Crimea

The name of Crimea comes from the city of Qirim, which was the capital of the Golden Horde province of the Mongol Empire in the 13th century.

The ancient Greeks called Crimea ‘Tauris’, after a legend that Heracles ploughed the area with a huge ox (Taurus was Latin for ‘bull’).

In the middle ages, Crimea was dominated by Tartar tribes from western Asia.

Crimea became an independent state in 1441 under Haci Giray, a descendant of Genghis Khan.

Until the 18th century, Crimea was a centre for the slave trade to the Ottoman Empire.  Crimean Tatar raids into Russia and Ukraine are thought to have brought two million into slavery.

In 1921, Crimea became an autonomous (self-governing) republic of the Soviet Union.

At the start of the Second World War, Crimea sided with Nazi Germany. As punishment, Stalin forcibly exiled all Crimean Tatars to central Asia.

Crimea was transferred from the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic (RSFSR) to the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic (Ukrainian SSR) in 1954, during the Soviet era. This transfer of Crimea was not a change in national sovereignty, as both Russia and Ukraine were constituent republics of the Soviet Union at the time.

The transfer of Crimea to the Ukrainian SSR was an administrative decision made by the Soviet leadership led by Nikita Khrushchev, who was himself a native of Ukraine. Khrushchev reportedly believed that the transfer would strengthen the bonds between Ukraine and Russia, as well as help promote the development of Crimea as a popular tourist destination.

After the dissolution of the Soviet Union in 1991, Ukraine became an independent country, and Crimea remained part of Ukraine.

The Flag of Crimea (used by both Ukraine as the flag of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea. It was readopted on June 4, 2014 as the flag of the Republic of Crimea, annexed by the Russian Federation.

On March 16, 2014, the Autonomous Republic of Crimea held a referendum on whether to join the Russian Federation. The referendum was held in the aftermath of the Ukrainian Revolution and the subsequent ousting of Ukrainian President Viktor Yanukovych.

The referendum was controversial, as it was held under Russian military occupation and without the consent of the Ukrainian government. Despite this, the referendum was carried out and the results showed that an overwhelming majority of Crimean voters chose to join Russia as a federal subject.

The referendum and subsequent annexation of Crimea by Russia were widely condemned by the international community. The United Nations General Assembly passed a resolution declaring the referendum invalid and affirming Ukraine's territorial integrity. The United States and European Union also imposed economic sanctions on Russia in response to the annexation.

77 per cent of Crimeans still have Russian as their first language.

Source Daily Express