CRIMEAN TATAR

Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: qırımtatarlar, къырымтатарлар) or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group who are an indigenous people of the Crimean Peninsula ( Crimea ) along the northern coast of the Black Sea in Eastern Europe.

The formation and ethnogenesis of Crimean Tatars occurred during the 13th–17th centuries, uniting Cumans that appeared in Crimea in the 10th century with other peoples who ever inhabited Crimea since ancient times and gradually underwent Tatarization, including the Greeks, Italians and Goths.

Today, Crimean Tatars constitute approximately 15% of the population of Crimea. There remains a large diaspora in Turkey and Uzbekistan.

The Crimean Tatars are subdivided into three sub-ethnic groups:

- the Tats (not to be confused with the Iranic Tat people, living in the Caucasus region) who used to inhabit the mountainous Crimea before 1944

- the Yaliboylu who lived on the southern coast of the peninsula before 1944 and practiced Christianity until the 14th century;

- the Noğays (not to be confused with related Nogai people, living now in Southern Russia) — former inhabitants of the Crimean steppe.

The Crimean Tatar language (qırımtatar tili, къырымтатар тили) is a Kipchak Turkic language.
The vast majority of Crimean Tatars are Sunni Muslims.

TOTAL POPULATION : about 540 000