By Mara Moldavan (CS Intern)
For centuries, the Crimean Tatars have lived on the Black Sea peninsula of Crimea, where their language, traditions, and history are closely tied to the land.
But since Russia’s annexation of Crimea in 2014, many Crimean Tatars have been forced into exile or now live under occupation. Their situation raises a question that Europe still struggles to answer: what does it mean for an Indigenous People to defend identity, continuity, and political belonging when access to their homeland is disrupted by occupation and war?