The Crimean Tatars are Turkic people who inhabited the Crimean peninsula, now a part of Ukraine, for over seven centuries. They established their own Khanate in the 1440s and remained an important power in Eastern Europe until 1783, when Crimea was annexed to Russia. During World War II, the entire Tatar population in Crimea fell victims to Stalin's oppressive policies. In 1944 they were unjustly accused of being Nazi collaborators and deported en masse to Central Asia and other lands of the Soviet Union. Many died of disease and malnutrition. Although a 1967 Soviet decree removed the charges against Crimean Tatars, the Soviet government did nothing to facilitate their resettlement in Crimea and to make reparations for lost lives and confiscated property. Today more than 250,000 Crimean Tatars are back in their homeland, struggling to reestablish their lives and reclaim their national and cultural rights against many social and economic obstacles.

The Crimean Khanate has its roots in the dissolution of the Golden Horde, one of the successor empires to the great Mongol empire created by Genghis Khan. Over the years, the Golden Horde had become a mix of Mongol and Turkic peoples and the formerly nomadic warriors had begun to create permanent settlements. In 1441, Haci I Giray declared independence from the Golden Horde and established the Crimean Khanate. The Khanate came under the protection of the Ottoman Empire, but remained a largely independent entity. Islam was the official religion, though other religions were tolerated and the Crimean Tatars lived peacefully with their close neighbors, the Karaim. From the 16th until the 18th century, the Crimean Khanate was one of the strongest powers in Eastern Europe. Much of their economy depended on supplying cavalry troops to the Ottoman Empire (and the booty carried home by returning troops) and raiding points north to kidnap ethnic Slavs and sell them into slavery. The Tatars regularly invaded all the way to Moscow and, in 1571, burned the city to the ground and enslaved 150,000 Russians. By some accounts, three million ethnic Ukrainians, Russians and other Slavic individuals were sold into slavery during the Crimean Khanate. Russia paid tribute to the Khanate until 1680. In the 18th century, however, as the Ottoman Empire began to decline and the Russian Empire became stronger, the Crimean Khanate was no longer able to exert the influence it once had. After the Russo-Turkish War of 1768-1774, Russia gained control of Crimea and formally annexed it in 1783.

The Crimean Tatars were persecuted under Russian rule and, during the 19th century, it is estimated that one million left Crimea for Turkey and other safer havens. In May 1944, more than 190,000 Tatars were rounded up over a period of three days and deported to central Asia, primarily to the Uzbek SSR (what is now Uzbekistan). Stalin had accused the Tatars of collaborating with the Nazis, who had occupied Crimea from 1941 to 1944. While some certainly had – indeed there was an official Nazi "Tatar Legion" – many others had fought with the Red Army. Nevertheless, all were rounded up and deported. Many died along the way or in the deplorable conditions they found in the Uzbek SSR. Although the charges against the Tatars were formally lifted by the Soviet government in 1967, no efforts were made to allow them to return. Not until after Ukrainian independence in 1991 were large numbers (some 250,000) of Tatars able to return to their homeland in Crimea.