2014 Russia-Ukraine crisis, regional importance of Crimea, current situation of Crimean people and Crimean Turks in the region

The conflict between Russia and Ukraine constitutes a new and quite hot issue on the international level. At least two causes of the conflict are taken into further consideration. On the one hand, it is a military occupation of Crimea and some other parts of Ukraine by Russia. On the other hand, these are continuous attempts of Ukraine and Georgia to become full-fledged members of the NATO and EU. Both affairs mentioned above put tremendous strains on the relations between two countries. This thesis is aimed to study in detail the process of the annexation of Crimea by the Russian Federation in 2014 by answering some vexed questions and to reveal its positive and negative results on the political, social and cultural level. This thesis study is written in order to find out how the destiny of Crimea dramatically changed in 2014. It is aimed to examine the actions taken against Ukraine during the Russian-Ukrainian conflict over Crimea and to observe the reaction of other countries to illegal actions taken for some private benefits and interests. While doing the research various social media sources, articles and visual aids were studied and examined. Moreover, I had an opportunity to interview the people more or less involved in the aforementioned event. They were asked to share their opinions and experiences. The thesis is supposed to show how the annexation became possible and occured through the Russian-Ukranian relations starting from the ancient history of Crimea till the moment it was occupied and annexed by the Russian Federation. The causes and consequences of the conflict will be thoroughly examined and described in my study. The losses and gains of Russia, Ukraine and Crimea will be discussed and the assessment of the present-day situation will be made.