Prehistory
Archaeological evidence of human settlement in Crimea dates back to the Middle Paleolithic. Neanderthal remains found at Kiyik-Koba Cave have been dated to about 80,000 BP. Late Neanderthal occupations have also been found at Starosele (c. 46,000 BP) and Buran Kaya III (c. 30,000 BP).Archaeologists have found some of the earliest anatomically modern human remains in Europe in the Buran-Kaya caves in the Crimean Mountains (east of Simferopol). The fossils are about 32,000 years old, with the artifacts linked to the Gravettian culture. During the Last Glacial Maximum, along with the northern coast of the Black Sea in general, Crimea was an important refuge from which north-central Europe was re-populated after the end of the Ice Age. The East European Plain during this time was generally occupied by periglacial loess-steppe environments, although the climate was slightly warmer during several brief interstadials and began to warm significantly after the beginning of the Late Glacial Maximum. Human site occupation density was relatively high in the Crimean region and increased as early as ca. 16,000 years before the present.
Proponents of the Black Sea deluge hypothesis believe Crimea did not become a peninsula until relatively recently, with the rising of the Black Sea level in the 6th millennium BC.
The beginning of the Neolithic in Crimea is not associated with agriculture, but instead with the beginning of pottery production, changes in flint tool-making technologies, and local domestication of pigs. The earliest evidence of domesticated wheat in the Crimean peninsula is from the Chalcolithic Ardych-Burun site, dating to the middle of the 4th millennium BC
By the 3rd millennium BC, Crimea had been reached by the Yamna or "pit grave" culture, assumed to correspond to a late phase of Proto-Indo-European culture in the Kurgan hypothesis.
Antiquity
Tauri and Scythians
The origins of the Tauri, from which the classical name of Crimea as Taurica or Tauris arose, are unclear. They are possibly a remnant of the Cimmerians displaced by the Scythians. Alternative theories relate them to the Abkhaz and Adyghe peoples, which at that time resided much farther west than today.
The Greeks, who eventually established colonies in Crimea during the Archaic Period, regarded the Tauri as a savage, warlike people. Even after centuries of Greek and Roman settlement, the Tauri were not pacified and continued to engage in piracy on the Black Sea. By the 2nd century BC they had become subject-allies of the Scythian king Scilurus.
The Crimean Peninsula north of the Crimean Mountains was occupied by Scythian tribes. Their center was the city of Scythian Neapolis on the outskirts of present-day Simferopol. The town ruled over a small kingdom covering the lands between the lower Dnieper River and northern Crimea. In the 3rd and 2nd centuries BC, Scythian Neapolis was a city "with a mixed Scythian-Greek population, strong defensive walls and large public buildings constructed using the orders of Greek architecture". The city was eventually destroyed in the mid-3rd century AD by the Goths.
Greek settlement
Main article: Greeks in pre-Roman Crimea
Further information: Spartocids and Bosporan Kingdom
The ancient Greeks were the first to name the region Taurica or Tauris after the Tauri.
As the Tauri inhabited only mountainous regions of southern Crimea, at
first the name Tauris was used only to this southern part, but later it
was extended to name the whole peninsula.
Greek city-states began establishing colonies along the Black Sea coast of Crimea in the 7th or 6th century BC. Feodosiya and Panticapaeum were established by Milesians. In the 5th century BC, Dorians from Heraclea Pontica founded the sea port of Chersonesos (in modern Sevastopol).
In 438 BC, the Archon (ruler) of Panticapaeum assumed the title of the King of Cimmerian Bosporus, a state that maintained close relations with Athens, supplying the city with wheat, honey and other commodities. The last of that line of kings, Paerisades V, being hard-pressed by the Scythians, put himself under the protection of Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, in 114 BC. After the death of this sovereign, his son, Pharnaces II, was invested by Pompey with the Kingdom of the Cimmerian Bosporus in 63 BC as a reward for the assistance rendered to the Romans in their war against his father. In 15 BC, it was once again restored to the king of Pontus, but from then ranked as a tributary state of Rome.
Roman Empire
Main articles: Roman Crimea and Bosporan Kingdom
In the 2nd century BC, the eastern part of Taurica became part of the Bosporan Kingdom, before being incorporated into the Roman Empire in the 1st century BC.During the AD 1st, 2nd and 3rd centuries, Taurica was host to Roman legions and colonists in Charax, Crimea. The Charax colony was founded under Vespasian with the intention of protecting Chersonesos and other Bosporean trade emporiums from the Scythians. The Roman colony was protected by a vexillatio of the Legio I Italica; it also hosted a detachment of the Legio XI Claudia at the end of the 2nd century. The camp was abandoned by the Romans in the mid-3rd century. This de facto province would have been controlled by the legatus of one of the Legions stationed in Charax.
Throughout the later centuries, Crimea was invaded or occupied successively by the Goths (AD 250), the Huns (376), the Bulgars (4th–8th century), the Khazars (8th century). Crimean Gothic, an East Germanic language, was spoken by the Crimean Goths in some isolated locations in Crimea until the late 18th century.
Middle Ages
Mongol invasion and later medieval period
Byzantine hold on the Crimea was lost in the early 13th century due to the Mongol invasions. In the summer of 1238, Batu Khan devastated the Crimea and pacified Mordovia, reaching Kiev by 1240.
In the 13th century, the Republic of Genoa seized the settlements which their rivals, the Venetians, had built along the Crimean coast and established themselves at Cembalo (now Balaklava), Soldaia (Sudak), Cherco (Kerch) and Caffa (Feodosiya), gaining control of the Crimean economy and the Black Sea commerce for two centuries.
Crimea was under the control of the Turco-Mongol Golden Horde from 1239 to 1441.
The name Crimea (via Italian, from Turkic Qirim) originates as the name of the provincial capital of the Golden Horde, the city now known as Staryi Krym.
In 1346, the bodies of Mongol warriors of the Golden Horde who had died of plague were thrown over the walls of the besieged Kaffa (now Feodosiya). It has been speculated that this operation may have been responsible for the advent of the Black Death in Europe.
Crimean Khanate (1441–1783)
Crimea in the middle of the 15th century
The Crimean Khanate in 1600
After the destruction of the Mongolian Golden Horde army by Timur (1399), the Crimean Tatars founded an independent Crimean Khanate under Hacı I Giray, a descendant of Genghis Khan, in 1441. He and his successors reigned first at Qırq Yer, and from the beginning of the 15th century, at Bakhchisaray.
The Crimean Tatars controlled the steppes that stretched from the Kuban and to the Dniester River, however, they were unable to take control over commercial Genoese towns. After the Crimean Tatars asked for help from the Ottomans, an Ottoman invasion of the Genoese towns led by Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1475 brought Kaffa and the other trading towns under their control.
After the capture of Genoese towns, the Ottoman Sultan held Meñli I Giray captive, later releasing him in return for accepting Ottoman suzerainty over the Crimean Khans and allowing them rule as tributary princes of the Ottoman Empire. However, the Crimean Khans still had a large amount of autonomy from the Ottoman Empire, particularly, followed the rules they thought were best for them: Crimean Tatars introduced raids into Ukrainian lands, which were used to get slaves to be sold on markets. For example, from 1450 to 1586, eighty-six Tatar raids were recorded, and from 1600 to 1647, seventy. In the 1570s close to 20,000 slaves a year were being sold in Kaffa.
Slaves and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population. In 1769 a last major Tatar raid, which took place during the Russo-Turkish War, saw the capture of 20,000 slaves.
Tatar ethnogenesis
The Crimean Tatars as an ethnic group emerge as the population of the Crimean Khanate during the 15th to 18th centuries. They are descended from a complicated mixture of Turkic peoples which settled in Crimea since the 8th century, presumably also absorbing remnants of the Crimean Goths and the Genoese. Linguistically, they are the descendants of the Khazars, who invaded the Crimea in the mid 8th century, their language forming part of the Kipchak or Northwestern branch of the Turkic languages, although it shows substantial Oghuz influence due to historical Ottoman Turkish presence in the Crimea.A small enclave of the Crimean Karaites, a people of Jewish descent practising Karaism who later adopted a Turkic language, was founded in the 13th century. It existed among the Muslim Crimean Tatars, primarily in the mountainous Çufut Qale area.
Since the end of the XV century the Crimean Khanate, carried out repeated attacks on Russian state and Poland. The main purpose of the raids - the capture of slaves and their resale to the Turkish markets.
Russian-Turkish war of 1768-1774, marked the end of Ottoman rule and by the Kucuk-Kaynarca peace treaty in 1774 the Ottomans renounced claims to the Crimea.
Russian Empire
In 1954 when all deported Crimean Tatars were kept under surveillance in special settlements some thousand kilometers from their Homeland the territory of Crimea was transferred from Russian Soviet Federative Socialistic Republic to Ukrainian Soviet Socialistic Republic. Ukrainian State obtained not only land and natural resources of Crimea but also remained property of Crimean Tatars they were deprived of when deported. In 1997 Crimean Tatar people had a mass petition campaign appealing to the President and the Parliament of Ukraine, UN High Commissioner on Human Rights, OSCE. There were about 100 thousand signatures collected. In that petition we wrote about our problems and possible solutions. There was no feedback from the international organizations and the Ukrainian State did not pay attention to the Appeal, moreover it intensified discrimination and forced assimilation of Crimean Tatars. It is significant that Ukrainian State ignored not only our legal demands but also recommendations of international organizations membership status of which it enjoys: UN, CoE, OSCE committees and agencies. When asked about the situation of Crimean Tatars Ukrainian diplomats abroad either slur over the real situation or lie. They try to dissolve the problems of the indigenous people of Crimea – Crimean Tatars – among the problems of the national minorities of Ukraine, though their situations are incommensurable.
Ukrainian acts on degovernmentalisation deprived those Crimean Tatars who returned of any opportunity to claim it back neither in full nor to the equal extent with other inhabitants of Crimea. Thus, the land taken away from Crimean Tatars is finally transferred into private property by settlers of other nationalities. Ukraine frankly ignored Council of Europe recommendations (Recommendation 1455 (2000) and Repatriation and Integration of Tatars of Crimea, Order #565 (2000)) and practically organized apartheid against Crimean Tatars in form of ban on owing land by a certain ethnic group. Lack of compensation for the property withdrawn in the period of deportation According to the official data, when deported in 1944 Crimean Tatars were taken of over 80 350 private houses with property, 127 500 heads of cattle, 357 000 heads of sheep and goats, over 34 000 hectares of farmland (78 455 plots), all stock of food, seeds, forage for domes tic animals, constructional material, over 4 000 tons of wheat, maize, barley, over 13 999 carts, 4 tons of tobacco, 90 000 liters of wine, 31 400 kilos of dries fruits, 43 200 pieces of sheepskin, 544 tons of fleece. According to incomplete data, the cost of the private property withdrawn from Crimean Tatars constitutes over 6 billion USD. The cost of the prop erty belonged to collective farms and cooperatives founded by Crimean Tatars constitutes 1,2 billion USD. Later on these land and property were distribute d among or sold to settlers brought in by the State in places previously inhabited by Crimean Tatars, used for founding agricultural enterprises and other purposes. All lands, property and houses owned by Crimean Tatars before the deportation were used by Ukraine. Material resources produced by Crimean Tatars worked for the national economics of Ukraine. Houses previously owned by Crimean Tatars have been till now on occupied by and rented by tourists from settlers brought in according to special programs on settlement of Crimea by non-Crimean Tatar population. This situation brings up issues of responsibility, restitution and compensation according to approaches elaborated and in theory and practice of the international law. Nonetheless: courts absolutely arbitrar ily refuse to consider claims on restitution of property Crimean Tatars were illegally deprived of referring to the fact that there is no special law on restitution of property to formerly deported Crimean Tatars; majority of Crimean Tatars was excluded from the process of privatization of State and municipal property because before 1999 they could not obtain Ukrainian citizenship and had no record of service in State enterprises of Ukraine due to the decades spent in the places of deportation.
Lying to the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination Leonid Efimenko, 1st Vice-Minster of Justice of Ukraine, at the meeting of the Committee on 10 March 1998 stated that fulfilled all its obligations regarding restitution of property to all formerly deported persons and those who underwent repressions. Compensation was paid and all persons were rehabilitated. Cases on which unjustified judgments we pronounced are being reconsidered. This is frank lie and concealment of apartheid in the form of ban over owning property individually and jointly with others. Crimean Tatar language is excluded from the public life of Ukraine and Crimea. Before the Deportation Crimean Tatar language was one of the State languages of Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialistic Republic, it was used in clerical work, in court, for official and notarial documents, signboards and announcements, official seals. Every day radio programs in Crimean Tatar language were broadcasted for 6 hours, over 40 000 Crimean Tatar children received education in their native language, there were vocational schools and in stitutes. Belle-lettres, scientific and special literature was published in mass edition. Abroad the authorities boast of 15 Crimean Tatar schools they opened. This is not true. They did not open them – they just did not manage to prevent their opening due to persistent activity of parents and teachers – Crimean Tatars.
Before the deportation there were over 300 schools, these building are still being used for other purposes. Approving new Crimean Constitution the Ukrainian authorities have excluded Crimean Tatar language from the list of official and State languages, keeping only Ukrainian and Russian as such. The authorities try to convince the international community that as though they promote the language of the retrograde illiterate nation. Crimean Tatar nation has been literate for ages, this was never the fact either for Russian or for Ukraine before XX century. The policy of the Ukrainian authorities was aimed at annihilating the language of Crimean Tatars and imposing Ukrainian language on them instead of their native one. Even ratification of the European Charter of Regional and Minority Languages did not introduced any changes to the State policy with regard to Crimean Tatar language. From the beginning of Ukrainian presence in Crimea there was systematic activity aimed at annihilation of the cultural heritage of Crimean Tatar peoples carried out. The colonial period is characterized by destruction of towns, burning of palaces, annihilation of mosques and other objects of material culture. Archeological objects, jewelry, objects of material and spiritual culture were taken from museums to other cities. In Ukraine regardless of the legal base and the State structures called upon to provide for preservation of the cultural heritage the rights of Crimean Tatar people were systematically violated. The land where historical-architectural constructions of archeological objects were located and ancient cemeteries or sacred places were privatized by private persons.Authorities conducted the policy of supporting Ukrainian language in the State having not asked anyone and without organizing any referendums put all geographical names into Ukrainian version. The State again confirmed the policy of double standards and deliberate annihilation of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people’s historical traces.
March 6, 2014, the Supreme Council of Crimea adopted a resolution to join the republic of the Russian Federation as its subject and appointed a referendum on the issue.
March 11, 2014, the Supreme Council of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol City Council adopted the Declaration of Independence of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol.
March 16, 2014 in Crimea, a referendum was held, which was attended by about 82% of voters, 96% of them voted in favor of accession to the Russian Federation.
March 17, 2014 according to the results of the referendum Republic of Crimea, in which the city of Sevastopol has a special status applied for accession to Russia.
Additional information:
Crimea went to Russia in order of restitution - OSCE
http://northhistories.blogspot.ru/2014/07/crimea-went-to-russia-in-order-of.html
http://www.mngz.ru/russia-world-sensation/592469-obse-krym-otoshel-k-rossii-v-poryadke-restitucii.html
Crimean Tatar People - Protect us from discrimination – help us restore our rights! (OSCE 2007)
http://www.osce.org/cio/25563
Double standards EU and USA
2008 Kosovo declaration of independence
As of December 2013, most of the member-countries of NATO, EU, Western European Union and OECD have recognised Kosovo as independent.
As of December 2013, most of the member-countries of NATO, EU, Western European Union and OECD have recognised Kosovo as independent.
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