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Crimean Tatars
The indigenous Turkic people of Crimea. They sustained the Crimean Khanate from 1441 to 1783; the whole nation was deported in 1944 and began returning home after 1989.
The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic people of the Kipchak branch and the indigenous people of the Crimean Peninsula. The Crimean Khanate, founded in 1441 with its capital at Bakhchysarai, was annexed by Russia in 1783. In the 19th century Ismail Gasprinski's newspaper Terjuman made the Crimean Tatars an enlightenment centre for the whole Turkic world.
On 18 May 1944 the entire Crimean Tatar people was deported to Central Asia, a tragedy remembered as the Sürgünlik. After 1989 Crimean Tatars began returning to their homeland in large numbers. Large communities live in Uzbekistan, Romania's Dobruja region and Türkiye.
Updated: September 28, 2026