Emigrations from the Crimea to the Ottoman Empire during the Crimean War

Abstract

Throughout the fifteenth-eighteenth centuries, the Crimean Khanate (supported by its close ally, if not suzerain, the Ottoman Empire) constituted one of the major powers of East European politics. The territory of the khanate comprised, in addition to the Crimean peninsula itself, the vast steppes north of the Black Sea, extending from Besarabia to the North Caucasus. In that, its location ensured the 'Ottomanness' of the Black Sea and, playing the role of an effective bulwark, blocked the southward drive of the Russian Empire. Therefore, not surprisingly, the expansionist schemes in the Russian Empire in the eighteenth century, if not earlier, considered the obliteration of the Crimean Khanate and the acquisition of its territories indispensable. Such was the famous, or rather infamous, 'Greek Project' of Catherinian times which aimed at the establishment of Russian domination over the Black Sea and the foundation of a Russian-led 'Greek' empire centred in Constantinople. 1 Among other considerations, the Crimean peninsula was an ideal stepping stone for further expansionist designs involving the eventual conquest of Constantinople, or Tsargrad, as it was called by many Slavs. The obvious strategic, military and economic importance and potential of the Crimea, along with its exotic beauties, led many a tsarist statesman to dream of the Russification of the peninsula and its hinterland. Thus, when, after some 15 years of war and bloody unrest, the Russian Empire finally dissolved the Crimean Khanate and annexed its territories, resolute measures were taken by the tsarist government to this effect. From the very beginning of Russian rule in the Crimea in 1783, there was a determined effort on the part of the tsarist state to colonize the peninsula with Russian/Slavic (or at least Christian settlers), an enterprise during which the Crimean Tatars, the native people of the Crimea, were seen as superfluous, to say the least. The centuries-long political and military enmity between Russia and the Crimea was by no means forgotten. In fact, during the first 70 years of Russian rule in the Crimea preceding the Crimean War, at times, a considerable deal of oppression was meted out to the Crimean Tatars. The latter essentially became second class subjects in virtually all aspects of social and economic life in the peninsula. Therefore, the Russian annexation of the Crimea in 1783 signalled more than the loss of their age-old independence for the Crimean Tatars; it was also the beginning of a long and continuous process of their emigration to the Ottoman Empire, the land of their religious and ethnic kinsmen, in response to the tsarist policies and

A liminalitás terei és idői az európai posztszovjet térben az orosz és szovjet expanziós törekvések tükrében

“…A sikeresen terjeszkedő orosz hatalom alapjaiban változtatta meg a fennálló struktúrákat, liminalitást idézve elő a krími tatár közösségek életében. Az évszázadokon átívelő orosz-török háborúk hosszú sora nyomán alakult ki az orosz területi igény a Fekete-tengerre, sőt, annak legnagyobb városára, Isztambulra (Konstantinápolyra) is (Kirimli 2008). A katonai sikerek révén az oszmánoktól elhódított terület, az ún.…”

“…A 18. században I. Péter, majd II. Katalin a római (bizánci) impérium újraéledését hirdette, amit a gyakorlatban az egykori Konstantinápoly (akkor már Isztambul) elfoglalásával kívántak szentesíteni (Kirimli 2008). A Fekete-tengernél a hódításkor létező struktúrákat nem létezőnek, figyelmen kívül hagyható átmenetnek tekintették, sajátos liminalitást teremtve a meghódítottak életében.…”

“…Az uralomváltással megjelenő új struktúrák nem tették lehetővé számukra a hagyományos életmódjuk további fenntartását, beilleszkedésük csak markáns változtatások árán valósulhatott meg. A közösség nagy része inkább a régi kereteket biztosító, oszmán fennhatóságú területekre vándorlást választotta (Aydıngün, Aydıngün 2007;Kirimli 2008), s csak kisebb részük vállalta az új struktúrákhoz való igazodást, az életmódváltást.…”

The dark side of connectedness: forced migrations and mass violence between the late Tsarist and Ottoman empires (1853–1920)

“…Fearing reprisals by the returning Tsarist troops, 20,000 Crimean Tatars left before the Ottoman and allied troops evacuated the peninsula in 1856. 31 Then the Tsarist military enacted a policy of forcibly resettling the Muslim populations who inhabited the mountains behind the coastal regions of the north-western Caucasus, lumped together under the label of 'Circassians'. The Black Sea coast was at this point both strategic and vulnerable to an external invasion, after the demilitarization of the Black Sea following the 1856 Treaty of Paris.…”