Crimea Tatar community votes to seek ethnic and territorial autonomy

[former9thward]

5. The Tatars were Europe's slave traders.

Karma has a way of coming back at you.

Until the beginning of the 18th century, Crimean Tatars were known for frequent, at some periods almost annual, devastating raids into Ukraine and Russia. For a long time, until the late 18th century, the Crimean Khanate maintained a massive slave trade with the Ottoman Empire and the Middle East which was the most important basis of its economy. One of the most important trading ports and slave markets was Kefe.[Slaves and freedmen formed approximately 75% of the Crimean population.
Some researchers estimate that altogether more than 2 million people, predominantly Ukrainians but also Russians, Belarusians and Poles, were captured and enslaved during the time of the Crimean Khanate in what was called "the harvest of the steppe".

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Crimean_Tatars