Crimean People's Republic

Crimean People's Republic Qırım Halq Cumhuriyeti
← 1917–1918 →
Flag
Anthem Ant etkenmen  (Crimean Tatar) I've pledged (translation)
Capital	Bakhchisaray
Language(s)	Crimean Tatar, Russian
Religion	Sunni Islam
Government	Republic
President
- 1917-1918	Noman Çelebicihan
Legislature	Qurultay
History
- Proclaimed	December 13, 1917 1917
- Soviet take over	January 1918
- Crimean Offensive	April 13–25, 1918 1918
Area
- 1917	26,860 km2 (10,371 sq mi)
Population
- 1917 est.	749,800
Density	27.9 /km2  (72.3 /sq mi)

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Khanate (1441–1783) Taurida Oblast (1783–1796) Taurida Governorate (1802–1917) People's Republic (1917–1918) Crimean ASSR (1921–1945) Sürgün (1944) Crimean Oblast (1945–1991) Autonomous Republic (since 1992)
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The Crimean People's Republic (Crimean Tatar: Qırım Halq Cumhuriyeti) existed during December, 1917, and January, 1918, in the Crimean peninsula, located in the south of the present-day Ukraine. The Republic was the first attempt in the Muslim world to establish a state that was both democratic and secular (see also Azerbaijan Democratic Republic). In its founding, the Crimean People's Republic was one of many short-lived attempts to create new states after the Russian Revolution of 1917 had caused the Russian Empire to collapse.

The Crimean People's Republic was declared by the initiative of the Qurultay of Crimean Tatars, which stipulated the equality of all ethnicities within the peninsula; most people living in the Crimea at the time were Russian (then comprising 42% of the population of the Crimea), Ukrainian (11%),^[1] Armenians, or Greeks, not Tatar. Despite being outnumbered by the other populations, the Crimean Tatars were for a while the dominant political and cultural force on the peninsula as a result of Tatarization. Noman Çelebicihan was the first President of the nascent Republic.

The Qurultay in opposition to the Bolsheviks published a "Crimean Tatar Basic Law," which convened an All-Crimean Constitutional Assembly, established a Board of Directors as a provisional government, and erected a Council of National Representatives as a provisional parliament.^[2]

This attempt to build a new nation was quickly defeated by the Bolshevik- and anarchist-dominated Black Sea Fleet.^[2] The Bolsheviks briefly established the Taurida Soviet Socialist Republic on Crimean territory in early 1918 before the area was overrun by forces of the Ukrainian People's Republic and the German Empire. In 1921, Crimean Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic was set up as part of the Russian Soviet Federative Socialist Republic in the Soviet Union.

See also

• Russian Civil War
• Post-Russian Empire states

References

1. ^ Magocsi, Paul Robert (2007). Ukraine: An Illustrated History. Seattle: University of Washington Press. p. 238. ISBN 0295987235. 
2. ^ ^{a b} Garchev, Petr. "KURULTAY AND CENTRAL COUNCIL". Center of Information and Documentation of Crimean Tatars. http://www.cidct.org.ua/en/studii/2(2000)/6.html. Retrieved 2008-06-10.