The Republic of Crimea (/kraɪˈmiːə/ or /krᵻˈmiːə/; Russian: Республика Крым, tr. Respublika Krym; IPA: [rʲɪsˈpublʲɪkə krɨm]; Crimean Tatar: Къырым Джумхуриети, Qırım Cumhuriyeti; Ukrainian: Республіка Крим, Respublika Krym) is a federal subject of Russia that is located on the Crimean Peninsula. Population: 1,891,465 (2014 Census).

In March 2014, following the takeover of Crimea by pro-Russian separatists and Russian Armed Forces, a controversial referendum was held on the issue of reunification with Russia; the official result was that a large majority wished to join with Russia. Russia then annexed the Republic of Crimea and Sevastopol as federal subjects of Russia.

While Russia and six other UN member states recognize Crimea as part of the Russian Federation, Ukraine continues to claim Crimea as an integral part of its territory as the Autonomous Republic of Crimea, supported by most foreign governments and United Nations General Assembly Resolution 68/262.

History

Background

The internationally recognised Ukrainian territory of Crimea was annexed by the Russian Federation on 18 March 2014. From the time of the annexation, Russia has de facto administered the peninsula as two federal subjects—the Republic of Crimea and the city of Sevastopol—within the Crimean Federal District. The military intervention and annexation by Russia took place in the aftermath of the Ukrainian Revolution and was part of wider unrest across southern and eastern Ukraine. On 22–23 February, Russian President Vladimir Putin convened an all-night meeting with security services chiefs to discuss extrication of the deposed Ukrainian president, Viktor Yanukovych, and at the end of that meeting Putin had remarked that "we must start working on returning Crimea to Russia." On 23 February pro-Russian demonstrations were held in the Crimean city of Sevastopol. On 27 February masked Russian troops without insignias took over the Supreme Council of Crimea, and captured strategic sites across Crimea, which led to the installation of the pro-Russian Aksyonov government in Crimea, the holding of a disputed, unconstitutional referendum and the declaration of Crimea's independence.

Republic of Crimea may refer to:

A declaration of independence or declaration of statehood is an assertion by a defined territory that it is independent and constitutes a state. Such places are usually declared from part or all of the territory of another nation or failed nation, or are breakaway territories from within the larger state. In 2010, the UN's International Court of Justice ruled in an advisory opinion in Kosovo that "International law contains no prohibition on declarations of independence", though the state from which the territory wishes to secede may regard the declaration as rebellion, which may lead to a war of independence or a constitutional settlement to resolve the crisis. Not all declarations of independence succeed in the formation of an independent state.

List of declarations of independence

See also

References

The Israeli Declaration of Independence (Hebrew: הכרזת העצמאות‎, Hakhrazat HaAtzma'ut or Hebrew: מגילת העצמאות‎ Megilat HaAtzma'ut), formally the Declaration of the Establishment of the State of Israel, was proclaimed on 14 May 1948 (5 Iyar 5708) by David Ben-Gurion, the Executive Head of the World Zionist Organization and the chairman of the Jewish Agency for Palestine. It declared the establishment of a Jewish state in Eretz-Israel, to be known as the State of Israel, which would come into effect on termination of the British Mandate at midnight that day. The event is celebrated annually in Israel with a national holiday Yom Ha'atzmaut (Hebrew: יום העצמאות‎, lit. Independence Day) on 5 Iyar of every year according to the Hebrew calendar.

Background

The possibility of a Jewish homeland in Palestine had been a goal of Zionist organizations since the late 19th century. The British Foreign Secretary stated in the Balfour Declaration of 1917:

After World War I, the United Kingdom was given a mandate for Palestine, which it had conquered from the Ottomans during the war. In 1937 the Peel Commission suggested partitioning Mandate Palestine into an Arab state and a Jewish state, though the proposal was rejected as unworkable by the government and was at least partially to blame for the renewal of the 1936–39 Arab revolt.

The Declaration of Independence is the statement adopted by the Continental Congress meeting at Philadelphia, Pennsylvania on July 4, 1776, which announced that the thirteen American colonies, then at war with Great Britain, regarded themselves as thirteen newly independent sovereign states, and no longer a part of the British Empire. Instead they formed a new nation—the United States of America. John Adams was a leader in pushing for independence, which was unanimously approved on July 2. A committee of five had already drafted the formal declaration, to be ready when Congress voted on independence. The term "Declaration of Independence" is not used in the document itself.

Adams persuaded the committee to select Thomas Jefferson to compose the original draft of the document, which Congress would edit to produce the final version. The Declaration was ultimately a formal explanation of why Congress had voted on July 2 to declare independence from Great Britain, more than a year after the outbreak of the American Revolutionary War. The national birthday, Independence Day, is celebrated on July 4, although Adams wanted July 2.

The Declaration of independence of the Republic of Crimea was a joint resolution adopted on March 11, 2014 by the Supreme Council of Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council where they expressed their intention to self-declare themselves independent in the event of a Yes vote in a referendum to join the region to Russia, that was to be held on March 16 . The participants were at the time subnational divisions of Ukraine but expected to reunify as the Republic of Crimea and then declare their independence as a single and united sovereign state apart from Ukraine, should voters have approved joining Russia in the referendum The document explicitly cited the unilateral declaration of independence by Kosovo and the ICJ opinion on that case as a precedent for the action.

Translated copy

The document reads as follows:

We, the members of the parliament of the Autonomous Republic of Crimea and the Sevastopol City Council, with regard to the charter of the United Nations and a whole range of other international documents and taking into consideration the confirmation of the status of Kosovo by the United Nations International Court of Justice on July 22, 2010, which says that unilateral declaration of independence by a part of the country does not violate any international norms, make this decision jointly: