Editing Tatars (section)

====Crimean Tatars in Dobruja====
{{further|Tatars of Romania|Crimean Tatars in Bulgaria}}
Some Crimean Tatars have lived in the territory of today's [[Romania]] and [[Bulgaria]] since the 13th century. In Romania, according to the 2002 census, 24,000 people declared their ethnicity as Tatar, most of them being Crimean Tatars living in [[Constanța County]] in the region of Dobruja. Most of the Crimean Tatars, living in Romania and Bulgaria nowadays, left the Crimean peninsula for Dobruja after the [[annexation of Crimea by the Russian Empire]].

Dobrujan Tatars have been present in Romania since the 13th century.<ref>Klaus Roth, Asker Kartarı, (2017), ''Cultures of Crisis in Southeast Europe: Part 2: Crises Related to Natural Disasters, to Spaces and Places, and to Identities (19) (Ethnologia Balkanica)'', p. 223</ref> The Tatars first reached the mouths of the [[Danube]] in the mid-13th century at the height of the power of the [[Golden Horde]]. In the 14th and 15th centuries the [[Ottoman Empire]] colonized [[Dobruja]] with [[Nogais]] from [[Budjak]]. Between 1593 and 1595 Tatars from Nogai and Budjak were also settled to Dobruja. Toward the end of the 16th century, about 30,000 Nogai Tatars from the Budjak were brought to [[Dobruja]].<ref name= Stan>Robert Stănciugel and Liliana Monica Bălaşa, ''Dobrogea în Secolele VII–XIX. Evoluţie istorică'', Bucharest, 2005, p.147</ref> After the [[Russo-Turkish War, 1768–1774|Russian annexation of Crimea]] in 1783 [[Crimean Tatars]] began emigrating to the Ottoman coastal provinces of Dobruja (today divided between Romania and Bulgaria). Once in Dobruja most settled in the areas surrounding [[Medgidia|Mecidiye]], [[Babadag]], [[Constanţa|Köstence]], [[Tulcea|Tulça]], [[Silistra|Silistre]], [[Beștepe, Tulcea|Beştepe]], or [[Varna, Bulgaria|Varna]] and went on to create villages named in honor of their abandoned homeland such as Şirin, Yayla, Akmecit, Yalta, Kefe or Beybucak. Tatars together with Albanians served as [[Bashi-bazouk|gendarmes]], who were held in high esteem by the Ottomans and received special tax privileges. The Ottomans additionally accorded a certain degree of autonomy for the Tatars who were allowed governance by their own [[kaymakam]], Khan Mirza. The [[Giray dynasty]] (1427–1878) multiplied in Dobruja and maintained their respected position. A Dobrujan Tatar, Kara Hussein, was responsible for the destruction of the [[Janissary corps]] on orders from Sultan Mahmut II.