Crimean Tatar people

Crimean Tatars
Qırımtatarlar

Flag of the Crimean Tatars
Regions with significant populations
Crimea	246,073
Uzbekistan	10,046
Turkey	150,000 – 6,000,000
Romania	24,137
Russia (excl. Crimea)	2,449
Bulgaria	1,803
Kazakhstan	1,532
United States	7,000
Ukraine (excl. Crimea)	30,000–60,000
Languages
Crimean Tatar, Turkish, Russian, Ukrainian
Religion
Sunni Islam
Related ethnic groups
Dobrujan Tatars, Nogais, Volga Tatars, Turkish people, Krymchaks

Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: Qırımtatarlar, Turkish: Kırım Tatarları, Russian: Крымские Татары, Ukrainian: Кримськi Татари) are a Turkic ethnic group that formed in the Crimean Peninsula during the 13th–17th centuries, primarily from the Turkic tribes that moved to the land now known as Crimea in Eastern Europe from the Asian steppes beginning in the 10th century, with contributions from the pre-Cuman population of Crimea. Since 2014 Crimean Tatars were officially recognized as indigenous peoples of Ukraine. Following the 2014 Russian annexation of Crimea, Russian authorities recognized Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People as an extremist organization, and banned it in 26 April 2016.

Crimean Tatars constituted the majority of Crimea's population from the time of its ethnogenesis until the mid-19th century, and the relative largest ethnic population until the end of the 19th century. Almost immediately after the liberation of Crimea, in May 1944, the USSR State Defense Committee ordered the removal of all of the Tatar population from Crimea, including the families of Crimean Tatars serving in the Soviet Army – in trains and boxcars to Central Asia, primarily to Uzbekistan. Starting in 1967, some were allowed to return to Crimea, and in 1989 the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union condemned the removal of Crimean Tatars from their motherland as inhumane and lawless. Today, Crimean Tatars constitute approximately 12% of the population of Crimea. There remains a large diaspora of Crimean Tatars in Turkey and Uzbekistan.