[gdy]

Crimea is a special case: it used to be Russian but was reassigned to the Ukraine at the time when they both were part of the USSR. It wasn't a big deal until the USSR dissolved and suddenly Crimean residents turned out to be in a foreign country.

[geoka9]

It had been Turkish before it was Russian. Should we go on? Besides, the indigenous population (Crimean Tatars) and the Ukrainians in Crimea never thought of Ukraine as a foreign country.

[gdy]

Let's not confuse events of the 18th century and the modern history.

Crimea was called Crimean Khanate at that time and the backbone of its economy was the slave trade. As a major slave trade hub it has seen many hundreds of thousands of Russians and Ukrainians captured by Crimean Tatars and sold to Turkey until Catherine the Great's counter-terrorist operation finally put an end to it in 1783 :)

This dramatic history rooted in inability of the Crimean Khanate peacefully coexist with Russia can hardly be compared with a single action of a Soviet bureaucrat in Moscow in 1954.

And you are misinformed, Crimeans Tatars are not the indigenous population, they are a remnant of the Golden Horde.

[geoka9]

> Let's not confuse events of 18th century and the modern history.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Deportation_of_the_Crimean_Tat...

[gdy]

Are you and 'tomohawk' the same person? Otherwise I don't see a reason why you have brought up 'ethnic cleansing' in this thread.

Nonetheless, the deportation of Crimean Tatars by Stalin in 1944 is a crime and has been repeatedly recognized as such by the modern Russia.

"Most of the Russian population in Crimea are second/third generation settlers"

Even the biased Wikipedia article you linked to doesn't support that.

Edit: please don't edit your comments after they have a reply. Thank you.

[geoka9]

Yes, I was off with the numbers, so I had deleted my comment just before you replied to it. But the point is still valid: the current ethnic composition of Crimea was greatly affected by the deportation.

[geoka9]

> According to your own link Crimean Tatars constituted 20% of the population in 1939, nowadays the number 12-15%. I wouldn't call it 'greatly affected'.

Lots of people died as a result of the deportation. The uprooting inhibited the natural population growth over the years. Lots of Crimean Tatars now live outside of Crimea.

[gdy]

According to your own link Crimean Tatars constituted 20% of the population in 1939, nowadays the number 12-15%.

I wouldn't call it 'greatly affected'.