Mustafa Edige Kirimal | |
|---|---|
Mustafa Edige Qırımal | |
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| Personal details | |
| Born | 1911 Bakhchysarai,Russian Empire (nowUkraine) |
| Died | June 22, 1980(1980-06-22) (aged 68–69) Munich,Germany |
| Resting place | Zincirli Madrasa |
| Nationality | Lipka-Tatar |
Mustafa Edige Kirimal (birth nameEdige Szynkiewicz; 1911 inBakhchysarai – 22 April 1980 inMunich) was aCrimean-bornLipka-Tatar politician.
Kirimal is best known for his meticulous research and publications on the history ofCrimean Tatars in the first half of the 20th century. He served as the editor of Dergi, one of the publications of the Institute for the Study of theUSSR inMunich, and was among the first scholars to explore the fate of ethnic minorities living in theSoviet Union.
Edige's father Mustafa Shinkievich, who was descended from aLipka Tatar family, had moved toCrimea beforeWorld War I. He was a descendant of soldiers under the command of theGolden Horde Khan Toktamish who had fled toLithuania in the late 14th century.[1]
Born inBahçesaray in 1911, Edige received his early education in Dereköy, nearYalta and graduated from the Russian gymnasium in Yalta.[2] He enrolled in the Institute of Pedagogy inSimferopol, now theCrimea State Medical University, but his involvement inCrimean Tatar nationalist activities made it impossible for him to remain in Crimea.
The Soviet repression, marked by the arrest, execution and deportation of thousands of Tatars, forced Edige to flee toAzerbaijan and then toIran. He arrived inIstanbul in 1932. Two years later, he joined his uncle Yakup Shinkievich, who was serving inVilnius, a city then underPolish rule. Edige graduated from the University of Vilnius with a degree inpolitical science in 1939. Following the invasion of Poland by German forces in September 1939, he left forBerlin and then for Istanbul. During the German occupation of Ukraine and Crimea (1941–44), Kirimal was active in Germany, trying to secure rights and protection for the Crimean Tatars, and later helped refugees from Crimea settle in German camps.Gerhard von Mende gave him the title "President of the Crimean Tatar National Central Committee".
AfterWorld War II ended, Kirimal pursued his graduate studies and received his doctorate degree from theUniversity of Münster in Germany. His often quoted monograph, 'Der Nationale Kampf der Krim-türken - The National Struggle of the Crimean Tatars' (Emsdetten/Westfalen, 1952), was based on hisdissertation. He joined the staff of the newly founded Institute for the Study of the USSR (Institut zur Erforschung de UdSSR) in Munich in 1954 and became the editor of "Dergi", the Institute's publication inTurkish. Kirimal published numerous articles on the history of Crimean Tatars under Russian and Soviet rule.
He was fluent in Turkish,Polish andGerman. He retired in 1972 when the Institute closed, and died in 1980 in Munich, where he was living in exile. His body was transported from Munich toSimferopol via Istanbul in 2007, 27 years later.[3][4]
