The Crimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's ConquestThe Russian annexation of the Crimea in March 2014 focused the world's attention on the Peninsula in ways not seen since the Crimean War. Thousands of Crimean Tatars clashed with pro-Russian militiamen in Simferopol, while Moscow has in turn stoked fears of jihadi terrorism among the overwhelmingly Muslim Tatars as retrospective justification for its invasion. The key thread in this book is the Crimean Tatars' changing relationship with their Vatan (homeland) and how this interaction with their natal territory changed under the Ottoman Sultans, Russian Tsars, Soviet Commissars, post-Soviet Ukrainian authorities and now Putin's Russia. Taking as its starting point the 1783 Russian conquest of the independent Tatar state known as the Crimean Khanate, Williams explains how the peninsula's native population, with ethnic roots among the Goths, Kipchak Turks, and Mongols, was scattered across the Ottoman Empire. He also traces their later emigration and the radical transformation of this conservative tribal-religious group into a modern, politically mobilized, secular nation under Soviet rule. Stalin's genocidal deportation of the Crimean Tatars in 1944 to Uzbekistan and their almost messianic return to their cherished 'Green Isle' in the 1990s are examined in detail, while the author's archival investigations are bolstered by his field research among the Crimean Tatar exiles in Uzbekistan and in their samozakhvat (self-seized) squatter camps and settlements in the Crimea. |
Contents
1 The Pearl in the Tsars Crown | 1 |
The Loss of the Crimean Homeland | 9 |
The NineteenthCentury Crimean Tatar Migrations to the Ottoman Empire | 19 |
The Construction of the Crimean Fatherland | 33 |
The Nationalization of the Crimean Tatar Identity in the USSR | 57 |
The Crimean Tatar Exile in Central Asia | 89 |
Other editions - View all
The Crimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's Conquest Brian Glyn Williams Limited preview - 2015 |
The ^ACrimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's Conquest Brian Glyn Williams Limited preview - 2015 |
The Crimean Tatars: From Soviet Genocide to Putin's Conquest Brian Glyn Williams No preview available - 2015 |
Common terms and phrases
Asian autonomous Bahcesaray began Black Sea Bolsheviks Caucasus Celebi Cihan Central Asia century Chervonnaia claim Communist Crimean ASSR Crimean homeland Crimean Khanate Crimean Muslims Crimean Peninsula Crimean Tatar identity Crimean Tatar language Crimean Tatar national Crimean Tatar nationalists culture deportation diaspora Dobruca Edige Kirimal emigration ethnic groups Evpatoriia exile Fatherland Fergana Valley Firka Gasprinsky German hijra Ibrahimov indigenous inhabitants Islamic Ismail korenizatsiia Krym Kryma Krymskikh Tatar Krymy Kurultay land language leader mass Mehdi Mejlis Meshketian migration modern Mongol Moscow mosques mullahs Mustafa Dzhemilev national identity national movement Nogais officials Ottoman Empire people’s period political pomeshchiks post-Soviet Press region religious repatriation republic Russian Empire Sevastopol Simferopol Slavic Soviet Union Stalin steppe Sultan Tashkent Tatar villages Tats Tavria territory thousands throughout tion traditional Tsar Turkey Turkic Turkish Turks Ukraine Ukrainian USSR Uzbek Uzbekistan vakif vatan Volga Tatars World Yaila Yaila Mountains Yaliboyu Young Tatars