Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: qırımtatarlar or qırım, qırımlı, Turkish: Kırım Tatarlar or Kırım, Kırımlı, Russian: крымские татары, Ukrainian: кримськi татари, кримці) are a Turkic ethnic group that formed in the Crimean Peninsula in the 13th–17th centuries, primarily from the Turkic tribes that moved to the land that is now known as Crimea in Eastern Europe from the Asian steppes beginning in the 10th century, with contributions from the pre-Cuman population of Crimea. Crimean Tatars constituted the majority of Crimea's population from the time of its ethnogenesis until mid–19th century, and the relative largest ethnic population until the end of 19th century. Almost immediately after the liberation of Crimea, in May 1944, the USSR State Defense Committee ordered the removal of all of th