Crimea

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Автономна Республіка Крим Автономная Республика Крым Qırım Muhtar Cumhuriyeti Autonomous Republic of Crimea
Flag Coat of arms
Motto: Процветание в единстве  (Russian) Protsvetaniye v edinstve  (transliteration) "Prosperity in unity"
Anthem: Нивы и горы твои волшебны, Родина  (Russian) Nivy i gory tvoi volshebny, Rodina  (transliteration) Your fields and mounts are wonderful, Motherland
Location of Crimea (red) on the map of Ukraine.
Location of Crimea (dark green) on the map of Europe.
Capital		Simferopol 44°57′N 36°6′E
Largest city		Sevastopol1
Official languages		Ukrainian2
Ethnic groups		58.32% Russians 24.32% Ukrainians 12.10% Crimean Tatars
Government		Autonomous republic within Ukraine
-	Head of State	Viktor Yushchenko3
-	Prime Minister	Viktor Plakida
-	Speaker of the Parliament	Anatoliy Hrytsenko
Autonomy		from the Russian Empire
-	Established4	October 18, 1921
-	Abolished5	June 30, 1945
-	Restored6	February 12, 1992
Area
-	Total	26,100 km² (n/a) 10,038 sq mi
Population
-	2005 estimate	1,994,300 (n/a)
-	2001 census	2,033,700
-	Density	76.7 /km² (n/a) 29.6 /sq mi
Currency		Ukrainian hryvnia (UAH)
Time zone		EET (UTC+2)
-	Summer (DST)	EEST (UTC+3)
Internet TLD		crimea.ua
Calling code		+380 (area code 65/69)
1	Sevastopol is administratively separate from Crimea (see subdivisions of Ukraine.
2	Because Ukrainian is the only state language in Ukraine, and government duities are fullfilled only in Russian, Russian is a de facto official language. Crimean Tatar is also used.
3	The Head of State of Crimea is the President of Ukraine (currently Viktor Yushchenko).
4	The Crimean ASSR was created as part of the Russian SFSR.
5	The Crimean ASSR's autonomy was removed and transformed into the Crimean Oblast of the RSFSR.
6	The Crimean Oblast was transformed into the Autonomous Republic of Crimea as part of independent Ukraine.

Crimea (IPA: [kraɪˈmiə]) or the Autonomous Republic of Crimea (Ukrainian: Крим, Автономна Республіка Крим, Avtonomna Respublika Krym; Russian: Крым, Автономная Республика Крым, Avtonomnaya Respublika Krym; Crimean Tatar: Qırım, Qırım Muhtar Cumhuriyeti) is an autonomous republic of Ukraine on the northern coast of the Black Sea occupying a peninsula of the same name.

The total area of the republic is 26,200 km². As of 2005, Crimea has a population of 1,994,300 inhabitants. The capital of Crimea is the city of Simferopol.

Crimea is the homeland for the Crimean Tatars, an ethnic minority who now make up about 13% of the population.

[edit] Etymology of the name

The name Crimea takes its origin in the name of a city of Qırım (today's Stary Krym) which served as a capital of the Crimean province of the Golden Horde. Qırım is Crimean Tatar for "my hill" (qır – hill, –ım – my). However, there are other versions of the etymology of Qırım. Russian Krym is a Russified form of Qırım. The ancient Greeks called Crimea Taurida (later Taurica). The Greek historian Herodotus mentions that Hercules ploughed that land using a huge ox ("taurus"), hence the name of the land.

[edit] History

[edit] Early history

Main article: Taurica

The earliest inhabitants of whom we have any authentic traces were the Cimmerians, who were expelled by the Scythians during the 7th century BC. The remaining Cimmerians that took refuge in the mountains later became known as the Tauri. According to other historians, the Tauri were known for their savage rituals and piracy, and were also the earliest, indigenous inhabitants of the peninsula. In 5th century BC, Greek colonists began to settle along the Black Sea coast, among those were the Dorians from Heraclea who founded a sea port of Chersonesos outside Sevastopol, and the Ionians from Miletus who landed at Feodosiya and Panticapaeum (also called Bosporus).

The Greek colony of Chersonesus, Sevastopol.

Two centuries later, (438 BC) the Archon (ruler) of the latter settlers assumed the title of the Kings of Cimmerian Bosporus, a state that maintained close relations with Athens, supplying the city with wheat, honey and other commodities. The last of that line of kings, Paerisades V, being hard-pressed by the Scythians, put himself under the protection of Mithridates VI, the king of Pontus, in 114 BC. After the death of this sovereign, his son, Pharnaces II, was invested by Pompey with the kingdom of Bosporus in 63 BC as a reward for the assistance rendered to the Romans in their war against his father. In 15 BC, it was once again restored to the king of Pontus, but since ranked as a tributary state of Rome.

Throughout the later centuries, Crimea was invaded or occupied successively by the Goths (AD. 250), the Huns (376), the Bulgars (6th century), the Khazars (8th century), the state of Kievan Rus' (10th-11th centuries), the Byzantine Greeks (1016), the Kipchaks (the Kumans) (1050), and the Mongols (1237).

In the mid-10th century, the eastern area of Crimea was conquered by Prince Sviatoslav I of Kiev and became part of the Kievan Rus' principality of Tmutarakan. In 988, Prince Vladimir I of Kiev also captured the Byzantine town of Chersones (presently part of Sevastopol) where he later converted to Christianity. An impressive Russian Orthodox cathedral marks the location of this historic event.

In the 13th century, the Republic of Genoa seized the settlements which their rivals, the Venetians, had built along the Crimean coast and established themselves at Cembalo, Soldaia, Cherco and Caffa, gaining control of the Crimean economy and the Black Sea commerce for two centuries.

[edit] Crimean Khanate: 1441-1783

Main article: Crimean Khanate

The Hansaray, succession home of the Crimean Khans, in Bakhchisaray.

A number of Turkic peoples, now collectively known as the Crimean Tatars, have been inhabiting the peninsula since the early Middle Ages. The ethnicity of the Crimean Tatars is quite complex as it absorbed by both nomadic Turkic and European components (in the first place, the Goths and the Genoese) which is still reflected in their appearance and language differences. A small enclave of the Karaims, possibly of Khazar (i.e. Turkic) descent but members of a Jewish sect, was founded in the 8th century. It existed among the Muslim Crimean Tatars, primarily in the mountainous Çufut Qale area.

After the destruction of the Golden Horde by Timur in 1441, the Crimean Tatars founded an independent Crimean Khanate under Hacı I Giray, a descendant of Genghis Khan. He and his successors reigned first at Qırq Yer, and from the beginning of the 15th century, at Bakhchisaray.

The Crimean Tatars controlled the steppes that streched from the Kuban and to the Dniester River, however, they were unable to take control over commercial Genoese towns. After the Crimean Tatars asked for help from the Ottomans, an Ottoman invasion of the Genoese towns led by Gedik Ahmed Pasha in 1475 brought Kaffa and the other trading towns under their control.^[1]

After the capture of Genoese towns, the Ottoman Sultan held Meñli I Giray captive, later releasing him in return for accepting Ottoman sovereinty above the Crimean Khans and allowing them rule as tributary princes of the Ottoman Empire.^[1][2] However, the Crimean Khans still had a large amount of autonomy from the Ottoman Empire, particularly, followed the rules they thought were best for them: Crimean Tatars introduced raids into Ukrainian lands, which were used to get slaves to be sold on markets.^[1]

In 1553-1554, Cossack Hetman Dmytro Vyshnevetsky gathered together groups of Cossacks, and constructed a fort designed to obstruct Tatar raids into Ukraine. With this action, he founded the Zaporozhian Sich, with which he would launch a series of attacks on the Crimea peninsula and the Ottoman Turks.^[3] In 1774, The Crimean Khans fell under the Russian influence in the Treaty of Kuchuk Kainarji.^[4] In 1783, entire Crimea was annexed by the Russian Empire.^[4]

[edit] Russian Empire: 1783-1921

Swallow's Nest, a symbol of Crimea, one of the best-known, romantic castles near Yalta. It was built in 1912 in the Neo-Gothic style by the order of German baron Stengel; design by Russian architect A. Sherwood.

The Crimean War (1854–1856) devastated much of the economic and social infrastructure of Crimea. The Crimean Tatars had to flee from their homeland en masse, forced by the conditions created by the war, persecution and land expropriations. Those who survived the trip, famine and disease, resettled in Dobruja, Anatolia, and other parts of the Ottoman Empire. For the first time in their history, Crimean Tatars became a minority in their own land, with the majority spread out as a diaspora. Finally, the Russian government decided to stop the process, as the agriculture began to suffer due to the unattended fertile farmland.

During the Russian Civil War, Crimea was a stronghold of the anti-Bolshevik White Army. It was in Crimea that the White Russians led by General Wrangel made their last stand against the invading Red Army in 1920. After the resistance was crushed, many of the anti-Communist fighters and civilians had to board the ships and escape to Istanbul. Hundreds of thousands of Russians who chose to remain were executed by the Communists.

[edit] Soviet Union: 1921-1991

On October 18, 1921, the Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was created as part of the Russian SFSR.^[2] However, the establishment of the Crimean ASSR did not fully protect the Crimean Tatars from Joseph Stalin's repressions of the 1930s.^[2]

The Greeks were another cultural groupd which suffered. Their lands were lost during the process of collectivisation, in which farmers are not compensated via wages. Schools which taught Greek were closed and Greek literature was destroyed, because the Soviets considered the Greeks as "counter-revolutionary" with their links to capitalist state Greece, and their independent culture.^[2]

[edit] World War II era

During World War II, Crimea was a scene of some of the bloodiest battles. The leaders of the Third Reich were anxious to conquer and colonize the fertile and beautiful peninsula as part of their policy of resettling the Germans in Eastern Europe at the expense of the Slavs. The Germans suffered heavy casualties in the summer of 1941 as they tried to advance through the narrow isthmus of Perekop linking Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland. Once the German army broke through (Operation Trappenjagd), they occupied most of Crimea, with the exception of the city of Sevastopol, which was later awarded the honorary title of Hero City after the war.

Sevastopol held out from October 1941 until July 4, 1942 when the Germans finally captured the city. From September 1, 1942, the peninsula was administered as the Generalbezirk Krim (general district of Crimea) und Teilbezirk (and sub-district) Taurien by the Nazi Generalkommissar Alfred Eduard Frauenfeld (1898–1977), under the authority of the three consecutive Reichskommissare for the entire Ukraine. In spite of heavy-handed tactics by the Nazis and the assistance of the Romanian and Italian troops, the Crimean mountains remained an unconquered stronghold of the native resistance (the partisans) until the day when the peninsula was freed from the occupying force.

The Bay of Sudak as seen from Sudak's Genoese Fortress.

In 1944, Sevastopol came under the control of troops from the Soviet Union. The so-called "City of Russian Glory" once known for its beautiful architecture was entirely destroyed and had to be rebuilt stone by stone. Due to its enormous historical and symbolic meaning for the Russians, it became a priority for Stalin and the Soviet government to have it restored to its former glory within the shortest time possible.

On May 18, 1944, the entire population of the Crimean Tatars were forcibly deported to Central Asia by Stalin's Soviet government as a form of collective punishment on the grounds that they had collaborated with the Nazi occupation forces.^[5] On May 21, 1944, the ethnic cleansing of Crimea was complete. An estimated 46% of the deportees died from hunger and disease. In 1967, the Crimean Tatars were rehabilitated, but they were banned from legally returning to their homeland until the last days of the Soviet Union.

[edit] 1954 Crimean transfer

The Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was abolished in June 30, 1945 and transformed into the Crimean Oblast (province) of the Russian SFSR. On February 19, 1954, the oblast was transferred from the Russian SFSR to the Ukrainian SSR. As it stated in the Supreme Soviet Decree, the transfer was caused by close (1) geographic, (2) economic, and (3) cultural ties to the Ukrainian SSR.^[6] The transfer was also meant by the Soviet leader Nikita Khrushchev as a symbolic gesture to mark the 300th anniversary of the Treaty of Pereyaslav that unified Russia and Ukraine.

[edit] Autonomy within independent Ukraine

With the collapse of the Soviet Union, Crimea became part of the newly independent Ukraine, a situation largely unexpected by its population that was ethnically and culturally Russian for the most part. This led to tensions between Russia and Ukraine. With the Black Sea Fleet based on the peninsula, worries of armed skirmishes were occasionally raised.

When newly-independant Ukraine conducted its referendum on independence on December 1, 1991, 54.19% of residents from Crimea and 57.07% from Sevastopol city voted in favor of Ukrainian independence.^[7][8] Crimea proclaimed self-government on May 5, 1992,^[9][10] but later agreed to remain within Ukraine as an autonomous republic. On June 30, 1992, Crimean Communists had forced the Kiev government to expand on the already extensive autonomous status of Crimea.^[11]

The Russian Army-occupied Cape Sarych on the southern shore of the Black Sea.

Following the ratification of the May 1997 Treaty of Friendship, Cooperation, and Partnership on friendship and division of the Black Sea Fleet, international tensions have slowly eased off. With the treaty, Moscow recognized Ukraine's borders and territorial integrity, and accepted Ukraine's sovereignty over Crimea and Sevastopol.^[12] In a separate agreement, Russia was to recieve 80% of the Black Sea Fleet and use of the military facilities in Sevastopol on a 20-year lease.^[12]

However, other controversies between Ukraine and Russia still remain, including the ownership of a lighthouse on Cape Sarych. Because the Russian Army occupied 77 geographical objects on the south Crimean Shore, the Sevastopol Government Court ordered the vacation of the objects, which the Russian Army did not carry out.^[13] Since August 3, 2005, the lighthouse is illegally occupied by the Russian Army.^[14] Throught the years, there have been various attempts of retuning Cape Sarych to Ukrainian territory, all which were unsuccessful.

In 2006, protests broke out on the peninsula after U.S. marines^[15] arrived to the Crimean city of Feodosiya to take part in the Sea Breeze 2006 Ukraine-NATO military exercise. Protestors greated the marines with barricades and slogans bearing "Occupiers go home!", and a couple days later, the Crimean parliament declared Crimea a "NATO-free territory." After several days of protest, the U.S. marines withdrew from the peninsula.^[16]

Another center of conflict on the peninsula is regarding land ownership. Since the Crimean Tatars were forcibly deported from their homeland in May of 1944, other people, particularly Russians, settled the peninsula and took control of the lands formerly belonging to the Crimean Tatars. After the fall of the Soviet Union, Crimean Tatars were allowed to return to Crimea, but conflict arose when they demanded the return of land seized after their deportation.

[edit] Government and politics

Crimea is a parliamentary republic that has no president. The legislative body is a 100-seat parliament, the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea.^[17]

The executive power is represented by the Council of Ministers, headed by a Prime Minister who is appointed and dismissed by the Verkhovna Rada, with the consent of the President of Ukraine.^[18] The authority and operation of the Verkhovna Rada and the Council of Ministers of Crimea are determined by the Constitution of Ukraine and other the laws of Ukraine, as well as by regular decisions carried out by the Verkhovna Rada of Crimea.^[18]

Justice is administered by courts that belong to the Judicial system of Ukraine.^[18]

While not an official body controlling Crimea, the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People is a representative body of the Crimean Tatars, which could address grievances to the Ukrainian central government, the Crimean government, and international bodies.^[19]

[edit] Administrative divisions

Crimea is subdivided into 25 regions: 14 raions (districts) and 11 city municipalities, officially known as "territories governed by city councils."^[20] Each region consists of city, urban-type settlement and village communities.

[edit] Raions

[edit] City municipalities

[edit] Major cities

[edit] Geography

Map of Crimea with major cities.

Crimea is located on the northern coast of the Black Sea and on the western coast of the Sea of Azov, bordering Kherson Oblast from the North. Although located in southwestern part of the Crimean peninsula, the city of Sevastopol has a special but separate municipality status within Ukraine. Crimea's total land area is 26,100 km² (10,038 sq mi).

Crimea is connected to the mainland by the 5–7 kilometre (3–4 mile) wide Isthmus of Perekop. At the eastern tip is the Kerch Peninsula, which is directly opposite the Taman Peninsula on the Russian mainland. Between the Kerch and Taman peninsulas, lies the 3–13 km (2–9 mi) wide Strait of Kerch, which connects the waters of the Black Sea with the Sea of Azov.

The Crimean coastline is broken by several bays and harbors. These harbors lie on the west side of the Isthmus of Perekop by the Bay of Karkinit; on the southwest by the open Bay of Kalamita, with the ports of Eupatoria and Sevastopol; by the Bay of Arabat on the north side of the Isthmus of Yenikale or Kerch; and by the Bay of Caffa or Feodosiya, with the port of Feodosiya located on the south side.

Green mountains abruptly fall into the Black Sea near Balaklava.

The southeast coast is flanked at a distance of 8–12 km (5–8 mi) from the sea by a parallel range of mountains, the Crimean Mountains.^[21] These mountains are backed by secondary parallel ranges. Seventy-five percent of the remaining area of Crimea consists of semiarid prairie lands, a southward continuation of the Pontic steppes, which slope gently to the northwest from the foot of the Crimean Mountains. The main range of these mountains shoots up with extraordinary abruptness from the deep floor of the Black Sea to an altitude of 600–750 metres (2,000–2,500 feet), beginning at the southwest point of the peninsula, called Cape Fiolente. It was believed that this cape was supposedly crowned with the temple of Artemis, where Iphigeneia is said to have officiated as priestess.^{[citation needed]}

The Crimean Mountains near the city of Alushta.

Numerous kurgans, or burial mounds, of the ancient Scythians are scattered across the Crimean steppes.

The terrain that lies beyond the sheltering Crimean Mountain range is of an altogether different character. Here, the narrow strip of coast and the slopes of the mountains are smothered with greenery. This "riviera" stretches along the southeast coast from Cape Sarych, in the extreme south, to Feodosiya, and is studded with summer sea-bathing resorts such as Alupka, Yalta, Gurzuf, Alushta, Sudak, and Feodosiya. During the years of Soviet rule, the resorts and dachas of this coast served as the prime perquisites of the politically loyal. In addition, vineyards and fruit orchards are located in the region. Fishing, mining, and the production of essential oils are also important. Numerous Crimean Tatar villages, mosques, monasteries, and palaces of the Russian imperial family and nobles are found here, as well as picturesque ancient Greek and medieval castles.

[edit] Economy

The main branches of the Crimean economy are tourism and agriculture. Industrial plants are situated for the most part in the northern regions of the republic. Important industrial cities include Dzhankoy, housing a major railway connection, and Krasnoperekopsk, among others.

The most important industries in Crimea include, food production, chemical fields, mechanical engineering and metal working, and fuel production industries.^[18] Sixty percent of the industry market belongs to food production. There are a total of 291 large industrial enterprises and 1002 small business enterprises.^[18]

The main branches of vegetation production in the region include cereals, vegetable-growing, gardening, and wine-making, particularly in the Yalta and Massandra regions. Other agricultural forms include cattle breeding, poultry keeping, and sheep breeding.^[18] Other products produced on the Crimea Peninsula include salt, porphyry, limestone, and ironstone (found around Kerch).^[22]

[edit] Transport

Almost every settlement in Crimea is connected with another settlement with bus lines. Crimea contains the longest (96 km or 59 mi) trolleybus route in the world, stretching from Simferopol to Yalta.^[23] The trolleybus line starts in near Simferopol's Railway Station through the mountains to Alushta and on to Yalta.

The Škoda 9Tr no. 5451 trolleybus on the Crimean Trolleybus line.

The cities of Yalta, Feodosiya, Kerch, Sevastopol, Chornomorske, and Eupatoria are connected to one another by sea routes. In the cities of Eupatoria and nearby townlet Molochne are tram systems. Railroad lines running through Crimea include Armyansk—Kerch (with a link to Feodosiya), and Melitopol—Sevastopol (with a link to Eupatoria), connecting Crimea to the Ukrainian mainland.

[edit] Demographics

As of 2005, the total population of Crimea is 1,994,300.

According to 2001 Ukrainian Census, the population of Crimea was 2,033,700.^[24] The nationality structure was comprised the following self-reported ethnic groups: Russians – 58.32%, Ukrainians – 24.32%, Crimean Tatars – 12.1%, Belarusians - 1.44%, Tatars – 0.54%, Armenians – 0.43%, and Jews – 0.22%.^[25]

Other minorities are Black Sea Germans, Roma people, Bulgarians, Poles, Azerbaijanis, Koreans and Greeks.

Even though the Ukrainian language is the single official state language countrywide, and is therefore the sole language of government elsewhere in Ukraine, this does not apply in Crimea, where government business is still carried out in Russian. Limited attempts to expand the usage of Ukrainian in education and government affairs have so far been less successful in Crimea than in other largely Russophone areas of the nation. ^[26] Another language widely spoken is Crimean Tatar. According to the census mentioned, 77% of Crimean inhabitants named Russian as their mother tongue, 11.4% – Crimean Tatar, and 10.1% – Ukrainian.^[27]

[edit] See also

• Black Sea Fleet
• Artek

[edit] Trivia

• Crimea is also the name of a fictional country in the video game series Fire Emblem.
• P. D. Q. Bach (Peter Schickele) wrote a piece of "music" titled "Crimea River" (Cry me a river) about an alleged river in Crimea.
• The municipality of Voorschoten, The Netherlands has named one of their neighborhoods “De Krimwijk” after Crimea.

[edit] Footnotes and references

[edit] External links

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Crimea Portal

Geographic locale

Subdivisions of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, Ukraine Raions: Bakhchisaray raion | Bilohirsk raion | Chornomorske raion | Dzhankoy raion | Kirovske raion | Krasnohvardiyske raion | Krasnoperekopsk raion | Lenine raion | Nizhnyohirskyi raion | Pervomayske raion | Rozdolne raion | Saky raion | Simferopol raion | Sovetskyi raion City Municipalities: Alushta municipality | Armyansk municipality | Dzhankoy municipality | Eupatoria municipality | Feodosiya municipality | Kerch municipality | Krasnoperekopsk municipality | Saky municipality | Simferopol municipality | Sudak municipality | Yalta municipality Cities and towns: Alupka | Alushta | Armyansk | Balaklava | Bakhchisaray | Bilohirsk | Chornomorske | Gaspra | Gurzuf | Dzhankoy | Eupatoria | Feodosiya | Foros | Inkerman | Kacha | Kerch | Koktebel | Koreiz | Kirovske | Krasnohvardiyske | Krasnoperekopsk | Lenine | Livadiya | Massandra | Nizhnyohirskyi | Nikita | Novyi Svet | Partenit | Pervomayske | Perekop | Rozdolne | Saky | Scholkine | Simeiz | Simferopol | Sovetskyi | Staryi Krym | Sudak | Yalta Ukraine Administrative divisions of Ukraine: Cherkasy Oblast | Chernihiv Oblast | Chernivtsi Oblast | Autonomous Republic of Crimea | Dnipropetrovsk Oblast | Donetsk Oblast | Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast | Kharkiv Oblast | Kherson Oblast | Khmelnytskyi Oblast | Kiev City | Kiev Oblast | Kirovohrad Oblast | Luhansk Oblast | Lviv Oblast | Mykolaiv Oblast | Odessa Oblast | Poltava Oblast | Rivne Oblast | Sevastopol City | Sumy Oblast | Ternopil Oblast | Vinnytsia Oblast | Volyn Oblast | Zakarpattia Oblast | Zaporizhia Oblast | Zhytomyr Oblast Administrative centers of subdivision units: Cherkasy | Chernihiv | Chernivtsi | Dnipropetrovsk | Donetsk | Ivano-Frankivsk | Kharkiv | Kherson | Khmelnytskyi | Kiev | Kirovohrad | Luhansk | Lutsk | Lviv | Mykolaiv | Odessa | Poltava | Rivne | Sevastopol | Simferopol | Sumy | Ternopil | Uzhhorod | Vinnytsia | Zaporizhia | Zhytomyr