Crimean Roma

The Crimean Roma (also known as Crimean gypsies, Tatar gypsies, Ayuji (Crimean Tatar for 'bear cub'), Krymy, or Çingene) are a sub-ethnic group of the Muslim Roma. Currently, they live in many countries of the former Soviet Union, including Russia. They speak the Crimean Tatar language and their own Crimean Romani dialect. Crimean Roma traditionally practice Islam. Gypsies arrived on the territory of Crimea with the Golden Horde. In the Crimean Khanate, the Roma, like people of other nations, were not harassed; the authorities did not persecute them and they were not treated with contempt. In Crimea, they led a sedentary and semi-sedentary lifestyle, engage in productive labor and music. In the 18th century, Islam became the traditional religion of the Crimean gypsies. Roma researcher Nikolai Stieber wrote in his essay on Roma in Crimea: Crimean Roma lived in Crimea and in the Kuban steppe, which was part of the Crimean Khanate. The Crimean Roma were the first Roma to appear in the Kuban steppe. Today, the descendants of the first Roma who settled in the Kuban do not call themselves Crimean gypsies, but Kuban gypsies, while they retain the Crimean dialect of the Romani language and follow Islam and boys are circumcised. From 1854 to 1862, Tatar Roma together with the Crimean Tatars were expelled to the Ottoman Empire. Most settled in Northern Bulgaria, especially in Dobruja, near the Danube, and in the Vidin region. Crimean Tatar intervention saved the lives of Crimean Muslim gypsies from the Nazis, but in 1944, the Crimean Roma, as well as the Crimean Tatars, were deported to Central Asia, due to the fact that most of the Crimean Roma were registered as Crimean Tatars in their Soviet passports. In 1948–1949, the Crimean Roma began to return to Crimea. Currently, the majority of Crimean Roma live outside of Crimea in Krasnodar Krai, Russia. There are also families living in Ukraine, namely in Kyiv, Zhytomyr, Vinnytsia, and Kherson. According to the 2014 Crimean census, the Roma were the youngest ethnic group in Crimea with an average age of 28.