Crimean Tatar Qurultay (1917)
크림 타타르 쿠룰타이 (1917)
The first national congress of the Crimean Tatars, opened on 9 December 1917 in the Khan’s Palace at Bakhchysarai, and the parliament of the Crimean People’s Republic. Its 76 delegates (four of them women) from five districts set up a Directory as national government and approved the Crimean Tatar Basic Law proclaiming the republic, but the Bolsheviks dissolved it after taking Crimea at the end of January 1918. A congress of the same name was convened again in 1991 and continues today.
In depth
After the February Revolution an All-Crimean Muslim Congress in Simferopol on 25 March 1917 set up the Provisional Crimean Muslim Executive Committee (Musispolkom) with Noman Çelebicihan as chairman. A meeting of Crimean Tatar organisations called by the committee on 1–2 October (Old Style) decided that the Qurultay should settle Crimea’s future, and its delegates were elected on 17 November (30 November New Style). On 20 November (Old Style) a Council of National Representatives was also chosen, boycotted by the Bolsheviks, in which Crimean Tatars and Ukrainians had three seats each and Russians two. The Qurultay opened on 26 November (9 December New Style) in the Khan’s Palace at Bakhchysarai. Its 76 delegates came from five districts — Yalta (24), Akmescit (19), Kefe (16), Kezlev (11) and Orkapy (6) — and four, among them Şefiqa Gaspıralı, were women. It was chaired by Asan Sabri Ayvazov, a journalist and educator long active in the Crimean independence movement. The Qurultay took over all the powers of the Muslim Executive Committee.
By 40 votes to 20 the Qurultay appointed a Directory of five directors: Çelebicihan as chairman and director of justice, Cafer Seydahmet for foreign and military affairs, Seyitcelil Hattat for finance and waqfs, Ahmet Şükrü for religion and Amet Özenbaşlı for education. On 13 December (26 December New Style) it approved the Crimean Tatar Basic Law and the founding of the Crimean People’s Republic and declared itself the republic’s parliament. According to the English-language source the Basic Law, in opposition to the Bolsheviks, convened an All-Crimean Constituent Assembly and made the Directory the provisional government and the Council of National Representatives the provisional parliament. On 10 January 1918, on Çelebicihan’s initiative, the Qurultay created a special commission to negotiate with the Bolsheviks and stop the fighting, but by the end of January the Bolsheviks held the whole of Crimea and dissolved both the Qurultay and the Council of National Representatives. A second Qurultay met only in 1991, two years after the mass return of the Crimean Tatars deported in 1944 had begun. Today’s Qurultay, whose delegates serve five-year terms, elects the Mejlis and is regarded in Ukraine as a public organisation of the Crimean Tatar national movement. In 2017 the National Bank of Ukraine issued a coin for the centenary of the 1917 Qurultay.