Yalıboylu

The Yalıboylu (Crimean Tatar: sg. Yalıboylu, pl. Yalıboylular) are an ethnic group of Crimean Tatars who have traditionally lived along the southern shore (Yalı boyu) of the Crimean Peninsula, hence their name: Yalıboylu means "coastal dwellers" in the Crimean Tatar language. They lost their traditional settlements during Joseph Stalin's ethnic cleansing of Crimea in 1944 (see Deportation of Crimean Tatars). The Yalıboylu dialect belongs to Oghuz languages and is very close to the Turkish language. According to the Soviet anthropologist of the early 20th century, Boris Kuftin, who spoke "almost pure southern-Turkish", Yaliboyu Tatars are Mediterranean Caucasoids that have immigrated from Ancient Anatolia of Pontus Kingdom in 10th century B.C. Yaliboyu are descendants of Pontic Greeks. They were Christians until the 14th century A.D., then converted to Sunni Muslims by Noghai Khans.