On March 18, 2014, Russian President Valdimir Putin announced the annexation of Crimea, two days after voters in this semi-autonomous territory approved a referendum on separation from Ukraine. Crimea is an eastern Ukrainian peninsula located on the Black Sea. It is connected to the rest of Ukraine by a small strip of land. “Ukraine screams 'robbery' while Russians and Russian citizens of Crimea feel that Crimea is 'coming home',” (Hodgman, 03/28/2014). Cremia was absorbed into the Russian Empire along with most of the ethnic Ukrainian territory by Catherine the Great in the 18th century. In 1921 the peninsula became part of the Soviet Union. Crimea only became part of Ukraine when Soviet leader Njkita Khruschchev ceded the peninsula to his native country in 1954. However, in 1991, the Soviet Union broke up and Crimea ended up in independent Ukraine. Sixty percent of Crimea's two million inhabitants identify as Russian. Today the population of Crimea is divided on the issue of annexation to Russia. Geographically, Crimea is an extension of Ukraine; however, demographically and politically, it had become Russian. Ethnic Russians in Crimea support annexation while Crimean Tatars, originally a Mongol-led ethnic group that also claims Crimea as their homeland, and Ukrainians express pro-Ukrainian sentiments. To understand the division of feelings in Crimea, it is necessary to understand the intertwined history and culture of Russia, Crimea and Ukraine. Culture is a very complex idea with no concrete basis and is commonly understood as the set of religious, linguistic and ideological processes shared by a set of people. While it may seem easy to represent different cultures in everyday life, this is simply not the... center of paper ...... in the Black Sea peninsula. “Some Crimean Tatars have denounced the proposed autonomy as a betrayal of Ukraine. Others insisted that this prevented another mass exodus and said that safeguarding their right to live on the land they call home was a priority” (Higgins, 02/04/2014). Although the minority makes up less than 15% of Crimea's population, it has overwhelmingly opposed Russia's annexation of the peninsula. Russia claims that Crimea is an inalienable part of Russia; However, Russia's legacy of control remains for many Tatars a bitter story of trampled cultural beliefs and language, deportation, and general lack of recognition of the territorial rights of the Crimean Tatars. Russia's unjustifiable annexation of Crimea is paved by its cultural identity, racism and sense of place. Crimean Tatars should not be forgotten or overlooked during the current crisis.