Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group and nation native to Crimea. The formation and ethnogenesis of Crimean Tatars occurred during the 13th–17th centuries, uniting Cumans, who appeared in Crimea in the 10th century, with other peoples who had inhabited Crimea since ancient times and gradually underwent Tatarization, including Greeks, Italians, Armenians, Goths, Sarmatians, and others.
The administrative divisions of Ukraine are under the jurisdiction of the Ukrainian Constitution. Ukraine is a unitary state with three levels of administrative divisions: 27 regions, 136 raions and 1469 hromadas.
Islam in Ukraine is a minority religious affiliation with Muslims representing around 5% of the total population as of 2016. The religion has a long history in Ukraine dating back to Berke Khan of the Ulug Ulus in the 13th century and the establishment of the Crimean Khanate in the 15th century.
Mustafa Abduldzhemil Jemilev, also known widely with his adopted descriptive surname Qırımoğlu "Son of Crimea", is the former Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People and a member of the Ukrainian Parliament since 1998. Commissioner of the President of Ukraine for the Affairs of the Crimean Tatar People (2014–2019). He is a member of the Crimean Tatar National Movement and a former Soviet dissident.
The recorded history of the Crimean Peninsula, historically known as Tauris, Taurica, and the Tauric Chersonese, begins around the 5th century BCE when several Greek colonies were established along its coast, the most important of which was Chersonesos near modern day Sevastopol, with Scythians and Tauri in the hinterland to the north. The southern coast gradually consolidated into the Bosporan Kingdom which was annexed by Pontus and then became a client kingdom of Rome. The south coast remained Greek in culture for almost two thousand years including under Roman successor states, the Byzantine Empire (341–1204), the Empire of Trebizond (1204–1461), and the independent Principality of Theodoro. In the 13th century, some Crimean port cities were controlled by the Venetians and by the Genovese, but the interior was much less stable, enduring a long series of conquests and invasions. In the medieval period, it was partially conquered by Kievan Rus' whose prince Vladimir the Great was baptised at Sevastopol, which marked the beginning of the Christianization of Kievan Rus'. During the Mongol invasion of Europe, the north and centre of Crimea fell to the Mongol Golden Horde, and in the 1440s the Crimean Khanate formed out of the collapse of the horde but quite rapidly itself became subject to the Ottoman Empire, which also conquered the coastal areas which had kept independent of the Khanate. A major source of prosperity in these times was frequent raids into Russia for slaves.
The Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People is the single highest executive-representative body of the Crimean Tatars in period between sessions of the Qurultay of the Crimean Tatar People. The Mejlis is a member institution of the Platform of European Memory and Conscience.
The Chairman of the Council of Ministers of the Republic of Crimea is the head of government of the Republic of Crimea.
The Crimean People's Republic or Crimean Democratic Republic was a self-declared state that existed from December 1917 to January 1918 in the Crimean Peninsula. The Republic was one of many short-lived states that declared independence following the 1917 Russian Revolution caused the collapse of the Russian Empire. The Crimean People's Republic was the first Turkic and Muslim democratic republic in the world.
Anatolii Volodymyrovych Mohyliov is a Ukrainian politician. He is the former Prime Minister of Crimea and former Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs.
The Crimean status referendum of 2014 was a disputed referendum on March 16, 2014, concerning the status of Crimea that was conducted in the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol after Russian forces seized control of Crimea.
Sergey Valeryevich Aksyonov is a Russian politician serving as the head of the Republic of Crimea since 9 October 2014, a territory internationally recognised as part of Ukraine.
The annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation took place in the aftermath of the 2014 Ukrainian revolution. On 22–23 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss pullout of deposed President, Viktor Yanukovych, and at the end of that meeting Putin remarked that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia.". Russia sent in soldiers on February 27, 2014. Crimea held a referendum. According to official Russian and Crimean sources 95% voted to reunite with Russia. The legitimacy of the referendum has been questioned by the international community on both legal and procedural grounds.
In February and March 2014, Russia invaded the Crimean Peninsula, part of Ukraine, and then annexed it. This took place in the relative power vacuum immediately following the Revolution of Dignity and was the first act of the wider Russo-Ukrainian War.
The Republic of Crimea is a republic of Russia, comprising most of the Crimean Peninsula, but excluding Sevastopol. Its territory corresponds to the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, a subdivision of Ukraine. Russia occupied and annexed the peninsula in 2014, although the annexation remains internationally unrecognized.
Natalia Vladimirovna Poklonskaya is a Ukrainian-born Russian lawyer, politician and diplomat. She has served as the adviser to the Prosecutor General of Russia since 14 June 2022. Previously, she had several political and diplomatic roles, most notably serving as the Prosecutor General of Crimea from 2014 to 2016, and later served as a Deputy of the State Duma of Russia from 2016 to 2021.
ATR is a Ukrainian TV Channel whose target audience is Crimean Tatars. It was broadcasting in Crimea, Ukraine from 1 September 2006 until 1 April 2015 when it was forced to shut down by annexing Russian authorities after failing to register under Russian law. In mid-June 2015 the channel resumed its broadcasting in mainland Ukraine and has since then been located in Kyiv. When located in Crimea most of the channel's programs were in Russian (60%) with 35% in Crimean Tatar and 5% in Ukrainian. The channel uses Tamga as its brand logo.
Sevgil Musayeva is a Ukrainian journalist from Crimea, Ukraine, chief-editor of internet publishing Ukrainska Pravda and an initiator of creating the KrymSOS web portal.
Lilya Rustemovna Budzhurova, is a Crimean Tatar poetess and journalist. She became an Honored journalist of Ukraine in 2005.
The Russian occupation of Crimea is an ongoing military occupation within Ukraine by the Russian Federation, which began on 20 February 2014 when the military-political, administrative, economic and social order of Russia was imposed on the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol. The occupation of Crimea and Sevastopol was the beginning of the Russo-Ukrainian War.
On 8 October 2022, at 6:07 a.m., a fire broke out on the Crimean Bridge as a result of an explosion of a bomb loaded onto a truck, which occurred on the road bridge, on the westbound vehicle lanes running from Russia to Kerch in Russian-occupied Crimea. Two two-lane vehicular spans of the bridge collapsed into the water. Two adjacent eastbound lanes on a separate structure survived. The railway bridge was also significantly damaged by a railway tanker car that caught fire. Five people were killed, and the Investigative Committee of Russia launched an investigation.
