THE CRIMEAN TATARS: FROM TSARIST GENOCIDE (1853–1856) TO STALIN’S EXILE (MAY 1944). MEMOIRS FROM EXILE
THE CRIMEAN TATARS: FROM TSARIST GENOCIDE (1853–1856) TO STALIN’S EXILE (MAY 1944). MEMOIRS FROM EXILE

Summary/Abstract: This article describes some aspects of genocide, refuge of the 19th century, as well as the deportation, the exile of May 18, 1944 during Stalin’s regime to which the Crimean Tatars were subjected. The events experienced throughout the turbulent history of this people, about which history books say nothing, but on the contrary, they are presented as robbers and traitors both during the Crimean War (1853–1856) and also, during the Second World War.All the horrors caused by the wars, which in fact were not their wars, but took place on their homeland territory – Crimea being a theater of war for almost two centuries, leads us to classify damages done to the Crimean Tatars as events of genocide. For the aspects of refuge and forced displacement from their homeland after the Crimean War, for this work I relied on documents that I found at Başbakanlık Osmanlı Arşivi (The Ottoman Archives of the Prime Minister’s Office). The interview with Kerim Ismail, Hasanoğlu, Scientific Director at the Institute of Crimean-Tatar Language and Literature, Crimean Tatar from Crimea – a survivor of the deported Crimean Tatars, was the basis for testimonies regarding the presentation of the events experienced during the exile, in Uzbekistan. At the end of the paper, I emphasize the innocence of the Crimean Tatars, although at the deportation of May 18, 1944 they were accused of high treason, suggesting that today the Crimean Tatars, who are scattered in all corners of the world, from Central Asia to the western Atlantic coast, do not have thorough knowledge of their modern history (from the nineteenth century to the twentieth century).

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