This work is an analysis of the latest theories in Russia, the USA, Turkey and Western Europe on such topics as the ancient ethnic origins of the Crimean Tatars (in the Mongol and Ottoman periods and earlier Gothic and Kipchak eras); the nature of the Crimean Tatar Khanate (from 1475-1783); colonial rule (by Imperial Russia); displacement and migration (predominantly in the aftermath of the 19th c