CRIMEA had not yet been seized by Russia when Mustafa Dzhemilev, leader of the Crimean Tatars, smelled a rat. On February 13th 2014 a Russian representative passed on a message: Vladimir Putin would like to talk to the 70-year-old former Soviet dissident. “What about?” he asked. “The future of Crimea,” said the emissary.
Mr Dzhemilev tensed. Why might Mr Putin want to discuss this part of Ukraine with him? It was a bad omen for his people, a Turkic group that moved to Crimea in the 13th century and see it as their native land.
From the mid-15th century the Crimean Tatars had their own state, a khanate, patronised by the Ottoman empire. Despite Mr Putin’s rhetoric, the peninsula became part of the Russian empire only in the late 18th century under Catherine the Great. Many Crimean Tatars moved to modern-day Turkey, but those who stayed were a welcome ornament of her realm.
The Soviet empire under Stalin was less accommodating. In 1944 the entire Crimean Tatar population was accused of collaborating with Hitler and deported to Central Asia. Most were women, children or elderly. The young men, including Mr Dzhemilev’s father,...
from The Economist: International http://ift.tt/1BqbFOw
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