Crimea's Tatars: Running Out of Time and Options

Crimea's Tatars: Running Out of Time and Options

The community numbers only 300,000, or about 12 percent of the peninsula’s total population, which makes the Tatars a small but significant minority. It is also one not easily cowed or intimidated. It was Tatar television that stayed on the air the longest to report on the Russian seizure of sovereign Ukrainian territory earlier this month. The vast majority of Tatars not only reject annexation and boycotted last week’s “referendum,” but also consider themselves aligned with fundamental tenets of Ukrainian nationalism. As Bakkalli puts it, “the steppe regions of Ukraine are Crimea; Crimea is Ukraine.” Accordingly, the Tatars backed the Orange Revolution in 2004 and they supported the Euromaidan protests which ousted corrupt Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych in late February.

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