BC. e. part of this people left the territory of the Northern Black Sea region due to severe drought. But on the peninsula, by this time, the descendants of the Cimmerians had already managed to become an integral part of the Taurus and Scythian people, part of the Crimean gene pool.

In the 7th century BC e. in the Crimea appeared the most famous in ancient history tribal union - Scythians. Unlike the Taurians and Cimmerians, the ancestral home of the Scythians was Altai - the cradle of the Turkic peoples. In Crimea, the Scythian tribes settled unevenly, occupied the eastern, western coasts and the main ridge of the Crimean mountains. The Scythians settled reluctantly in the steppe part, but this did not stop them from pushing the Cimmerians to the foothills. But as for the Taurians, the Scythians peacefully coexisted with them, and for this reason an active process of interethnic interaction took place between them. In historical science, the ethnic term "Tauroscythians" or "Scythotaurs" appears.

Around the 8th century BC. e. small settlements of fishermen and merchants appeared on the Crimean peninsula, belonging to the Hellenes from Miletus, the most powerful and richest of the cities in Asia Minor. The first inter-ethnic contacts among the colonists and the local Crimean population were exclusively economic and rather restrained. The Hellenes never advanced deep into the peninsula, they settled in the coastal strip.

More intensive integration processes took place in the eastern part of Crimea. Integration with the Hellenes did not proceed at a fast pace, for example, like the Scythians with the Cimmerians and Taurians, the latter became smaller in number. They gradually dissolved in the Scythians and rushed in the III century BC. e. from the mainland to the peninsula of the Sarmatians, who occupied the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, displacing the Scythians from there. A distinctive feature of the Sarmatians was matriarchy - women were both part of the cavalry and occupied high priestly posts. The peaceful penetration of the Sarmatians into the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula continued throughout the 2nd-4th centuries. n. e. Soon they were called none other than "Scythian-Sarmatians". Under the onslaught of the Goths, they left the Crimean valleys of Alma, Bulganak, Kacha and went to the mountains. So the Scythian-Sarmatians were to settle forever between the First and Second Ridges of the Crimean Mountains. The culture, ideology and language of the Sarmatians were close to the Scythians, so the integration process of these peoples went quickly. They were mutually enriched, at the same time retaining the features of their individuality.

In the 1st century A.D. e. Roman legionnaires appeared on the Crimean peninsula. It cannot be said that their history is closely intertwined with the local population. But the Romans were in the Crimea for a long time, until the 4th century AD. e. With the departure of the Roman troops, not all Romans wanted to leave the Crimea. Someone was already connected by family ties with the natives.

In the 3rd century, East Germanic tribes, the Goths, appeared on the peninsula. They occupied the Eastern Crimea, settled mainly along the southern coast of the peninsula. Among the Crimean Goths, Arian Christianity was actively spreading. It is noteworthy that the Crimean Goths lived in the Crimea for a long time in their principality Mangup, almost without mixing with the local population.

In the 5th century A.D. e. the era of the Great Migration of Nations began. The ancient civilization ceased to exist, Europe entered the early Middle Ages. With the establishment of new states, feudal relations were formed, and new political and administrative centers, mixed in ethnic composition, were formed on the peninsula.

Following the Goths, in the IV century AD. e. a wave of new migrants hit the peninsula. These were the Turks - known in history as the Huns. They pushed the Goths into the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula. The Huns traveled a long way thousands of kilometers from Mongolia and Altai to Europe and settled in the Crimea, subsequently opening the way for the Khazars, Kypchaks and Horde. Hun blood harmoniously flowed into the Crimean "melting pot", which for thousands of years formed the Crimean Tatar ethnic group. The Huns brought faith and the cult of the god Tengri to the peninsula. And since that time, along with Christianity, Tengrianism has spread in the Crimea.

The Avars followed the Huns, but their stay did not leave a deep trace. They themselves very soon dissolved into the local population.

In the 7th century, the Bulgars, one of the Turkic ethnic groups, penetrated into the Crimea under the pressure of the Khazars. In Crimea, they lived in ethnic communities, but did not lead a secluded lifestyle. Settled almost throughout the peninsula. Like all Turks, they were sociable and free from prejudices, therefore they mixed intensively both with the natives and with the recent "Crimeans" like them.

At the end of the 7th century Sea of ​​Azov the Khazars (Turkic tribes, overwhelmingly belonging to the Mongoloids) advanced, subjugating almost the entire Northern Black Sea region and the steppe part of Crimea to their power. Already at the turn of the 8th century, the Khazars advanced to the area of ​​settlement of the Goths in the south of the peninsula. After the collapse of their state - the Khazar Khaganate - part of the aristocracy, professing Judaism, settled in the Crimea. They called themselves "Karaites". Actually, according to one of the existing theories, it was from the 10th century that a nation, better known as the “Karaites”, began to form on the peninsula.

Around 882, another Turks, the Pechenegs, settled on the peninsula and took part in the ethnic processes that took place among the population of the Crimea. They pushed back the Turko-Bulgarians in the foothills and thereby intensified the Turkification of the highlanders. Subsequently, the Pechenegs finally assimilated into the Turkic-Alano-Bulgarian-Kipchak environment of the foothills. They had Caucasoid features with a slight admixture of Mongoloid ones.

In the second half of the 11th century, the Kipchaks appeared in the Crimea (in Western Europe known as Cumans, in Eastern Europe as Cumans) is one of the numerous Turkic tribes. They occupied the entire peninsula, except for its mountainous part.

According to written sources, the Kypchaks were mostly fair-haired and blue-eyed people. The amazing feature of this people is that they did not assimilate, but assimilated into them. That is, they were the core, to which, like a magnet, the remnants of the tribes of the Pechenegs, Bulgars, Alans and others were attracted, adopting their culture. The capital of the Kipchaks on the peninsula was the city of Sugdeya (modern Sudak). By the XIII century, they finally merged with the local population, switched from Tengrism to Islam.

In 1299, the troops of the Horde temnik Nogai entered the Zaperekop lands and the Crimea. From that time on, the peninsula became part of the Dzhuchiev ulus of the Great Horde, without any major upheavals, without actually changing the structure of the population that had developed at the beginning of the 13th century, without changes in the economic structure, without the destruction of cities. After that, both the conquerors and the vanquished lived peacefully on the Crimean land, virtually without conflicts, gradually getting used to each other. In the mixed demographic mosaic thus formed, everyone could continue to do their own thing and preserve their own traditions.

But it was with the arrival of the Kipchaks in the Crimea that the final centuries-old Turkic period began. It was they who completed the Turkization and created the predominant monolithic population of the peninsula.

When in the 16th century a significant mass of Zaperekop Nogais began to penetrate into the Crimean steppes, the descendants of the Kipchaks became the first with whom the Nogais encountered and with whom they began to mix quite intensively. As a result, their physical appearance changed, acquiring pronounced Mongoloid features.

So, since the 13th century, almost all ethnic components, all components, were already present on the peninsula, in other words, there were progenitors who would form a new nation - the Crimean Tatars.

It is noteworthy that even before the emergence of the Ottoman state, settlers from Asia Minor appeared on the peninsula, they were immigrants from the Turkic tribe, the Seljuks, who left traces of their stay in the Crimea, as part of its population, who spoke Turkish. This ethnic element persisted century after century, partly mixing with the Crimean Tatar population of the same faith and quite close in language - a process inevitable for any migrants. Actually, contacts with the Seljuks, and later with the Ottoman Turks from the 13th and throughout the following centuries did not stop due to the fact that the future states - the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire - were always allies.

Speaking of ethnic composition Crimea, it is difficult to ignore the Venetians and Genoese. The first Venetians appeared on the peninsula at the end of the 11th century. Following Venice, Genoa began to send its trade and political agents to the Crimea. The latter subsequently finally ousted Venice from the Crimea. Genoese trading posts flourished in the first years of the independent Crimean Tatar state - the Crimean Khanate, but in 1475 they were forced to return to Italy. But not all Genoese left the Crimea. Many have put down their roots here and eventually completely disappeared into the Crimean Tatars.

Over the centuries, the ethnogenesis of modern Crimean Tatars has been rather complicated, in which non-Turkic and Turkic ancestors took part. It was they who determined the features of the language, anthropological type and traditions of the culture of the ethnos.

During the period of the Crimean Khanate, local integration processes were also observed. For example, it is known that in the early years of the Crimean Khanate, whole families of Circassians moved here, late XIX century was dissolved in the Crimean Tatars.

Today, modern Crimean Tatars consist of three main sub-ethnic groups: South Coast (Yaly Boyu), mountain, foothill Crimea (Tats), steppe (Nogai).

As for the ethnonym "Crimean Tatars", or rather Tatars, it appeared in Crimea only with the advent of the Horde, that is, when Crimea became part of the Jochi Ulus of the Great (better known as the Golden) Horde. And as it was said above, by this time a new nation was almost formed. Since then, the inhabitants of the Crimea began to be called Tatars. But this in no way means that the Crimean Tatars are descendants of the Horde. Actually, it was this ethnonym that the young Crimean Khanate inherited.

To date, the ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars has not yet been completed.

Ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars

There are about 800 nations in the modern world. All of them have their own history, hypotheses and theories of origin. The Crimean Tatar nation, which has been formed over thousands of years on the territory of the Crimean peninsula, has its own history. And apparently not by chance medieval Europe the population of the Black Sea steppes and Crimea, direct descendants of the Taurians, Cimmerians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Hellenes, Goths, Huns, Khazars, Kypchaks and many other ancient peoples, were called by one common name - Tatars.

Historiography of hypotheses of the ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatar people

There are endless disputes and discussions about the origin of the Crimean Tatars. The firm conviction that the Crimean Tatars are the descendants of the Golden Horde settled on the peninsula in the first half of the 13th century was firmly planted in the minds of many pundits. This myth appeared immediately after the annexation of the Crimea by Russia in 1783, and since that time it has been firmly included in the official Russian historiography, and then successfully transferred to the Soviet one. Moreover, the same myth still continues to be replicated in the scientific literature. This is one of the clearest examples when science intersects with politics. When the history of an objectionable people was deliberately hushed up, rewritten, and actually purposefully tried to convey in a negative light.

And yet it cannot be said that ethnogenesis has not been studied before. Of course, the first steps were taken, but in the royal, and then in Soviet times, it was quite difficult to do this, due to the fact that all attempts were immediately stopped. Nevertheless, Crimean scientists in the 30-40s of the XX century made the first attempts to study the ethnogenesis of the indigenous people of Crimea. But after the deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944, this process was interrupted. Moreover, the purposeful destruction of the material and spiritual culture of the Crimean Tatars begins, and historical toponymy is being massively renamed in Crimea. And in fact, a period of complete oblivion of the people begins, since the Soviet authorities literally imposed a taboo on the study of the history of the Crimean Tatars, and for a long time its representatives in places of deportation were generally forbidden to study at higher humanitarian educational institutions.

Naturally, such a situation eventually contributed to the emergence of one-sided hypotheses about the origin of the Crimean Tatar people, and this laid the foundation for initially false, far from the truth, assumptions about the origin of the Crimean Tatars. In other words, the falsifiers, bypassing the entire centuries-old ethnogenetic process that took place in the Crimea in the pre-Mongolian period, took the events associated with the Horde period as the starting point of reference for the origin of the Crimean Tatars, which, in essence, is only a stage of the centuries-old, complex historical process. It must be assumed that the similarity of the ethnonym "Tatars" served as the basis for such a statement. And this is the biggest misconception.

And despite the fact that today it is still quite difficult to reconstruct the process of formation of the Crimean Tatar ethnos, we note that over the past 20 years of studying this issue, significant steps have been taken and the first monographs have appeared, which actually rely on written, archaeological, anthropological materials.

Ethnic ancestors of the Crimean Tatars

No matter how hard they try to refute autochthonism, that is, the indigenous belonging of the Crimean Tatars to the Crimea, the facts are increasingly at odds with the far-fetched statements. Today, a number of modern researchers find the roots of the Crimean Tatar nation in the archaeological cultures of the Bronze and Iron Ages - Yamnaya, Catacomb, Srubnaya and Kizil-Kobinsky, which once developed in the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea.

Taurus

So, the representatives of the Kizil-Kobinsky culture - the Tauris are undoubtedly the natives of the Crimean peninsula. The whole history of the Taurians is connected only with the Crimea, here it began and ended here, without going beyond its borders. It was the Tauris that became one of the main components of the emerging indigenous people of Crimea.

Taurus - namely, that is how their near and distant neighbors were called, according to archaeological research known from the 10th century BC. e., they inhabited the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula and undoubtedly left their mark on the culture of the peoples of the Crimea, including material. Often, Scythian, Hellenic, and then Crimean Tatar villages rose literally on the foundation of the Taurus settlements and fortresses. Unfortunately, practically nothing is known about the language spoken by the Taurians.

Cimmerians

But the Taurians also had their ancestors - the bearers of the Srubnaya culture. As recent archeological materials have shown, the ceramic complex and the Taurian burial rite are genetically related to the late-cut Crimean monuments. In addition, there is an assumption that some late-cutting tribes switched to a nomadic way of life and became known to ancient authors under the name of the Cimmerians.

Thus, the Cimmerians and Taurians have common family roots. But at the same time they never mixed with each other. The Cimmerians are known from the 10th to the 7th century BC. e. And if the Taurians never went beyond the peninsula, then the Cimmerians occupied a vast steppe territory between the Don and the Dniester, the steppe part of the Crimea and Taman.

Traces of the Cimmerians are preserved in the toponymy of the Crimea: Cimmeria, Cimmerian Bosporus (now the city of Kerch), Cimmerik (an ancient settlement on the western slopes of Mount Opuk, the southern coast of the Kerch Peninsula), etc., however, paradoxically, historians still do not know as the Cimmerians called themselves, the problem of the language of the Cimmerians is also unclear. This ancient people gives us some sketchy insights into spiritual world, type economic activity, art, about the development of pre-Scythian culture in general. The Cimmerians mastered iron, and it should be noted that they were good warriors. It is known that at the end of their history, they twice invaded Asia Minor and for some time even ruled over a large part of its territory. Historical role Cimmerians, of course, outstanding. First of all, they contributed to the spasmodic development of the economy of the ancient population. After all, it was through them that tools, tools and weapons spread not only in the Crimea, but throughout the entire Northern Black Sea region. They did not invent steel forging technology, but only borrowed from the advanced cultures of the era.

Some researchers argue that in the first half of the 7th century BC. e. part of this people left the territory of the Northern Black Sea region, due to the onset of natural disasters (drought). But on the peninsula by this time, the descendants of the Cimmerians had already managed to become an integral part of the Taurus and Scythian people, part of the gene pool of the Crimea and the surrounding regions.

Scythians

In the 7th century BC e. in the Crimea appeared the most famous tribal union in ancient history - the Scythians. Unlike the Taurians and Cimmerians, the ancestral home of the Scythians was Altai, the cradle of the Turkic peoples. This is evidenced by the unique finds of Scythian mummies in the Altai Territory (the most famous mummy of the Scythian princess Kadyn found in 1993). Researchers have already proved that the Scythians were Turks. The territory of the Scythians covered a rather large area from Altai to the Northern Black Sea region. Thanks to this, they took part in the formation of many Indo-European peoples. In the Crimea, the Scythian tribes settled unevenly. In the east, the Kerch coast becomes their boundary, in the west the Scythians settled along the coastal strip from the mouth of Belbek to Kalos-Limen (Black Sea), and in the south they occupied the Main Range of the Crimean Mountains. The Scythians settled reluctantly in the steppe part, but this did not stop them from pushing the Cimmerians to the foothills. But as for the Taurians, who lived in the areas of the peninsula chosen by the Scythians, the situation was different here. And the Scythians and Taurians peacefully coexisted. At first, the settlements were separate, but very soon an active process of interethnic interaction begins. Gradually, the Taurians become part of the population of the Scythian settlements, and the ethnic term "Tauro-Scythians", or "Scythotaurs" appears in historical science. More than eighty settlements and small villages were located: on the Tarkhankut Peninsula, near modern Evpatoria, along trade routes and in the eastern part of Crimea - southeast and outside the peninsula on the mainland. In the IV century BC. e. appear big cities. There were four of them in total: but the capital was Naples-Scythian (Petrovsky beam area in Simferopol) with an area of ​​20 hectares, on the site of the Taurus settlement of Kermenchik. In addition, primitive fortifications rose in almost every valley, which by 8th century n. e. they will be transformed into stone fortresses and their castles will be erected by the already mixed descendants of the Taurians and Scythians. Bright samples that have come down to us are Eski-Kermen, Mangup, Kyz-Kermen, Tepe-Kermen, Bakla, and others that survived the Middle Ages. In the II century BC. e. the Late Scythian state arises. Scythian king Skilur at the turn of the 3rd-2nd centuries BC. e. upset and strengthened the capital Naples-Scythian. It is noteworthy that in this city on the outskirts there were quarters in which, for some time, the still unmixed Taurians lived separately.

It is worth noting here that the Taurians and Cimmerians mixed with the Scythians over the centuries, but there were also separate groups, and presumably numerous groups that remained aloof from the assimilation process for some time. However, it was these separate groups of Taurians and Cimmerians that already by the 2nd century BC. e. completely adopted the language of the Scythians, and it was the ancient Turkic language, and culture.

By the way, the historian Tatishchev, relying on documentary sources that have not come down to us, speaking of the Crimean Tatars, notes that "Tatars are the remnants of the ancient Scythians, and their history, to the clarity of the Tatars, is not useless." In other words, he admitted that the distant ancestors of the indigenous people of Crimea were the Scythians.

Hellenes

Around the 8th century BC. e. small settlements of fishermen and merchants appeared on the Crimean peninsula, belonging to the Hellenes from Miletus, the most powerful and richest of the cities in Asia Minor. And a hundred years later, on the site of small trading posts, cities with a Hellenic population arose. On the shore of a vast bay in 600 BC. e. the Milesians found the city of Theodosius, and then the handsome Panticapaeum grew in the narrowest part of the Kerch Strait. In the south and southwest, the Hellenes chose the ancient sites of the Tauris. On one of them in 422 BC. e. natives of Heraclea Pontica (Asia Minor, on the southern coast of the Black Sea), the city of Chersonesus was founded. And soon, despite the proximity of the Taurians, they settled in a small, cozy bay of Sumbolon Limen (modern Balaklava). And so on from the largest trading post of Kerkinitida, which arose a hundred years before Chersonesus to Kolos Limen near Tarkhankut. Gradually, they subordinate the entire coastal strip to their influence.

The first inter-ethnic contacts between the colonists and the local Crimean population were exclusively economic and rather restrained. The Hellenes considered the indigenous population "barbarians", their culture was alien to them and naturally they were afraid of them, since the natives outnumbered them both in numbers and in military power. Actually, the Hellenes never advanced deep into the peninsula, they always lived in the coastal strip.

More intensive integration processes between the colonists and the local population (and this is how we saw the Tauro-Scythians and Cimmerians) took place in the eastern part of the Crimea.

Here around 480 BC. e. the Bosporus kingdom arose, uniting many ancient cities on the Kerch and Taman peninsulas. Over time, local residents began to settle in the cities, mainly to the nobility, which absorbed the rich Hellenic culture. It is necessary to make a reservation that the Scythians themselves were quite a cultured and educated people.

As you can see, integration with the Hellenes did not proceed at a fast pace, for example, like the Scythians with the Cimmerians and Taurians, the latter became less and less in number. They gradually dissolved in the Scythians and rushed in the III century BC. e. from the mainland to the Sarmatian peninsula.

Sarmatians

Anthropologically, the Sarmatians - according to scientists, the Iranian-speaking nomads belonged to the Caucasoid branch, although with weak, implicitly expressed Mongoloid features. According to the assumption of ancient authors, they were divided into Roksolan, Yazygov, Alans, the latter played the most significant role in the Crimea. Historical homeland this union of peoples were the steppe regions of the Southern Urals and Western Kazakhstan.

The Sarmatians occupy the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region, displacing the Scythians from there. In II-I centuries. BC e. some of them penetrate into the Crimea and come to grips with the Scythians and the Bosporus.

A distinctive feature of the Sarmatians was matriarchy - women were part of the cavalry and occupied high priestly posts. History knows the Sarmatian queen Amaga, it was she who, at the head of her army, fought against the Scythians. The brave woman managed to capture the palace of the king of the Scythians. She executed the king himself, and transferred his power to the son of the murdered man, ordering him to rule fairly.

This historical episode becomes a transitional period in the history of the Crimea - the Scythians are still ruled by the king, but he is dependent on a new political force, on the Sarmatians. Later, the Sarmatians concluded temporary alliances with the Scythians for a joint fight against the common enemy Chersonese.

It is known that the Romans used the Sarmatians in their campaigns, and even the same Bosporans. However, extreme variability, instability international position in the Northern Black Sea region, it contributed to frequent metamorphoses in the policy of the Sarmatians in general, as well as their individual tribes (Alans, Siraks, Savromats) in particular. Therefore, in the history of this warlike tribe, periods of peace were not uncommon; so, since the III century. BC e. an influx of Sarmatian settlers to the Bosporus was noted. And at the turn of the millennium, they penetrate into the central part of the Crimean peninsula. Archaeological finds speak about the migration of the tribe. For example, in the region of Scythian Naples, both Sarmatian inventory and material signs of the Sarmatian funeral rite were discovered.

The peaceful penetration of the Sarmatians into the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula continues throughout the 2nd-4th centuries AD. e. They populate as free lands, so they settle in old settlements, mixing with the natives, which is why they will soon be called nothing more than “Scythian-Sarmatians”. Under the onslaught of the new people - ready, they leave the long-lived, cozy and fertile valleys of Alma, Bulganak, Kacha and go to the mountains. From now on, the Scythian-Sarmatians were to settle forever between the First and Second Ridges of the Crimean Mountains. Thus, new fortress cities arose; the most famous on the mountain steep plateau in the upper reaches of the Churuk-Su, later called Dzhufut-Kale; as well as the village of Suuk-Su.

The culture, ideology and language of the Sarmatians were close to the Scythians, so the integration process of these peoples went quickly. They mutually enriched each other, while retaining the features of their individuality.

The Sarmatians suffered the fate of other, large and small tribes and peoples who found themselves in the melting pot of Crimea. They completely disappeared into the local population. In particular, the Kerch Sarmatians dissolved in the Bosporans. And those, in turn, joined the ongoing process of formation of the ethnogenesis of the indigenous people of Crimea.

Romans

In the 1st century A.D. e. Roman legionnaires appeared on the Crimean peninsula. Mostly they were warriors. It cannot be said that their history is closely intertwined with the local population. But the Romans were in the Crimea for a long time, until the 4th century AD. e. She left behind fortresses - outposts, beautiful Roman roads and the first Christians (III century). Of course, the Romans influenced the Crimeans in the economy and culture. The most noticeable influence of Roman culture was where the population was mixed, that is, in cities (Chersonesos).

It remains to be said that with the departure of the Roman troops, not all legionnaires and civilized Romans wanted to leave the Crimea. Someone was already connected by family ties with the natives. And gradually they also dissolved in the mass of the main population of the peninsula, pouring another trickle of Roman blood into the veins of the local population.

Goths

In the 3rd century, East Germanic tribes, the Goths, appeared on the peninsula. According to archeology, the Goths occupied primarily the Eastern Crimea, settled mainly in the territory of the Bosporus and along the southern coast of Crimea, displacing the population of certain areas into the mountains, including the inhabitants of Roman fortresses (Ai-Todor and Alma-Kermen). They almost came close to Chersonese, but did not take the city. The Goths remained a paramilitary sub-ethnos on the peninsula for a long time. A Gothic state was formed here, located in the very heart of Crimea on the Mangup plateau. Christianity is actively spreading among the Crimean Goths, and it is associated with the name of the famous Gothic bishop Ulfila (311-383), who played the main role in it.

It is noteworthy that the Crimean Goths lived in the Crimea for a long time in their principality Mangup, almost without mixing with the local population. In the 13th-14th centuries, the Genoese began to play an important role in the history of the Goths. The latter, since 1266, founded their trading posts in the city of Cafe. And in 1380, the Goths agreed with the Khan of the Great Horde, Mamai, on the division of influence in the Crimea. The Goths received the entire southern coast of Crimea up to Funa (near modern Alushta), including Kalamita, Chersonese and Chembalo. True, a number of fortresses in this territory belonged to the Genoese. But this surge of the former greatness of Gothia was the last. In 1475, Gothia, with the center of Mangup, fell under the onslaught of the Turks. And yet it should be noted that in the cities of Gothia, a mixed population still lived. But the bulk of the Goth-peasants, unlike the townspeople, did not undergo either Hellenization or Turkization by the 15th century; they continued to live in remote mountain villages, maintaining minimal ties with outside world, preserving its ancient culture and its language for several more centuries.

A vivid example, which can be observed today, is the descendants of the Crimean Goths - the Crimean Tatars of a number of villages of Crimea, sharply differed from the inhabitants of neighboring villages, anthropologically, they are tall, have light eye color and light hair color, and, in fact, other signs characteristic of the Scandinavians. This applied to such villages as Nikita of the Yalta region, Kuchuk-Taraktash, Kokkoz, and this despite the fact that the listed villages were located at a fairly large distance from each other. That is, the trail is ready to be seen today from Kokkoz, and Ozebash, to Uskut.

Huns (medieval)

In the 5th century A.D. e. the era of the Great Migration of Nations begins. The ancient civilization ceases to exist and Europe entered the early Middle Ages. With the approval of new states, feudal relations mixed in ethnic composition are formed and new political, administrative, trade and craft centers are formed on the peninsula.

Following the Goths, in the IV century AD. e. a wave of new migrants hit the peninsula. These were the Turks - known in history as the Huns. They pushed the Goths into the mountainous and foothill regions of the peninsula.

The Huns traveled a long way thousands of kilometers from Mongolia and Altai to Europe and settled in the Crimea, subsequently opening the way for the Khazars, Kypchaks and Horde.

The Huns need no introduction, it is enough to mention their legendary leader Attila. Having managed to conquer most of the then known world at the head of a huge army, he forced the proud Byzantium and the impregnable Western Roman Empire to subjugate to his will. He united many peoples under his rule, whose leaders became his faithful allies and associates. Under him, the state of the Huns expanded its borders from the Caspian (Hun) Sea in the east, including the Northern Black Sea region, to the Alps and the Baltic Sea in the west. And, of course, thanks to Attila, the Hunnic blood flowed into the "melting pot" that had been forming the Crimean Tatar ethnic group for thousands of years.

On the pages of world history, the Huns or Huns, as they were called by Chinese sources, appeared seven centuries before the birth of the famous commander. Even then, this Turkic people was spoken of as invincible. It was formed in the 4th century BC on the territory of modern Mongolia. Later, as a result of the union of Turkic tribes, a new state was formed - the Great Turkic Khaganate, where Crimea entered with the arrival of the Huns on the peninsula. It is noteworthy that the dominant ideology of this power was the cult of a single god - Tengri.

Actually, it was with the Huns in the Crimea that the active Turkic period began. As we remember, the Scythians were the first Turks in the Crimea, but perhaps it was the Huns who brought faith and the cult of the god Tengri to the peninsula. And since that time, along with Christianity, Tengrianism has been spreading in the Crimea.

Periodization of the Turks in the Crimea:

Hunnic period (IV - 30th VI),

Turkic-Bulgarian period (540 - 1/1 X c.). It is characterized by the continued integration of the Turkic tribes into the aboriginal environment of the Crimea.

Khazar period (2/2 VII - 2/2 X century). Marked by the process of merging Turkic and non-Turkic tribes and the formation of the Caucasoid medieval ethnos of the peninsula.

Horde period (2/2 VIII - 1/1 XVII) The Islamization of the Crimean Turks and the formation of the southern coast, mountain and steppe ethnic groups of the Crimean Tatars take place.

The Crimean Khanate (1/2 XV - the end of the XVIII century) This is the period of the developed statehood of the Crimean Tatars.

Moreover, Tengiranism was much more widespread here among the population of the peninsula and beyond (the Northern Black Sea region).

Judging by the sources, the Huns did not settle in cities, they freely roamed the steppe Crimea and the Northern Black Sea region. For some time they even took possession of the Bosporan kingdom, but after the death of Attila, the Hun empire began to disintegrate. As for whether the Huns contributed to the culture of the local population of Crimea: Gothic, Scythian, Taurus, the researchers are inclined to believe that if they did, it was insignificant. But as for the question of anthropology, here we can say that, yes, the Huns have made their contribution. This was mainly manifested in the territory of the Hunnic settlement (the steppe and even the South Coast in the Alushta region).

The Avars followed the Huns, but their stay did not leave a deep trace. They themselves very soon dissolved into the local population.

Bulgarians

In the 7th century, Bulgarians, one of the Turkic ethnic groups, penetrated into the Crimea under the pressure of the Khazars. In the Crimea, the Bulgarians lived in ethnic communities. At the same time, it cannot be said that the Crimean Bulgarians led a secluded lifestyle. They settled almost on the entire territory of the peninsula, like all Turks, they were sociable and free from prejudice. They intensively mixed both with the natives and with the recent Crimeans like them.

Khazars

In the 7th century, on the territory of modern Ciscaucasia, the Lower and Middle Volga regions, northwestern Kazakhstan, the Sea of ​​\u200b\u200bAzov, eastern Crimea, as well as the steppes and forest-steppes of Eastern Europe, up to the Dnieper, a state spread - the Khazar Khaganate - one of the most powerful Turkic states in the Middle Ages. Anthropologically, the Khazars - Turkic tribes in the vast majority belonged to the Mongoloids. At the end of the 7th century, the Khazars advanced to the Sea of ​​Azov, and then, subjugated almost the entire Northern Black Sea region and the steppe part of Crimea, and at the turn of the 8th century advanced to the area of ​​settlement of the Goths in the south of the peninsula, and left a significant mark. Like all Turks, they originally worshiped the same god Tengri. But as you know, the Khazar Khaganate was a unique state, there was no single state religion, representatives of the three world mono-religions peacefully coexisted in the Khaganate: Judaism, Christianity and Islam. After the collapse of the Khaganate, part of the aristocracy who professed Judaism settled in the Crimea. They called themselves Karaites. Actually, according to one of the existing theories, it was from the 10th century that a nation better known as the Karaites began to form on the peninsula.

Pechenegs

In the 10th century, the Pechenegs pressed the Khazars in the steppe Crimea. They dominated the Northern Black Sea region for about 100 years. But they were defeated by the Kyiv prince Yaroslav the Wise in 1036. Part of the Pechenegs went to Hungary and Bulgaria and there they dissolved into the environment of the local population, the other part settled on the peninsula around 882 and took part in the ethnic processes that took place among the population of Crimea. They pushed back the Turko-Bulgars in the foothills and thereby intensified the process of Turkification of the highlanders. Subsequently, the Pechenegs finally assimilated into the Turkic-Alano-Bulgarian-Kipchak environment of the foothills. The Pechenegs could not exert a significant influence on the emerging Crimean culture. They had Caucasoid features with a slight admixture of Mongoloid features.

Kypchaks

In the second half of the 11th century, the Kipchaks appeared in the Crimea - one of the numerous Turkic tribes, which were called Polovtsy in Rus', and Comans in the west. They occupied the entire peninsula, except for its mountainous part.

According to written sources, the Kypchaks were mostly fair-haired and blue-eyed people.

(The resettlement of the Kypchaks in the X-XI century, a huge habitat from the Tien Shan to the Danube common name Desht-i-Kypchak).

An amazing feature of the Kipchaks is that they did not assimilate in the last, but assimilated into them. That is, they were the core, to which, like a magnet, the remnants of the tribes of the Pechenegs, Bulgarians, Alans, and others were attracted, adopting their culture. Some authors are sure that the Kypchaks were "the bulk of the Turkic-speaking population of the Crimea, both before the Mongol period and after it." The city of Sugdeya (modern Sudak) becomes their capital on the peninsula. By the XIII century, they finally merged with the local population, switched from Tengrism to Islam.

Then, in 1299, the troops of the Horde temnik Nogai broke into the lands beyond Perekop and into the Crimea. Since that time, the peninsula has been part of the Dzhuchiev ulus of the Great Horde, without any major upheavals, without actually changing the structure of the population established at the beginning of the 13th century, without changes in the economic structure, without the destruction of cities. After that, both the conquerors and the vanquished lived on the Crimean land peacefully, practically without conflicts, gradually getting used to each other.

In the thus formed motley demographic mosaic, where everyone could continue to do their own thing and preserve their own traditions, the Kypchak material culture not lost (Polovtsian women - the image of deceased relatives). They still exist in the toponymy of the Crimea today.

The language of the Kypchaks, the researchers refer to the Oghuz-Kypchak subgroup. Whereas the modern Crimean Tatar language is a western branch of the Oguz-Kipchak subgroup of the Turkic languages. Based spoken language Kipchaks of Crimea in 1294/95, the first surviving written monument of the Kypchak or Koman language, the famous dictionary, appeared: “Code Kumanikus”, created as a guide for visiting merchants in their communication with the local population of Crimea. Today, the original of this dictionary is kept in Venice.

And in conclusion about the Kipchaks, let us say that it was with their arrival in the Crimea that the final centuries-old Turkic period of Crimea began. It was the Kipchaks who completed the Turkization and created the predominant monolithic population of the Crimea.

When in the 16th century a significant mass of Zaperekop Nogais began to penetrate into the Crimean steppes, the descendants of the Kipchaks became the first with whom the Nogais encountered and with whom they began to mix quite intensively. As a result, their physical appearance changed, acquiring pronounced Mongoloid features.

Turks

So, since the 13th century, almost all ethnic components, all components, were already present on the peninsula, in other words, the progenitors of which only a few centuries later a new nation would form - the Crimean Tatars.

It is noteworthy that even before the emergence of the Ottoman state, settlers from Asia Minor appeared on the peninsula, they were immigrants from the Turkic tribe, the Seljuks, who left traces of their stay in the Crimea, as part of its population who spoke Turkish. This ethnic element persisted century after century, partially mixing with the Crimean Tatar population of the same faith and quite close in language - a process inevitable for any immigrant. Actually, contacts with the Seljuks, and later with the Ottoman Turks from the XIII and throughout the following centuries did not stop due to the fact that the future states of the Crimean Khanate and the Ottoman Empire were always allies.

Genoese

Speaking about the ethnic composition of the Crimea, it is difficult to ignore the Italians. And to be more precise, the Venetians and Genoese. The first Venetians appeared on the peninsula at the end of the 11th century. In the XIII century they established trade relations with Soldea (Sudak). In the wake of Venice, Genoa began to send its trade and political agents to the Crimea. The latter subsequently finally ousted Venice from the Crimea. Genoese trading posts flourished under the Crimean Tatars, and in the early years of the independent Crimean Tatar state - the Crimean Khanate. They fell only in June 1475, when the Ottoman Janissaries came ashore. The main city of the Genoese trading posts in the Crimea was Kafa, the main population of which was the Crimean Tatars. Of course, thanks to these trading posts, Italian blood was added to the young ethnic group of the Crimean Tatars. Since not all the Genoese left the Crimea after the defeat of their trading posts by the Ottomans. Some of them moved to the interior regions of the Crimea. Many have put down their roots here and eventually completely disappeared into the Crimean Tatars.

Thus, the ethnogenesis of modern Crimean Tatars, in which non-Turkic and Turkic ancestors took part, was rather complicated, over the centuries. It was they who determined the features of the language, anthropological type and traditions of the culture of the ethnos.

During the period of the Crimean Khanate, local integration processes were also observed. For example, it is known that in the early years of the Crimean Khanate, whole families of Circassians moved here, which by the end of the 19th century dissolved in the Crimean Tatars.

Modern Crimean Tatars consist of three sub-ethnic groups: South Coast (Yaly Boyu), mountain, foothill Crimea (Tats), steppe (Nogai).

As for the ethnonym Crimean Tatars, or rather Tatars, it appeared in Crimea only with the advent of the Horde, that is, when Crimea became part of the Jochi Ulus of the Great (better known as the Golden) Horde. And as it was said above, by this time a new nation was almost formed. Since then, the inhabitants of the Crimea began to be called Tatars. But this in no way means that the Crimean Tatars are descendants of the Horde. Actually, it was this ethnonym that the young Crimean Khanate inherited. I would especially like to emphasize that the Crimean Tatars do not have the same root, for example, with the Kazan Tatars. It's two different people, both in their ethnogenesis, and in culture, traditions and their own mentality.

To date, the process of ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars has not yet been completed.

Similar information.

Crimean Tatars(Crimean Tatar qırımtatarlar, kyrymtatarlar, singular qırımtatar, kyrymtatar) or Crimeans (Crimean Tatar qırımlar, kyrymlar, singular qırım, kyrym) - a people that historically formed in the Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language, which belongs to the Turkic group Altai family languages.

The vast majority of Crimean Tatars are Sunni Muslims and belong to the Hanafi madhhab.

Dossier

Self-name:(Crimean Tatar) qırımtatarlar, qırımlar

Number and range: Total 500,000 people

Ukraine: 248,193 (2001 census)

• Republic of Crimea: 243,433 (2001)
• Kherson region: 2,072 (2001)
• Sevastopol: 1,858 (2001)

Uzbekistan: from 10,046 (2000 census) and 90,000 (2000 estimate) to 150,000

Türkiye: 100,000 to 150,000

Romania: 24,137 (2002 census)

• Constanta County: 23,230 (2002 census)

Russia: 2,449 (2010 census)

• Krasnodar Territory: 1,407 (2010)
• Moscow: 129 (2010)

Bulgaria: 1,803 (2001 census)

Kazakhstan: 1,532 (2009 census)

Language: Crimean Tatar

Religion: Islam

Includes: in Turkic-speaking peoples

Related peoples: Krymchaks, Karaites, Kumyks, Azerbaijanis, Turkmens, Gagauz, Karachays, Balkars, Tatars, Uzbeks, Turks

Settlement of the Crimean Tatars

Crimean Tatars live mainly in the Crimea (about 260 thousand) and adjacent areas of continental Ukraine, as well as in Turkey, Romania (24 thousand), Uzbekistan (90 thousand, estimates from 10 thousand to 150 thousand), Russia ( 4 thousand, mainly in the Krasnodar Territory), Bulgaria (3 thousand). According to local Crimean Tatar organizations, the diaspora in Turkey numbers hundreds of thousands of people, but there are no exact data on its size, since Turkey does not publish data on the national composition of the country's population. Total number residents whose ancestors different time immigrated to the country from Crimea, is estimated in Turkey at 5-6 million people, however, most of these people assimilated and consider themselves not Crimean Tatars, but Turks of Crimean origin.

Ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars

The Crimean Tatars were formed as a people in the Crimea in the XIII-XVII centuries. The historical core of the Crimean Tatar ethnos is the Turkic tribes that settled in the Crimea, a special place in the ethnogenesis of the Crimean Tatars among the Kipchak tribes, which mixed with the local descendants of the Huns, Khazars, Pechenegs, as well as representatives of the pre-Turkic population of Crimea - together with them formed the ethnic basis of the Crimean Tatars, Karaites , Krymchaks.

Historical background

The main ethnic groups that inhabited the Crimea in antiquity and the Middle Ages are Taurians, Scythians, Sarmatians, Alans, Bulgars, Greeks, Goths, Khazars, Pechenegs, Cumans, Italians, Circassians (Circassians), Asia Minor Turks. Over the centuries, the peoples who again came to Crimea assimilated those who lived here before their arrival, or themselves assimilated among them.

By the middle of the XIII century, the Crimea was conquered by the Mongols under the leadership of Batu Khan and included in the state founded by them - the Golden Horde.

The key event that left an imprint on the further history of Crimea was the conquest by the Ottoman Empire of the southern coast of the peninsula and the adjacent part of the Crimean Mountains, which previously belonged to the Republic of Genoa and the Principality of Theodoro, in 1475, the subsequent transformation of the Crimean Khanate into a vassal state in relation to the Ottomans and the entry of the peninsula into Pax Ottomana - "cultural space" Ottoman Empire.

The spread of Islam on the peninsula had a significant impact on the ethnic history of Crimea. According to local legends, Islam was brought to Crimea in the 7th century by companions of the Prophet Muhammad Malik Ashter and Gaza Mansur.

History of the Crimean Tatars

Crimean Khanate

The process of formation of the people was finally completed during the period of the Crimean Khanate.

The state of the Crimean Tatars - the Crimean Khanate existed from 1441 to 1783. For most of its history, it was dependent on the Ottoman Empire and was its ally. The ruling dynasty in the Crimea was the Geraev (Gireev) clan, the founder of which was the first Khan Hadji I Gerai. The era of the Crimean Khanate is the heyday of the Crimean Tatar culture, art and literature.

From the beginning of the 16th century, the Crimean Khanate waged constant wars with the Moscow state and the Commonwealth (until the 18th century, mainly offensive), which was accompanied by the capture of a large number of prisoners from among the peaceful Russian, Ukrainian and Polish population.

As part of the Russian Empire

In 1736 Russian troops led by Field Marshal Christopher (Christoph) Minich burned Bakhchisaray and devastated the foothills of the Crimea. In 1783, as a result of Russia's victory over the Ottoman Empire, Crimea was first occupied and then annexed by Russia.

At the same time, the policy of the Russian imperial administration was characterized by a certain flexibility. The Russian government made the ruling circles of Crimea its mainstay: all the Crimean Tatar clergy and the local feudal aristocracy were equated with the Russian aristocracy with all rights reserved.

The oppression of the Russian administration and the expropriation of land from the Crimean Tatar peasants caused a mass emigration of the Crimean Tatars to the Ottoman Empire. The two main waves of emigration came in the 1790s and 1850s.

Revolution of 1917

Crimean Tatar women on a 1905 postcard

The period from 1905 to 1917 was a continuous growing process of struggle, moving from humanitarian to political. In the revolution of 1905 in the Crimea, problems were raised regarding the allocation of land to the Crimean Tatars, the conquest of political rights, and the creation of modern educational institutions.

In February 1917, the Crimean Tatar revolutionaries observed the political situation with great readiness. As soon as it became known about serious unrest in Petrograd, on the evening of February 27, that is, on the day of the dissolution of the State Duma, the Crimean Muslim Revolutionary Committee was created on the initiative of Ali Bodaninsky.

In 1921, the Crimean ASSR was created as part of the RSFSR. State languages it contained Russian and Crimean Tatar. The basis of the administrative division of the Autonomous Republic was the national principle.

Crimea under German occupation

Deportation

The accusation of cooperation of the Crimean Tatars, as well as other peoples, with the invaders became the reason for the eviction of these peoples from the Crimea in accordance with the Decree of the State Defense Committee of the USSR No. GOKO-5859 of May 11, 1944. On the morning of May 18, 1944, an operation began to deport peoples accused of collaborating with the German occupiers to Uzbekistan and the adjacent regions of Kazakhstan and Tajikistan. Small groups were sent to the Mari ASSR, to the Urals, to the Kostroma region.

In total, 228,543 people were evicted from Crimea, 191,014 of them were Crimean Tatars (more than 47,000 families). From every third adult Crimean Tatar they took a subscription stating that he had familiarized himself with the decision, and that 20 years of hard labor were threatened for escaping from the place of special settlement, as for a criminal offense.

A significant number of immigrants, exhausted after three years of life in the occupation, died in the places of expulsion from starvation and disease in 1944-45. Estimates of the number of deaths during this period vary greatly: from 15-25% according to estimates by various Soviet official bodies to 46% according to estimates by activists of the Crimean Tatar movement who collected information about the dead in the 1960s.

Return to Crimea

Unlike other peoples deported in 1944, who were allowed to return to their homeland in 1956, during the "thaw", the Crimean Tatars were deprived of this right until 1989 ("perestroika").

The mass return began in 1989, and today about 250,000 Crimean Tatars live in Crimea (243,433 people according to the all-Ukrainian census of 2001).

The main problems of the Crimean Tatars after their return were mass unemployment, problems with the allocation of land and the development of infrastructure in the Crimean Tatar settlements that have arisen over the past 15 years.

Article from www.nr2.ru

Is it permissible to use the term "indigenous people" in relation to the TATARS in the CRIMEA in the context of the International Labor Organization Convention 169 "On Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries" (adopted by the ILO General Conference on June 26, 1989)

Historical sources brought us the exact date of the arrival of the Tatars in Taurica. On January 27, 1223 (before the battle on the Kalka River), a note was made in the margins of a Greek manuscript book of religious content - a synaxarion - in Sudak: "On this day the Tatars first came, in 6731" (6731 years from the Creation of the World \u003d 1223 years from R .X.). The details of this raid are given by the Arab author Ibn-al-Athir: "Coming to Sudak, the Tatars took possession of it, and the inhabitants dispersed, some of them with their families and their property climbed the mountains, and some went to the sea."

Having plundered the cities, the Tatars "left (the land of the Kipchaks) [that is, the Polovtsian Komans, who had occupied the steppes of the peninsula since the middle of the 11th century] and returned to their land." During a campaign in South-Eastern Europe in 1236, they began to settle in the steppe Taurica. In 1239, Sudak was taken a second time, then new raids followed. The Polovtsians were completely exterminated. About the desertedness of the steppes of Crimea (from the 2nd half of the 13th century this name was used in relation to the city, now called Old Crimea, much later, not earlier than a century later, it becomes the designation of the entire peninsula) and the Northern Black Sea region is reported by Guillaume de Rubruk, who was passing through these regions in 1253: "And when the Tatars came, the Komans [i.e. Polovtsy], who all fled to the seashore, entered this land [i.e. the Crimean coast] in such a huge number that they devoured each each other, the living of the dead, as a certain merchant who saw this told me; the living devoured and tore with their teeth the raw meat of the dead, like dogs - corpses. Having left Sudak, Rubruk moved along the deserted steppe, observing only the numerous graves of the Polovtsy, and only on the third day of the journey he met the Tatars.

Having established themselves at first in the steppe spaces of the Crimea, the Tatars eventually occupy a significant part of its territory, with the exception of the eastern and southern coasts, the mountainous part (the Principality of Theodoro). The Crimean ulus (province) of the Golden Horde is being formed.

In the first half of the 15th century, as a result of centrifugal processes taking place in the metropolis, the Crimean Khanate was created (not without the active participation of Polish-Lithuanian diplomacy), headed by the Girey dynasty, who consider themselves descendants of Genghis Khan. In 1475, the Turkish army invaded the peninsula, seizing the possessions of the Italian Genoese and the Orthodox Principality of Theodoro, with its capital on Mount Mangup. Since 1478, the Crimean Khanate became a vassal of the Turkish Empire, the lands seized by the Turks entered the domain of the Turkish Sultan and the khans never obeyed.

Medieval European travelers and diplomats quite rightly consider the Tatars living in the Crimea to be newcomers from the depths of Asia. The Turk Evliya Chelebi, who visited the Crimea in the 17th century, and other Turkish historians and travelers, as well as Russian chroniclers, agree with this. Andrey Lyzlov in his "Scythian History" (1692) writes that, having left Tataria, the Tatars conquered many lands, and after the battle on Kalka "... they ruined both the towns and the Polovtsian villages to the ground. And all the countries near the Don , and the Meotian [i.e. Azov] and Taurica Kherson [Crimea] seas, every day from the digging of the intermarium we call Perekop, and around Pontus Euxinus [i.e. the Black Sea] the Tatars possessed and grayed." And the Tatars themselves living in the Crimea, until recently, did not deny their Asian origin.

During the ascent national movement in 1917, the Tatar press emphasized the need to take into account and use "the state wisdom of the Mongol-Tatars, which runs like a red thread through their entire history", with honor to hold the "emblem of the Tatars - the blue banner of Genghis" (the so-called "kok-bayrak", from that to this day, the national flag of the Tatars living in the Crimea), to convene a national congress - kurultai, because for the Mongol-Tatars "it was unthinkable for a state without Kurultai and Kurultai without a state [...] Chingis himself, before ascending the great Khan throne, convened Kurultai and asked his consent" (newspaper "Voice of the Tatars", October 11, 1917).

During the years of the occupation of Crimea during the Great Patriotic War in the Tatar-language newspaper Azat Krym (Liberated Crimea), published with the consent of the fascist administration, on March 20, 1942, the Tatar troops of Sabodai Bogatyr, who conquered Crimea, were recalled, and the issue of April 21, 1942 said: "our [Tatars] ancestors came from the East, and we were waiting for liberation from there, but today we are witnessing that liberation is coming to us from the West.

Only in last years Using the pseudo-scientific arguments of the St. Petersburg historian and Scandinavian scholar V. Vozgrin, the leaders of the illegal unregistered organization "Mejlis" are trying to approve the opinion about the autochthonous nature of the Tatars in the Crimea.

However, even today, speaking on July 28, 1993, at the “kurultai” in Simferopol, the eminent descendant of the Girey khans, Jezar-Girey, who arrived from London, declared: “Our former statehood was based on three fundamental unchanging pillars that define us.
The first and most important was our hereditary succession of Genghisides. Communist propaganda tried to separate the Tatars from the Great Father, Lord Genghis Khan, through his grandson Batu and eldest son Juche. The same propaganda tried to hide the fact that we are the sons of the Golden Horde. Thus, the Crimean Tatars, as communist propaganda tells us, never defeated the Golden Horde in our history, because we were and indeed are the Golden Horde. I am proud to announce that a prominent academician of the University of London, who spent his whole life researching the roots of the origin of the Crimean Tatars, has briefly published the results of his research, which again revives our rightful rich heritage.

The second great pillar of our statehood was the Ottoman Empire, which we can now proudly relate to our Turkic succession. We are all part of this large Turkic nation, with which we are connected by strong and deep ties in the field of Language, history and culture.

The third pillar was Islam. This is our faith. [...]

The examples of our past greatness and our contribution to human civilization are innumerable. The Crimean Tatar people were once (and not so long ago) a superpower in the region."

Among the Tatars living in Crimea, the following main ethnographic groups can be distinguished:

Mongoloid "legs" are the descendants of nomadic tribes that were part of the Golden Horde. With the formation of the Crimean Khanate, part of the Nogais passed into the citizenship of the Crimean khans. The Nogai hordes roamed the steppes of the Northern Black Sea region from Moldavia (Budzhak) to North Caucasus. In the middle - the end of the 17th century, the Crimean khans resettled (often by force) the Nogays in the steppe Crimea.

The so-called "South Coast Tatars" - basically immigrants from Asia Minor, speak a medieval Turkish-Anatolian dialect. They were formed on the basis of several migration waves from the regions of Central Anatolia Sivas, Kayseri, Tokat from the end of the 16th to the 18th centuries.

Only in 1778, after the majority of the Christian population (Greeks, Armenians, Georgians, Moldavians) were resettled from the territory of the Khanate, the Muslim population became predominant in the Eastern and Southwestern Crimea.

The self-name of this ethnic group in the Middle Ages was "Tatars". From the first half of the 16th century in the writings of Europeans, the term "Crimean (Perekop, Tauride) Tatars" is recorded (S. Herberstein, M. Bronevsky). It is also used by Evliya Celebi. The word "Crimeans" is characteristic of Russian chronicles. As you can see, foreigners, calling this people that way, emphasized the geographical principle.

In addition to the Tatars, the Crimean Khanate, which, in addition to the territory of Taurica, occupied significant steppe spaces of the Northern Black Sea region, was inhabited by Greeks, Armenians, Jews, Turks, and Circassians. All non-Muslims in the Khanate were required to pay a special tax.

Initially, the Tatars were nomads and pastoralists. During the 16th - 18th centuries, nomadic pastoralism was gradually replaced by agriculture. But for the steppes, cattle breeding remained the main occupation for a long time, and the farming technique was primitive even in the 18th century. The low level of economic development stimulated military raids on neighbors, the capture of booty and prisoners, most of which were sold to Turkey. The slave trade was the main source of income for the Crimean Khanate from the 16th to the 18th centuries. Raids were often carried out at the direction of the Turkish Sultan.

From 1450 to 1586, 84 raids were carried out only on Ukrainian lands, and from 1600 to 1647 - over 70. From the beginning of the XV to mid-seventeenth century, about 2 million captives from the territory that is part of modern Ukraine were driven into slavery.

The prisoners left in the Crimea were used in the economy. According to the Polish diplomat M. Bronevsky, who visited the Crimea in 1578, the noble Tatars "have their fields cultivated by captured Hungarians, Russians, Wallachians or Moldavians, whom they have a lot of and whom they treat like cattle. [...] Greek Christians [locals] living in some villages work and cultivate the fields like slaves." Bronevsky’s remark about the development of crafts and trade in the khanate is curious: “In the cities, not many are engaged in trade; even more rarely needlework or crafts; and almost all merchants or artisans who are there, or Christian slaves, or Turks, Armenians, Circassians, Pyatigorsk, (who also Christians), Philistines, or Gypsies, the most insignificant and poor people.

The attitude towards the prisoners struck not only enlightened Europeans, but also the Muslim Evliya Chelebi, who had seen a lot, who had great sympathy for the Tatars living in the Crimea. Here is how he described the slave market in Karasubazar (Belogorsk):

"This unfortunate bazaar is amazing. The words are applicable to it: "Whoever sells a person, cuts a tree or destroys a dam, he is cursed by God in this and the next world [...] This concerns the sellers of yasyr [i.e. captives], for these people are unmerciful beyond measure. Whoever has not seen this bazaar has not seen anything in the world. A mother is torn off there from a son and daughter, a son from a father and brother, and they are sold amid moaning, cries for help, sobbing and crying. In another place, he says: "The Tatar people are a ruthless people."

For Europeans, the Tatars living in the Crimea are vicious, treacherous, wild barbarians. Only, perhaps, the German Tunmann, by the way, who had never been to the Crimea, wrote in 1777: "At present, they are no longer such a rude, dirty, robbery people, which they once described with such disgusting colors."

In the Crimean Khanate, there were forms of state government characteristic of feudal formations that had developed on the ruins of the empire of Genghis Khan. However, there were features determined by vassal dependence on the Turkish sultans. Crimean khans were appointed and removed by the will of the sultans. Their fate was also influenced by the opinion of the largest feudal lords - beys. (The most influential beys - heads of clans, owning semi-independent beyliks (destinies) were Shirins, Mansurs, Baryns, Sijiuts, Argins, Yashlau. Often they themselves organized raids on their neighbors without the knowledge of the khans).

In 1774, according to the Kuchuk-Kaipardji agreement between Russia and Turkey, the Crimean Khanate was declared independent. Russian troops were stationed on its territory. On April 19, 1783, the Crimean Khanate was liquidated by the Manifesto of Catherine the Great, and the Crimea joined Russia. On January 9, 1792, according to the Treaty of Yassy between Russia and Turkey, the annexation of Crimea to Russia was recognized.

At present, contrary to historical sources, there are attempts to declare "kurultai" and "mejlis" as traditional self-governing bodies of the Tatars living in Crimea, to give the "kurultai" the status of a "national assembly".

However, neither the "kurultai" nor the "mejlis" are traditional self-governing bodies of the Tatars living in Crimea, and, moreover, they are not a national assembly.

Fundamental works on the history of the Golden Horde state:

"The specific conditions in which the formation and development of the Golden Horde as a state took place gradually gave rise to new forms of social and state life, pushing aside the traditional nomadic customs of the Mongols. In this regard, the question arises about the existence of kuriltai in the Golden Horde. Sources very often mention these peculiar congresses of the ruling family (hereinafter it is highlighted by us. - Ed.), which took place under Genghis Khan and long time after his death. But with the final division of the empire of the Mongols into independent states in all respects, information about the Kuriltai is becoming less and less common and finally completely disappears from the sources. The need for this institution, which was largely of a state military-democratic nature, disappears with the advent of a hereditary monarchy. In Mongolia, where there were stronger nomadic traditions, kuriltai gathered until the accession of Khubilai, who officially founded the Yuan dynasty and approved a new system of succession to the throne - without prior discussion of the candidacy of the heir at the general congress of the ruling family. The available sources do not contain specific information that kuriltai were held in the Golden Horde. True, when describing the abdication of the throne, Tudamengu is reported that "wives, brothers, uncles, relatives and close associates" agreed with this. Obviously, to discuss this extraordinary case, a special meeting was convened, which can be considered kuriltai. Another source reports on the proposal of Nogay Tokte to assemble kuriltai to resolve a dispute that arose between them. However, Nogai's proposal was not accepted. In this case, he acts as the bearer of obsolete traditions that do not find support from the khan of the new, younger generation. After this incident, the sources on the history of the Golden Horde no longer mention the Kuriltai, since the changes that took place in the administrative and state structure, nullified the role of the traditional nomadic institution. There was no need to convene well-born representatives of the aristocracy from scattered camps, most of whom now occupied the highest government posts. Having a government in the stationary capital, consisting of representatives of the reigning family and the largest feudal lords, the khan no longer needed kuriltai. He could discuss the most important state issues, gathering, as needed, the highest administrative and military officials of the state. As for such an important prerogative as the approval of the heir, now it has become the exclusive competence of the khan. However, a much greater role, especially from the second half of the 14th century, was played in the shifts on the throne by palace conspiracies and all-powerful temporary workers. history of the USSR Managing editor Dr. historical sciences Professor V.I. Bugapov. - Moscow, "Nauka", 1985).

Kurultai (as a congress of representatives of the people) cannot be called the traditional form of self-government of the Tatars living in Crimea. Sources do not confirm the existence of such gatherings in the Crimean Khanate. In this state of the Tatars, under the Khan, there was a Divan - a collection of nobility organized according to the Persian model (the term itself is of Persian origin).

After February Revolution in Russia (1917), at the general meeting of Crimean Muslims on March 25 / April 7, 1917, the Musispolkom (Temporary Muslim Executive Committee) was formed, which eventually took control of all issues of social life of the Tatars living in Crimea (from cultural and religious to military political). Local municipal executive committees were created on the ground.

At the end of August 1917, in connection with receiving an invitation from the Central Rada to send a representative of the Tatars to the Congress of Peoples convened in Kiev, the Musispolkom raised the issue of convening the Kurultai (as a Sejm, the Parliament of the Tatars) - the highest self-government body. At the same time, the Crimean Tatar press emphasized that such a body was characteristic of the Mongol-Tatars, who resolved the most important issues on it, that it was on it that Genghis Khan was elected (1206).

78 Kurultai delegates were elected with the participation of more than 70 percent of the Tatar population of Crimea. November 26/December 9, 1917 in the city of Bakhchisarai opened the meeting of this assembly, which declared itself a "national parliament". Kurultai elected from among its members the Directory (the national government - following the example of Ukraine). It was dissolved by the Bolsheviks on January 17/30, 1918 and resumed its work during the period German occupation since May 10, 1918. In October 1918, Kurultai dissolved itself due to internal disagreements.

In 1919, the "national parliament" of the Tatars living in the Crimea was called the Turkish term "Mejlis-mebusan" and consisted of 45 deputies. He sat for a little over a week, after hearing the report of the Chairman of the Directory and the draft reform of the clergy.

On August 26, 1919, the Directory was dissolved by order of Lieutenant General of the White Army N.I. Schilling.

The current "kurultai-mejlis" is an illegal political organization that acts like a political party: the decisions of its bodies are binding only on its political supporters and are sharply criticized by political opponents from among the Tatars. "Kurultai-Mejlis" was created on the basis of an illegal organization - OKND ("Organization of the Crimean Tatar National Movement").

The activities of these organizations are recognized as illegal by the decisions of the Supreme Council of Crimea. In addition to them, the pro-Mejlis illegal party "Adalet" was created.

OKND and "Kurultay-Mejlis" are opposed by the legal association of Tatars - NDKT ("National Movement of Crimean Tatars"). The fate of the national movement is largely determined by the political struggle of these two Tatar parties.

Recently, there has been a split in the "kurultai-mejlis": some of its activists created their own party "Millet" (also illegal).

The procedure for the formation and work of the "kurultai", "mejlis" has the character not of people's self-government, but of a congress political party and its elected executive body. Elections are staggered. In our opinion, it is possible to legalize the "kurultai-mejlis" only as a political party or public organization(in accordance with the laws of Ukraine).

In accordance with ILO Convention 169 "On Indigenous and Tribal Peoples in Independent Countries" (adopted by the General Conference of the International Labor Organization on June 26, 1989), Tatars living in Crimea (Crimean Tatars) cannot be considered a group defined in the legal sense as "indigenous" in the given territory (Republic of Crimea), because:

1. They are not the first settlers in this territory (Crimean Peninsula). Historical and archaeological sources clearly record their first appearance here in 1223 as conquerors who almost completely destroyed the ethnic group that inhabited the steppe part of Crimea before them - the Polovtsians (Comans).

Until the first half of the 14th century, they were part of a larger community spread over a significant area of ​​Eastern Europe outside the Crimean Peninsula - the state of the Golden Horde Tatars.

2. Tatars, as an ethnic group, never occupied the entire territory of the Crimean peninsula and never made up the majority of the population in all its regions. On the coast from Kafa (Feodosia) to Chembalo (Balaklava), on former territory Principality of Theodoro, in the mountainous and foothill parts of the Crimea, the population has always been multi-ethnic. According to the censuses conducted by Turkey at the end of the XVI century. among the inhabitants of the Kafsky vilayet (province of Turkey in the Crimea), Muslims made up only 3 to 5 percent of the population. The Greeks (up to 80%), Armenians and others predominated.
From the end of the 16th to the 18th centuries, there has been an intensive process of settlement of these territories by Turkish colonists (mainly from central Anatolia) and the displacement of the Greek and Armenian population. After the annexation of Crimea to Russia, the multi-ethnic character of Crimea intensified to an even greater extent.

3. In the ethnogenesis of the Tatars living in Crimea, the main role was played by communities that developed outside the Northern Black Sea region and Crimea and came here as conquerors or colonists and were not indigenous in this region. These are the Tatars themselves, who arrived in the region from the depths of Asia in the first half of the 13th century, the Nogai - an Asian ethnic group that appeared here in the late Middle Ages and forcibly resettled in the Crimea at the end of the 17th century, Turkish colonists from Anatolia of the 16th - 18th centuries, who were also not in this region is indigenous. With the adoption of Islam as the state religion of the Golden Horde in the reign of Uzbek Khan in 1412/13, the Tatars were introduced to the Muslim world, which very noticeably determined the development of their spiritual culture and ethnic identity.

4. Does not apply to Tatars living in Crimea main feature which distinguishes the "indigenous" (in the legal sense) people or group - the preservation of traditional life support systems, primarily - special forms of economic activity (land, sea hunting, fishing, gathering, reindeer herding).

Nomadic pastoralism, characteristic of the Tatars of the Middle Ages, does not fall into this list. Moreover, by the end of the XVIII - early XIX century it has almost disappeared. The process of urbanization of the ethnic group was actively going on. By the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th century, the Tatars switched to modern forms management. According to the 1989 census, 70% of Tatars are city dwellers.

Tatars are a national group with a complete social structure. Among them are intellectuals, workers various industries industry, agriculture. Tatars are actively involved in trade, entrepreneurship and have completely lost their traditional forms of management.

5. The Tatars have long passed the stages of the traditional form of social organization - the tribal (classless) structure of society - and live according to the traditions and laws of modern society. Moreover, the Tatars emphasize that in the past they had their own feudal state (the Crimean Khanate as part of the Ottoman Empire), which was the "superpower of the region", carried out aggressive campaigns against their neighbors and collected tribute from them.

These facts completely refute the need to classify the Tatars as "indigenous peoples" with traditional forms of social organization of society (for example, the Saami, Chukchi, Papuans of New Guinea, Aborigines of Australia, Indians of Canada, etc.), the protection of which is provided for by ILO Convention 169.

6. Tatars living in the Crimea, being part of the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate, the Ottoman Empire, Russian Empire, Soviet Union, did not have their own traditional self-government bodies ("kurultai", "mejlis", etc.), which would make decisions on issues that are most important for all Tatars living in Crimea. They are not recorded by historical documents; there was no real tradition of such forms of self-government. Tatars, unlike the peoples of Northern Europe, America, Australia, were characterized by the power structures of feudal states, and then - the administrative control of the Russian Empire, the USSR. The authorities with these names were designed by the political leaders of the Tatars in 1918 and existed for less than a year. The model for them was not their own historical tradition, but rather the political experience of neighboring states that emerged on the site of the Ottoman Empire, in particular Turkey, which was oriented to the political elite of the Tatars.

It should be especially emphasized that the unreasonable definition of "kurultai" and "mejlis" by the current political leaders of the Tatars living in Crimea as a traditional form of self-government of the indigenous people, contradicts their own assertion about the originality of the Tatars living in the Crimea on the land of Taurida. As all researchers unanimously assert and sources testify, kurultai is a form of self-government, characteristic only for the peoples of Central Asia, in particular for Mongolia. In the states created on the ruins of the empire of Genghis Khan, it was replaced by feudal forms of government (as evidenced by the example of the Golden Horde, the Crimean Khanate). Moreover, it cannot be characteristic and traditional for Taurida, since there are no historical sources confirming the holding of at least one kurultai here, not to mention the tradition. The statements of the Tatar leaders about the traditional nature of kurultai for their people once again confirm that the Tatars appeared in Eastern Europe as conquerors, aliens, bringing here and introducing by force the culture and traditions of Central Asia. The Tatars living in the Crimea are the descendants of the Golden Horde conquering Tatars and cannot be considered the first settlers here, the original inhabitants, the indigenous people.

7. Tatars do not profess ancient forms of religion (shamanism, etc.). Believing Tatars are Sunni Muslims. Many of them are atheists.

8. Tatars in 1944 were subjected to forced resettlement by the Soviet authorities. Today, a large (overwhelming) part of the Tatars returned to the Crimea. The process of their integration into the Crimean society is carried out quite intensively. The difficulties accompanying this process are not caused by the peculiarities of the Tatars, as a people "leading a traditional way of life", but by social and economic problems. modern people who change their place of residence in the context of the economic crisis. They are not faced with the problem of maintaining pastures for deer, traditional places of hunting, gathering, etc., which would provide a traditional way of life.

Tatars want to work in accordance with their education and profession: engineers, teachers, lawyers, doctors, university professors. They want to do business, trade, etc., as they did in the republics Central Asia. They do not build dwellings characteristic of "indigenous peoples" leading a traditional way of life, but receive or build 2-3-storey cottages on allocated plots. Therefore, the provision of assistance to them should not involve measures provided for by ILO Convention No. 169.

9. There are neither historical nor legal grounds for making additions to the current legislation of Ukraine and the Republic of Crimea with the aim of legislatively assigning the status of "indigenous" to the Crimean Tatars. ethnic community Ukraine" because they are not.

10. The demand for guaranteed representation of Tatars living in Crimea in the Supreme Council, local self-government bodies and the executive power of Crimea is also unreasonable. nationality(national quotas) because they are not an indigenous national group leading a traditional way of life and therefore requiring special protection by law.

As practice shows, an ethnic group living in Crimea numbering 244 thousand 637 people (according to the Main Department of Internal Affairs in Crimea of ​​the Ministry of Internal Affairs of Ukraine as of February 1, 1997), constituting about 10% of the total population, on the basis of general democratic election norms, may well send its representatives to all levels of government. Tatars for short term created their powerful political structures, the political elite. Significantly strengthened their positions in the economy. They have mass media on a much larger scale than other political forces in Crimea. They actively influence political processes in Crimea and Ukraine.

Allegedly for better integration of the Tatars into the Crimean society, they were given seats in the Crimean parliament of the first convocation (1994) on the basis of national quotas for "deported peoples", for one term of election. Practice has shown that this measure is not justified.

The provided quotas were significantly overestimated and did not correspond to the share of the Tatar electorate in the Crimean electoral corps. Seats in parliament were used by their holders for political intrigues, and by some for self-enrichment, but not to protect the interests of the so-called "indigenous citizens."

According to the researchers, in the position of the leaders of the national movement of the Tatars living in the Crimea, since 1993, conflicting trends have emerged on the issue of the political rights of the Tatars.

Based on the program "Ways of self-determination of the Crimean Tatar people", developed by the Moscow Center for Ethno-Political and Regional Studies, headed by Presidential Adviser Russian Federation E. Pain, the leadership of the Tatar national movement in 1993 put forward the idea of ​​recognizing the Tatars of Crimea as an "indigenous people" and applying to them the principles arising from special international documents and, above all, ILO Convention No. 169 (1989) "On Indigenous peoples and peoples leading a tribal way of life in independent countries".

This led to a rather interesting situation, in which today the national movement is guided by two virtually mutually exclusive approaches to the problem of realizing the political nature of the Tatars.

One of them is based on considering the entire ethnos as a titular one and contains a demand for the restoration of its "national statehood" (at the same time, a new wording introduced at the 3rd "kurultai", according to which the national movement intends to seek "self-determination on the national-territorial principle", fundamentally does not change anything, because, just like the requirement of "national statehood", it implies the establishment of the political priority of the Tatars over other ethnic groups). The second proceeds from the actual recognition of the status of an ethnic minority for the Tatars, one of the varieties of which are "indigenous peoples."

The leaders and ideologists of the "Mejlis" do not seem to notice that the recognition of the Tatars as an "indigenous people" in the international legal sense automatically excludes the recognition of their right to "statehood."

The latter seems to indicate that the softening of the position of the movement is a tactical move for a more successful implementation goals outlined in the "Declaration on the National Sovereignty of the Crimean Tatars". The fact that the new wording of the demand for statehood is nothing more than a clarification of the previous position, and not its significant change, is not hidden by the leaders of the movement themselves: "The clarification of the program goals of the movement was very successful," said the first deputy chairman of the "Mejlis" in the summer of 1996. R. Chubarov: - I think that with the adoption of such a clarification, there can no longer be any speculations on the Crimean Tatar theme. Unfortunately, the field for speculation has not diminished at all, since the documents of the 3rd "kurultai" in no way revise the key points of the "Declaration on the National Sovereignty of the Crimean Tatars", which continues to be the main defining document of the movement.

This circumstance significantly complicates the search for acceptable approaches to taking into account the political nature of the Tatars living in the Crimea in the process of modern state building in Ukraine. The existing concepts put forward by the leaders of the national movement, firstly, largely do not take into account political, ethnic and legal realities and, secondly, contradict each other.

Thus, considering the above, the use of the term "indigenous people" in relation to the Tatars living in Crimea is unacceptable.