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.
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.
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.
> 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.
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.