Tatarların üç alt grubu bulunmaktadır: Step Tatarları, Tepe Tatarları ve Güney Körfez tatarları. Kırım Tatarları sünni müslümandırlar. Tatarca, Altay dil grubunun Türkçe ailesinin Kıpçak dalındandır. Rusya'nın Krasnodar ve Stavropol kraylarında da tatar nüfusu bulunmaktadır. Diasporası ise, Ukrayna (kırım), Özbekistan (özellikle Fergana ve Taşkent) ve Kazakistan'dır.

History:
The Crimean Tatars first emerged as a self-conscious ethnic group in the 13th and 14th c. An independent Crimean Khanate was established at the end of the 14th c., and attracted substantial Tatar immigration.
An alliance between the Crimean Khanate and major Crimean Tatar clans provided the unity that was necessary to retain considerable independence also after the Ottomans seized Constantinople in 1453, and proclaimed sovereignty over the Crimea. The Crimean Khanate became a buffer state between the Ottomans in the south and Muscovy and Poland-Lithuania in the north, and enjoyed financial stability through support grants from the Ottomans (in return for military service) and tribute payments from Muscovy and Poland.
The gradual decline of the Ottoman empire from the 17th c. gave Russia an opening to Crimea. Peter the Great captured Azov in 1680 and Russia thus gained access to the Black Sea. Russian invasions continued, and in 1783, under Catherine II, Russia conquered the Crimean Tatars and annexed the Crimea.
A russification process followed, in which Tatar emigration to Turkey was encouraged, and Russian Slavs were invited to settle on the Crimea. Tatar architecture was destroyed, and heavy taxes were collected. Tens of thousands Crimean Tatars left for Turkey, especially in the wake of the Crimean war in the 1850s and the Russian-Ottoman war of 1879.
Late in the 19th c., a Crimean Tatar national awakening began to take place. An educated Tatar intelligentsia became the basis of Tatar nationalist groups, some of which demanded Crimean independence.
During World War I, the Russians feared that ties to the Ottomans might make the Crimean Tatars a fifth column, and conflicts arose between the two groups. In 1917, the Tatar National Constituent Assembly, the Kurultay, convened and called for Crimean independence.
The imposition of Communist rule after the Bolshevik revolution was seen as just another form of Slavic oppression, and guerrilla groups appeared, fighting Soviet authorities. In 1921, an accomodation was made with the Tatar nationalists, and the Crimean ASSR was created, with some rather illusory autonomy.
During the famine in the wake of the Civil War, Crimean foodstuffs were shipped to "more important" central regions of the Soviet union, and more than 100.000 Crimean Tatars starved to death. During the collectivisation campaigns of 1928-29, thousands were deporte or slaughtered. Many killed their herds rather than turning them over to the collectives, and this exacerbated the famine of 1931-33, which plagued much of Russia as a result of collectivisation. Later in the 1930s, Crimean Tatar leaders fell victim to the "Great Purges", and heavy restrictions were imposed on Tatar culture.
But things would only get worse. In World War II, the Nazi Germans occupied Crimea and organised Tatars into military bands that fought against Soviet partisans. Other Tatars fought against the Nazis. When the Red Army re-occupied the Crimea in 1944, the Crimean Tatars were labeled as collaborators and deported, mainly to Uzbekistan. The Crimean ASSR was abolished in 1945. In 1954, Crimea became part of the Ukrainian SSR.
Under Khrushchov, Tatar organisations began to re-appear, but the Crimean Tatars were not officially rehabilitated until 1967. They were not permitted to return to the Crimea, however. But in spite of that, several hundred families managed to return in the early 1970s.
Gorbachov's Glasnost opened the debate dramatically. Tatar nationalists could speak more openly, more and more families managed to make it back to Crimea, and by the end of th 1980s, over 15000 Crimean Tatars had returned.
The disintegration of the Soviet Union in 1991 was a setback for Crimean Tatar repatriation. Ukraine became independent, and saw it as next to impossible to take care of the nearly 400.000 Crimean Tatars that wanted to return, when Crimea already had 250.000 families without permanent housing.
Limited repatriation began, however, creating tensions between the Crimean Tatars and the Russians and Ukrainians that have settled on their former land. By 1993, 270,000 people had returned, according to official figures.

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