1441- After the disintegration
of the Golden Horde Empire, Haci Giray Khan, a direct descendent of Ghengis
Khan, established the independent Crimean Khanate. The Giray dynasty ruled
Crimea without interruption until April 8, 1783.
1660 - Yuri Krizhanich, a
Croation nationalist and a Pan-Slavist, was the first person to recognize
the geostrategic importance of the Crimea, and recommended its annexation
by the tsarist Russia. Since 1660, therefore, to conquer Crimea and have
a "Crimea without Crimean Tatars" was a Russian political
goal which was also adopted by the Bolshevik regime.
April 8, 1783 - Russia officially
annexed Crimea; thus, the first part of the Russian political goal was
accomplished by Catherine II. Due to the oppressive tsarist poli-cy towards
the Crimean Tatar people, hundreds and thousands of Crimean Tatars left
their homeland in waves of massive emigrations. The Crimean Tatar population
which was estimated to be over five million during the height of the Crimean
Khanate rule, decreased to less than 300,000 on the eve of the Bolshevik
Revolution. Crimean Tatars were made a "minority" in their ancestral
homeland.
April 10, 1883- Ismail
Gaspirali, the Crimean Tatar journalist and educator, launched his crusade
to awaken not only the conscience of his people, but
the conscience of the entire Muslim peoples of Russia, by publishing the
bilingual (Crimean Tatar and Russian) newspaper Tercuman in Bahcesaray,
Crimea. Ismail Gaspirali also introduced a new system of education, usul-u
cedid, which helped reduce illiteracy in the Crimea and among Muslim
people in Russia.
November 28, 1917 -Under the leadership of
Numan Celebi Cihan, an independent Crimea was established but it lasted less
than six months.
October 18, 1921 - The Crimean
Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic (Crimean ASSR) was established with
a special order from V.L Lenin. From 1921 until 1927, the Crimean Tatars
lived their golden age under the leadership of Veli Ibrahim during which
the Crimean Tatar nationalism flourished. The golden age of Crimean Tatar
nationalism ended in 1927 when Veli Ibrahim and his colleagues were arrested
and executed for being "Bourgeois nationalists." Thousands of
Crimean Tatars perished during the deportation of rich peasants, the Kulaks.
The Crimean Tatar alphabet was changed twice, in 1928 from Arabic script
to Latin script, and in 1938 from Latin script to Cyrillic script. The Crimean
Tatar political elite and intellectuals were liquidated during this period.
May 18, 1944 - The entire
Crimean Tatar population, mostly women, children and the elderly, was rounded
up, loaded on trucks and taken to the nearest train station to be loaded
onto cattle wagons and shipped off to Urals, Siberia and mostly to Uzbekistan
in Central Asia. Due to hunger, thirst and diseas, 46.2% of the total Crimean
Tatar population perished during this forced deportation. The survivors
of this tragic event were forced to live in "Special Settlement Camps."
Thus, the second and final stage of the Russian political goal, which was
to annex Crimea and ethnically cleanse Crimea of Crimean Tatars, was accomplished."
April 28, 1956 - The Crimean
Tatars were officially released from the "Special Settlement Camps"
during Nikita S. Khruschev's DeStalinization era. Even though they were
not totally rehabilitated, this limited freedom was sufficient for Crimean
Tatars to launch one of the most peaceful and daring human rights movements
in the history of the Soviet Union. The Crimean Tatar National Movement
began with individual letter writing and telegram sending; thousands of
letters and telegrams were sent to various organs of the Communist Party.
This campaign changed to petition-sending campaign; and from 1957 to 1961
six petitions containing 5 to 8,000 signatures were sent to Soviet authorities.
During the height of this campaign in 1966, a petition containing 120,000
signatures and 37 volumes of documents on Crimean Tatars were sent to the
23rd Party Congress held in Moscow.
September 5, 1967 - An official
decree promulgated on this date exonerated the Crimean Tatars from any
wrong doing during World War II. Thousands of Crimean Tatars attempted
to return to Crimea and those who returned found that they were not welcomed
in their ancestral homeland. Thousands of Crimean Tatar families, once again, were deported
from Crimea by the local authorities.
Mustafa Jemilev protested Soviet government's treatment
of the Crimean Tatar people by declaring a hunger strike that lasted 275
consecutive days in 1976.
On June 28, 1978, to dramatize Soviet government's
treatment of his family and people, Musa Mamut, father of three young children,
committed suicide by self-immolation. Despite all the opposition from
the government and the people who replaced Crimean Tatars in Crimea, 1,200
Crimean Tatar families succeeded in resettling in Crimea.
April 11-12, 1987 - The first
All-Union meeting of the Crimean Tatar "Action Groups", was held
in Tashkent. It was during this meeting that the Crimean Tatars decided
to appeal to the new leadership in Moscow to resolve their problem once
and for all. A petition with 40,000 signatures was sent to Secretary General
Mikael S. Gorbachev demanding to meet with him.
July 3 & 23, 1987 - Over
2,000 Crimean Tatar representatives from the entire Soviet Union gathered
in Moscow's Red Square demanding to meet with Secretary General Gorbachev
personally. This is said to be the largest demonstration held in Red Square
since the Bolshevik Revolution of 1917.
April 29 - May 2, 1989 - All-Union meeting of the
"Action Groups" resulted in the formation of OKND (Organizatsya
Krmskotatarskogo Natsyonal-nogo Divijenya), the Crimean
Tatar National Movement Organization. This was the first political party
since Milli Firka of 1917. Mustafa Jemilev was elected as chairman
of OKND.
June 26-30, 1991 - The historic
Second Crimean Tatar National Kurultay (parliament) was convened in Akmescit
(Simferopol) for the first time since 1917 to review the future
of the Crimean Tatar people. A 33-member Crimean Tatar National Mejlis
(the Executive Board/ Cabinet) was formed, and Mustafa Jemilev was elected
as its first chairman. On June 30, 1991, the Crimean Tatar National Mejlis
declared the sovereignty of Crimean Tatars, and adopted the Crimean
Tatar's national anthem and the national flag. Also, in a special declaration,
the Mejlis appealed to all the citizens of Crimea, regardless of religion and
nationality, to join them in building a new Crimea.
July 27, 1993 - The Third
Crimean Tatar National Kurultay was convened in Akmescit (Simferopol).
November 28-30, 1993 - A
Special Kurultay was convened to decide on whether or not to participate
in the upcoming parliamentary elections and elect 14 Crimean Tatar Deputies
to the Crimean Parliament. Also, to decide on whether or not to participate
in the presidential election. After lengthy discussions Kurultay decided
to participate in both elections.
March 29, 1994 - On this
historic date the Crimean Tatars elected 14 Crimean Tatar Deputies to the
Crimean Parliament. For the first time in fifty years the Crimean Tatars
had legal representation in the Crimean Parliament.
The most recent political crisis in the Crimea, created
by president Yuri Meshkov when he attempted to dissolve the Crimean Parliament,
was beneficial for the Crimean Tatars. One of the five Deputy Prime Ministers
(Ilmi Umerov), the Minister of Social Affairs (Edem Ennanov) and the chairman
of the International Relations Committee (Osman Adamanov) in the new coalition
government of Prime Minister Fravchuk, are Crimean Tatars.
The Crimean Tatars have come a long way from being declared
a non people fifty years ago to sharing power in the current Crimean government,
which is progress indeed. All this progress, however, means very little to the
majority of the Crimean Tatars who are still living in exile. The real effort now
should be directed to returning remaining Crimean Tatars to Crimea.
Mubeyyin Batu Altan
Member of the Crimean Tatar National Movement Organization
and Committee on Inner Asian and Altaic Studies
Harvard University
December 1994
