The Qurultay of the Crimean Tatars (1917)

After the February Revolution of 1917 the Crimean Tatars began to build their own national institutions. The national movement led by Noman Çelebicihan and Cafer Seydahmet held elections to choose the people's representatives.

The Qurultay opened on 26 November (9 December) 1917 in the Khan's Palace at Bakhchysarai. Among the 76 delegates elected from the Yalta, Akmescit, Kefe, Kezlev and Orkapı districts were four women, one of them İsmail Gaspıralı's daughter Şefika Gaspıralı. The Qurultay adopted the Crimean Tatar Basic Law, proclaimed the Crimean People's Republic and elected Noman Çelebicihan head of its directorate.

The republic was short-lived: in January 1918 the Bolsheviks took the Crimea, and Çelebicihan was arrested and shot in February. Even so, the 1917 Qurultay became the symbol of Crimean Tatar statehood, and in 1991 the Qurultay convened again.