Exile of Crimean Tatar Turks

When I see the scattered Turkish families struggling to survive in the depths of Central Asia, scattered like beads of rosary beads in the neighborhoods where they try to live, I first shudder, and then I feel pity in my bones when I listen to their struggle for life. Who are those who were forcibly displaced from their homeland overnight, whose exile was forced upon them by Stalin? Such are the Musket Turks who were torn from Meskhetia overnight, such is the exile of Crimean Tatar Turks, such are the Chechens and Ingush who were expelled from the Caucasus. Balkars and Karachis from the north of the Caucasus and Kalmuk Turks from the Caspian Sea coast were also victims of suspicion of collaboration with the Germans. In 1942-43, as the German army advanced through the Crimea and the Caucasus, they were suspected as collaborators. After the arduous journey to Siberia, the deportees were subjected to strict regulations limiting their movement from one place to another. Is that all? They were also treated as shackled prisoners wherever they went. The lucky exiled families were placed in the homes of the locals, treated like cannibals, some were later accepted but isolated in the same house and not even spoken to. How long did this situation last? Until four years after the death of Stalin, who gave the order. In 1957, the deportees were allowed to return to their homeland, but the deported Turks were torn to pieces. 

Yes, dear readers, 79 years ago, on May 18, 1944, with the brutal decision of Josef Stalin, the leader of the Soviet Union, we feel the pain of the Crimean Tatar Turks being torn from their homeland overnight and deported to Central Asia in train wagons under inhumane conditions deep in our hearts, we feel it in all our cells, up to our DNA molecules. 

Suffice it to say that in the 79th year of the Crimean Tatar Turkish exile, the pain remains in the memory. The deportations and exiles, which started with the Russian Tsarina Catherine II's policy of exterminating Crimean Tatar Turks, traditionally increased during the Soviet Union, and Soviet Russia, which took over this policy from Tsarist Russia, continued these policies with different methods by integrating them with both Orthodoxy and Russification policies. (1)

It must be openly admitted that the 'Crimean Tatar Turkish People' are the girays, the warriors of the Ottoman Empire. They have always been the key to the permanence of the Ottoman Empire's conquests in Europe, and they knew how to reflect their knightly spirit on the battlefields. They shielded themselves during the Austrian attacks on Macedonia, especially Bosnia-Herzegovina, and reached the rank of veteran and martyrdom at the most advanced points of the front. As you know, the Ottoman Army did not leave every war and every battle victorious, as the words "Victorious Always" on the monograms of the sultans. The history of the Ottoman Empire, which ruled for 622 years and was one of the most important actors in world politics, is a history of great victories as well as defeats. The wars in Europe in which the Ottoman Empire was defeated are sometimes remembered with great territorial losses and sometimes with the heavy treaties signed after the war, but the history of the Ottoman Empire is built on victories. (2)

However, in certain periods of history, the wars lost by the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans and the important battles within the wars not only stopped the conquest movements in Rumelia, but also caused great territorial losses and large migration movements towards Anatolia. In fact, by the 1700s, the Ottoman Empire first began to stagnate and then to decline, leading an increasingly paralyzed life for almost 200 years, having to withdraw from Europe each time by giving up territory. 

In the battles that started 334 years ago on October 25-27, 1689 after the Siege of Vienna II, Austrian General Piccolomini invaded Skopje on October 25-27, 1689, and 326 years ago on October 24-25, 1697, Prince Eugen of Savoy invaded Sarajevo, massacred thousands of Muslims and burned both cities to the ground. On the orders of General Piccolomini, the city of Skopje was set on fire. This fire and destruction lasted for two days, October 26 and 27. In this great destruction, many shops and houses were destroyed, and the Jewish quarter of the city suffered the greatest damage. During the Balkan War I, the situation in Thessaloniki was the same, synagogues were burned and destroyed, women were raped and children were subjected to mass murder. In his diary, Prince Eugen of Savoy tells that on October 24-25, 1697, Turkish women in Sarajevo were killed and 120 mosques were burned. (3) 

As a result of the invasion of Austrian forces in the region, many Muslim and non-Muslim people were killed, and as a result of fear and anxiety, some of the Muslim Turkish population migrated to Sofia and Belgrade, while others emigrated to Istanbul and settled in the vicinity of Eyüp, where they established the Skopje neighborhood. As is known, Hasköy, especially on the opposite shore of the Golden Horn, became a settlement area for Seferad Jews fleeing the persecution of Catholic Ferdinand and Catholic Isabel from Spain. The Ottoman Empire immediately intervened and appointed the Peloponnesian Seraskeri Koca Halil Pasha and the Crimean Khan Selim Giray. The Ottoman Army, largely composed of Crimean Tatar Turks, defeated the Austrians at the Kaçanik Gorge, which connected Skopje to Kosovo, and in Kosovo, and took Skopje back under Ottoman rule. Crimean Tatar Turks, who fought tooth and nail, blood for blood, life for life and shielded their bodies in the battles of the Kaçanik Gorge, reached the rank of veterans and martyrs in these battles. The bodies of these heroic Crimean Tatar Turks were buried in the Ottoman Martyrdom next to the French Cemetery, where the French flag flies today. However, it should be noted with regret that the Ottoman Martyrdom in the capital of North Macedonia was destroyed by the US. 

As you know, just as the US erased the Nazi traces in Germany, its European colony after World War II, it has taken over the remnants of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans with a fait accompli and continues its functions of erasing Turkish traces uninterruptedly. Yes, dear readers, in this sentence, the USA has raised its Embassy in Skopje in Vardar Macedonia on the Ottoman martyrdom and has seen no harm in this. Can you imagine, while the US Embassy rises above the Ottoman Martyrdom, the French flag still flies proudly in the French Cemetery next to it. What should I say? What do you expect me to say? No one took care of the bones of hundreds of martyrs lying in the cemetery, nor did anyone take the initiative to build a monument. This situation was explained to the Turkish authorities in Skopje, but unfortunately the bureaucratic obstacle could not be overcome. The USA, which put money into the budget for the bones of American soldiers lost in Vietnam, bulldozed the bones of Ottoman martyrs and destroyed them. Now I ask you, how is this different from the murder of US citizen journalist Jamal Khashoggi, who was killed in the Saudi Consulate General in Istanbul on October 2, 2018, and then dismembered and burned? 

Let us not forget that martyrs are the title deed of a country's existence and every martyr is an indelible nail driven into the land of the homeland. Every martyr who falls to the ground as if entering a rose garden is the registration of our existence, a deed deed. This is why it was deemed necessary to destroy this consciousness.   This is why the USA believed that this was how they would end the 550-year existence of the Ottoman Empire in the Balkans. For this reason, the US built the largest military base ever established by the US on foreign soil, the 'Bondsteel Camp', also known as the "21st century weapons depot", in Kosovo on another Ottoman soil. KFOR soldiers serving in Kosovo said: "There are two things visible from space. One is the Great Wall of China, the other is this base'. It is announced to the relevant authorities to what extent this neglect has reached. First, the bones of the martyrs of the Crimean Tatar Turks lying in the Ottoman Martyrs' Cemetery were destroyed, and then the function of destroying the existence in Crimea was undertaken. 

The suffering of the Crimean Tatar Turkish people, which started when Crimea was out of the control of the Ottoman Empire, has never ended. The first address of the exiled Crimean Turks was Anatolia, like all other refugees, and many Crimean Tatar Turks sought refuge in the Ottoman Empire under the pressure of the Russian tsarism. 

The suffering of those who stayed in Crimea was greater, and Soviet Russia, which lost the Crimean peninsula some time after the Second World War started, started to oppress the Crimean Tatar people after regaining the peninsula from Nazi Germany. The name of this policy was the deportation of Crimean Tatar Turks under the name of collaborators. In other words, the Crimean Tatar Turks, who were accused of collaboration with Nazi Germany, were subjected to a new deportation on fabricated grounds. (2)

Josef Stalin, the leader of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics, decided to deport Crimean Tatar Turks to different regions in Central Asia by a secret decree. Stalin's decision was put into effect at midnight on May 18, 1944. Within 15 minutes after the decree, around 250 thousand Crimean Tatar Turks, mostly elderly, children and women, were taken out of their beds and loaded into wagons carrying animals and deported to Central Asia and Siberia in 3 days without food or water. Half of those deported in wagons under inhuman conditions lost their lives even before reaching the regions where they were deported. 

Crimea, which was virtually gifted to the newly established 'Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic' by the Soviet leader Khrushchev after Stalin, came back under Russia's control in 2014. Following Russia's annexation of the peninsula, many Crimean Tatar Turks were forced to leave their homeland and many of them sought refuge in Ukraine. 

Mustafa Abdulcemil Crimeanoglu, the current leader of the Crimean Tatar Turkish people, who has been fighting to stay in their homeland since Catherine II, and many prominent figures of the Crimean cause have been exiled from their homeland. And that's not all. The Russian Federation has imposed a ban on entry to Crimea on many names, including Crimea's leader Kırımoğlu. By the way, institutionalization is also banned. The Crimean Tatar National Assembly, which represents the national will of the Crimean Tatar Turks, was deemed an "extremist organization" by the Russian court and its activities were terminated. As a requirement of compartmental diplomacy, the Republic of Turkey has made a correct and strategic decision regarding the status of Crimea. (4)  

In this framework, it does not officially recognize Russia's authority over the peninsula, while at the same time refraining from supporting US and EU anti-Russian sanctions. This balanced position not only helps Turkey to maintain its independent foreign policy line as well as its economic sovereignty, but also prevents it from being used by Western states as a tool against Moscow and allows it to move forward with determination towards its national goals. On the other hand, in light of the current geopolitical situation, the question of whether participation in the 'Crimea Platform' is really in Turkey's interest is on the table with all its weight. However, dear readers, the fact that the Crimean Tatar Turks, who have kept the pain of the 1944 deportation in their memories for 79 years, still continue to dream of returning to their homeland and regaining their lands like the Nagorno-Karabakh Turks. 

Footnotes

(1) YeniBirlik World, "In the 79th year of the Crimean Tatar exile, the pains remain in the memory", YeniBirlik Newspaper, May 18, 2023, p.11 

(2) Kubilay Kos, "What are the wars the Ottoman Empire lost?" Habertürk, 04.04.2023; https://www.haberturk.com/osmanli-devleti-nin-kaybettigi-savaslar-neler-osmanli-imparatorlugu-nun-kaybettigi-savaslar-ve-yillari-hteg-3478576?page=4 /Access Date 19.05.2023/ 

(3) Austrian State Archives (http://oesta.gv.at)

(4) Mustafa Birol Güger, "Turkey's Crimea policy and "Crimea Platform", Cumhuriyet Newspaper 07.06.2021; https://www.cumhuriyet.com.tr/haber/turkiyenin-kirim-politikasi-ve-kirim-platformu-1842437 /Access Date 19.06.2023/