The Crimean crisis in the context of new Russian geopolitics.

• Author: Yesilot, Okan
• Position: Essay

Introduction

A number of relatively stable parts of the world began to experience previously unseen problems in the aftermath of the Soviet Union's disintegration. During this period, Crimea, a peninsula of particular strategic and geopolitical importance, was contested by Ukraine and the Russian Federation. Having deported the native Tatar population from the peninsula in the 1940s, the Russian government embarked on an ambitious plan to reclaim Crimea and pushed the region to the top of its global political agenda. Currently, ethnic Russians--which constitute a majority--seek to control the future of the Crimean peninsula, as Moscow's open and covert support for Russian separatists in the area continues to pay off. In response, the Crimean Tatars, who were removed from their homeland during the Stalin era, voiced their concern about Russia's annexation of Crimea as they believe that the latest developments will affect their future negatively.

A Brief History of Crimea and the Crimean Tatars

Crimea's geopolitical position as a convenient transit route between Asia and Eastern Europe as well as a major commercial center allowed the peninsula to maintain its significance throughout the centuries and resulted in continued interest from various states and communities.

In the 4th century AD, Emperor Attila of the European Huns conquered the Crimean peninsula and ushered in various Turkic groups, including the Huns, the Khazars, the Bulgarians, the Pechenegs, the Kipchaks, the Mongols and the Tatars, which eventually constituted the majority of the local population. The Eurasian Avars and the Khazars reached Crimea by the 6th and 8th centuries, respectively,. Following the latter group's arrival in the peninsula, the area came under the rule of the state of Khazaria until 1083. While part of the Pechenegs population proceeded deeper into the Balkans, the rest settled around Crimea in the early 10th century. Later, the Kipchaks defeated the Pechenegs to claim Crimea and ruled the area for another two centuries. It was during this period that the Islamic faith spread across the peninsula. In the 12th century, a large number of Turkish merchants from the Anatolian Seljuk Empire relocated to Crimea. Initial official relations between the Seljuks and Crimea, however, date back to the year 1221, when Amir Husameddin Coban of the Anatolian Seljuk Empire launched a military campaign to capture the peninsula. In 1239, Crimea was conquered by the Golden Horde, whose Tatar tribes settled in Crimea to mix with the local population. It was during this period that the Turkic residents of the peninsula came to be known as Tatars since the lineage of Crimean khans could be traced to Genghis Khan of the Mongol Empire. It was in the first half of the 15th century when a separate khanate of Crimea emerged. Founded by Hac? I Giray, the Crimean Khanate enjoyed close relations with the Ottoman Empire. In 1475, Sultan Mehmed II ordered the Ottoman navy, under admiral Gedik Ahmed Pasha, to conquer all Genovese ports in Caffa and Crimea and install Mengli I Giray -who agreed to pay tribute to the Ottomans--as the khan of Crimea. Ottoman control of Crimea, which began with this event, continued until the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774, which ended with the Treaty of KuCuk Kaynarca. In 1783, Catherine the Great abolished the Crimean Khanate and annexed its territories into the Russian Empire. Under Tzarist rule, the Crimean Turks were displaced by waves of Slavic immigrants as the Russian authorities embarked on a campaign to eliminate Turkish culture in the region. In line with the Greek Plan, Catherine II replaced Turkish names in Crimea with mostly Greek words as Akmescid became Simferopol and Akyar turned into Sevastopol.

Under the rule of Catherine the Great, however, the Russian Empire's policies grew softer and, along with the country's economic development, ushered in a period of scientific progress and gave rise to the Jadidism movement. The movement, which became increasingly more influential throughout the 1880s, influenced not only Crimean Tatars but also Turkic communities across the Russian Empire. Led by Ismail Gasprinski, Jadidism represented a form of national awakening and modernization. By the 1910s, a group of Crimean Turks initiated an underground struggle against Tzarist Russia. Meanwhile, Crimean students, such as Noman Celebicihan and Cafer Seydamet Qirimer, residing in the Ottoman capital formed the organization Vatan (Homeland). When the Russian Empire disintegrated in 1917, Crimea became independent and Noman Celebicihan, the Mufti of Crimea, was elected president. Yet, months later, the Bolshevik forces invaded Crimea and proceeded to arrest and execute Celebicihan. Later, the Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic of Crimea was established on October 18, 1921.

Shortly after clashes between Russia and Germany began in the World War II, the German 11th Army entered Crimea in October 1941 and proceeded to conquer the entire peninsula, with the notable exception of Sevastopol, in less than a month. Sevastopol eventually fell on July 4, 1942 after months of intense battles. As Germany's military campaign gradually lost momentum, Soviet troops reclaimed the Crimean peninsula on April 10, 1944 and imposed severe pressure on the Crimean Tatar population as a large number of Turks perished.1 The Soviet government's justification for its actions in Crimea was that the local population had collaborated with the German military. On April 20, 1944, the regional committee of the Crimean Communist Party decided to establish an emergency commission tasked with identifying German collaborators. The resulting official reports are believed to have paved the way for the mass deportation of Crimean Turks from their homeland. Following the liberation of Crimea from German invasion, the Soviet government embarked on an ambitious project to cleanse the area of non-Slavic communities and therefore deported the Crimean Tatars. The mass deportation of Crimean Tatars, which started on May 18, 1944, began with the arrests of individuals deemed potentially dangerous by the authorities. The vast majority of targeted citizens were women, children and the elderly. Some of the remaining deportees included Crimean Tatar soldiers that served in the Red Army. The deportation process involved the transport of Crimean Tatars to nearby train stations and their subsequent travel in cargo trains, which resulted in widespread disease and a significantly high death toll. (2) Until 1967, deported Crimean Tatars were not even allowed to visit the peninsula for touristic purposes. (3)

A relatively better situation for the Crimean Tatars emerged under Premier Nikita Khrushchev, who issued a declaration on April 28, 1956 to free a number of ethnic groups including the Crimean Tatars from deportation. It was also during the Khrushchev period that various groups that had been deported by the Stalin regime earned the right to return to their homeland. The Crimean Turks, however, represented an exception to the newly-introduced rules and therefore sought to organize a popular struggle to return to their native land. For this purpose, the Crimean Tatar community established an Enterprise Group in Tashkent, Uzbekistan, whose activities included writing application letters to the authorities in order to travel to their homeland. A direct consequence of the group's efforts came in August 1965, when the Soviet government allowed the Crimean Turks to spend their summer vacation in the peninsula. However, it was not until 1987 that the Soviet authorities admitted to injustice and criminal conduct toward the Crimean Tatar population after the community's impressive demonstrations at the Red Square. (4) Later, the Soviet government allowed the Crimean Tatar community to return to Crimea and established official...