Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar people (KTMM)
Kırım Tatar Milli Meclisi (KTMM)
+380 7652273455
Refat ÇUBAROV Chairman
The Crimean Tatars are a Turkic ethnic group native to the Crimean Peninsula, which constituted the largest population in the peninsula from the time of its ethnogenesis in the 15th century until 1864, and the relative largest ethnic population until the end of 19th century. Besides the Crimea, they live in large compact groups in Uzbekistan, Romania, Bulgaria and Turkey. While in the late Middle Ages, people were Tatars of the Crimean Khanate, today the share of the Crimean Tatars account for about 13% of the population of the peninsula. Tragic event in the fate of the Crimean Tatars took place in 1944, when the Stalin regime carried out a military operation on total deportation of the Crimean Tatars to Central Asia. Only after the collapse of the Soviet Union, the Crimean Tatars began to return to their homeland in the Crimea, being part of Ukraine.
On 6 March 2014 the Crimean parliament decided to hold a referendum on joining the Crimea to the Russian Federation. The referendum was boycotted by the Crimean Tatars, yet most of the population voted to support the position of Russia and advocated the annexation of the Crimea. The independence of the Crimean Republic was adopted and approved only the Russian Federation, while Ukraine and the international community consider the annexation of Crimea as illegal seizure of territory.
The Crimean Tatars face yet another challenging period of adaptation to new unfavourable conditions.
