Crimean Tatars (Crimean Tatar: qırımtatarlar, къырымтатарлар) or Crimeans (Crimean Tatar: qırımlar, къырымлар), are an East European Turkic ethnic group and nation, who are an indigenous people of Crimea. The formation and ethnogenesis of Crimean Tatars occurred during the 13th–17th centuries, from Cumans that appeared in Crimea in the 10th century, with strong contributions from all the peoples who ever inhabited Crimea, including Greeks, Italians and Goths.Crimean Tatars constituted the majority of Crimeas population from the time of ethnogenesis until the mid-19th century, and the largest ethnic population until the end of the 19th century. Almost immediately after the retaking of Crimea from Axis forces, in May 1944, the USSR State Defense Committee ordered the deportation of all of the Crimean Tatars from Crimea, including the families of Crimean Tatars serving in the Soviet Army. The deportees were transported in trains and boxcars to Central Asia, primarily to Uzbekistan. The Crimean Tatars lost 18 to 46 percent of their population as a result of the deportation, according to various estimates. Starting in 1967, some were allowed to return and in 1989 the Supreme Soviet of the Soviet Union condemned the removal of Crimean Tatars from their motherland as inhumane and lawless.The European Union as well as international indigenous groups do not dispute their status as an indigenous people and they have been officially recognized as an indigenous people of Ukraine as of 2014. The current Russian government considers them to be a national minority, but not an indigenous people, and continues to deny them as a titular people of Crimea, despite the Soviet Union considering them indigenous before their deportation and subsequent dissolution of the Crimean ASSR. Today, Crimean Tatars constitute approximately 15% of the population of Crimea. There remains a large diaspora in Turkey and Uzbekistan.The Crimean Tatars have been members of the Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization (UNPO) since 1991