Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group and nation native to Crimea. The formation and ethnogenesis of Crimean Tatars occurred during the 13th–17th centuries, uniting Cumans, who appeared in Crimea in the 10th century, with other peoples who had inhabited Crimea since ancient times and gradually underwent Tatarization, including Ukrainian Greeks, Italians, Goths, Sarmatians and many others. Despite the popular misconception, Crimean Tatars are not a diaspora of or subgroup of the Tatars.
Crimean Tatars with their traditional clothes at the Hıdırlez festival.
Crimean Tatars and a mullah c. 1862
Steppe/Nogay Crimean Tatars
Mountain Tat and Yaliboylu Tat Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatar, also called Crimean, is a moribund Kipchak Turkic language spoken in Crimea and the Crimean Tatar diasporas of Uzbekistan, Turkey, Romania, and Bulgaria, as well as small communities in the United States and Canada. It should not be confused with Tatar, spoken in Tatarstan and adjacent regions in Russia; the two languages are related, but belong to different subgroups of the Kipchak languages, while maintaining a significant degree of mutual intelligibility. Crimean Tatar has been extensively influenced by nearby Oghuz dialects and is also mutually intelligible with them to varying degrees.
"Welcome to Crimea" (Qırımğa hoş keldiñiz!) written in Crimean Tatar Cyrillic, airport bus, Simferopol International Airport
Crimean Tatar Latin script on a plate in Bakhchysarai in 2009, along with Ukrainian
Crimean Tatar Latin script sign in Saky Raion in 2021, along with Russian and Ukrainian
An example of Crimean Tatar Arabic script