Crimean Tatar diaspora
This article needs additional citations for verification. (October 2022) |
Part of a series on |
Crimean Tatars |
---|
By region or country |
Religion |
|
Language |
|
Culture |
History |
|
People and groups |
The Crimean Tatar diaspora dates back to the annexation of Crimea by Russia in 1783, after which Crimean Tatars emigrated in a series of waves spanning the period from 1783 to 1917.[1] The diaspora was largely the result of the destruction of their social and economic life as a consequence of integration into the Russian Empire.
The Soviet Union brought about the final dispersal of Crimean Tatars in 1944, in the midst of World War II, when it deported all Crimean Tatars remaining in the Crimea to the Central Asia and Urals.[2] This population is considered an exiled community rather than a diaspora.
Experiences in exile within the Ottoman Empire
There have been continuously members of Crimean nobility in the
However, the first Crimean Tatar emigration took place after the
After the annexation, 4,000 Tatars also escaped to westward direction to the Ottoman fortress of Ozu (
Crimean Tatars immigrated to the Ottoman Empire, where they were welcomed as fellow Muslims and as the populace of the formerly protected
The majority of the Crimean Tatar immigrants were settled in the Dobruja region of the Balkans by the Ottoman authorities, but some were directed to various parts of Anatolia, where significant numbers of Crimean Tatars perished due to changes in environmental and climate conditions.
Although there were Crimean Tatars who emigrated from the mountainous, coastal, and urban parts of the Crimea among them, the majority of the emigrants were from the steppes of Crimea and its surroundings, who lived largely in closed peasant communities. According to ancient Crimean Tatar traditions, marriage between relatives (e.g. cousins), even very distant ones, has always been strictly prohibited, unlike the local population of Anatolia. The ones who lived in a concentrated manner in adjacent villages, such as the ones around Eskişehir region, were able to maintain their ethnic identity and language intact almost up until the 1970s. The Crimean Tatar diaspora identity emerged over this period in the form of predominantly oral cultural traditions in stories, songs, poems, myths, and legends about the loss of the "homeland" and the miseries of immigration.
An excerpt from Crimean Tatar exile literature is as follows:
- The angry and wild Black Sea roared,
- Rushed to extinguish my burning motherland.
- The old Çatırdağ, distressed and worried,
- "Where are the Tatars going?" she cried.
Eskender Fazıl, from his poem Stand Up
The end of the Ottoman Empire and the creation of modern Turkey
With the shrinking of the Ottoman Empire in the last quarter of the 19th century, once again the majority of the Crimean Tatars in Dobrudja migrated to Anatolia, and sometimes re-migrated several times more within Anatolia. This pattern of immigration contributed to the severing of kinship ties, and hence ties to the homeland, amalgamating the previously more segregated sub-groups of Crimean Tatars.
The Crimean Tatars participated in the building of the new Turkish Republic, as well as the formation of the core
A small number of Crimean Tatar refugees from the
Exile within the Soviet Union
On May 18, 1944, the Soviet government deported the Crimean Tatars who were left in Crimea to Central Asia and Urals. After 1989, nearly 300,000 Tatars were able to return to Crimea from their places of deportation. Their return was met with the strong opposition of the rest of the population of Crimea. Another roughly 270,000 Crimean Tatars remain in Uzbekistan and other parts of the former Soviet Union. This population is best considered as an exiled community rather than a diaspora, although they might develop into a diaspora if their exile is prolonged.
Diaspora within the Eastern Bloc and elsewhere
The
The
The Crimean Tatars in the United States are the highest number of the diaspora in the Western hemisphere; they are composed of refugees from Crimea, Romania, Bulgaria and Greece. Within the United States, the vast majority are concentrated along with other large post-Soviet refugee communities in New York City, particularly the neighborhood of Soho, wherein some conflict exists with extant ethnic Russian diaspora communities.
Recent challenges
The main challenges to the Crimean Tatar diaspora in the 1990s were the erosion of ethnic identity as a result of swift modernization of communities and the consequent difficulties in mobilization of resources among the
As in other diasporas, Crimean Tatars also suffered from problems stemming from the differentiation of their identities over time due to their acculturation into various host-societies. In the last decade, the various diaspora communities, as well as the homeland community, have been ardently negotiating what it means to be a "Crimean Tatar", seeking an agreement on a common sense of identity.
There are also differences among Crimean Tatars as to what the goals of the diaspora and the national movement should be and how to reach those goals, leading to a lively internal politics.
In 2022, an estimated 1,000 Crimean Tatars fled to Turkey to escape Russian mobilization.[4] Earlier, Crimean presidential representative Tasheva said indigenous Crimean Tatars were being disproportionately recruited for the war in occupied Crimea.
See also
- Lipka Tatars
- Crimean Tatars in Romania
- Crimean Tatars in Bulgaria
- Crimean Tatars
- Crimean Khanate
- List of Crimean Tatars
- List of Crimean khans
- Giray Dynasty
References
- S2CID 244512198.
- ^ Subtelny, Orest (2000). "Ukraine : a history". Toronto ; Buffalo : University of Toronto Press. pp. 105–106.
- S2CID 237991269, retrieved 2022-10-05
- ^ "Nearly 1,000 Crimean Tatars flee to Turkey from Russian mobilisation". Ukrainska Pravda. 27 December 2022. Retrieved 30 April 2023.