Hemşinli
The hemshin peoples ( Laz Armeni , Sumexi , Armenian Համշենցի Hamschenzi , Russian Амшенцы Amschenzi ) are a small Armenian- ethnic minority Muslim faith in the northeast of Turkey . They are named after the town of Hemşin in the Rize province . They speak Homschezi , a dialect of Western Armenian . Because of their Islamic religion, they were not affected by the Armenian genocide in the Ottoman Empire .
history
After the area around Hemşin in 14/15. Conquered by the Ottomans in the 20th century, part of the Christian-Armenian population converted to Islam in the following period. The Hamschenzi or Hemşinli now developed into three subgroups:
In order to escape the advancing Islamization, some of them fled from the middle of the 17th century to Abkhazia, Georgia and Russia, where they now live in the Krasnodar area, for example near Sochi . They kept their language and the Christian faith.
A second part moved further east between the middle of the 17th century and the beginning of the 19th century and now lives in the area of Hopa and Borçka . This group has partly retained the Armenian language, but has completely converted to Sunni Islam.
The third part still lives today in the original area and is also completely Islamized. In addition, the group gave up the Armenian language in the middle of the 19th century and speaks only Turkish today, so that the Armenian language has now died out in Hemşin.
To distinguish between the two groups, the Hamschenzi / Hemşinli around Hemşin are called "western Hamschenzi", whereas the group around Hopa and Borçka are called "eastern Hamschenzi". In the culture of these Muslim descendants of the originally Christian Armenians, however, festivals of Armenian origin have survived , such as Wardawar (Vardavar), which the Hamschenzi call Vartevor .
The language of the Armenian- speaking eastern Hamschenzi is called Homschezi lisu , ie "the Hamschen language". According to a French linguist who studied the language in the early 1960s, the speakers were no longer aware that it was an Armenian dialect. So they had lost the knowledge of their origin.
In addition, since the 1930s, Turkish scientists have been spreading the theory that the Hamschenzi / Hemşinli are not originally ethnic Armenians, but a Turkish ethnic group that has only adopted the Armenian language. This theory, although criticized by other scientists as manipulative, enjoys great popularity among those Hamschenzi who, for fear of difficulties, do not want to know anything about an Armenian origin.
Current situation
According to an estimate by Hovann Simonian in 2004, the number of Hemşinli in Turkey is around 100,000. The same author puts the total number of Hemşinli in 2006 at around 150,000. This also includes around 3,000 Hemşinli who live in successor states to the Soviet Union . Their main residential areas are between Trabzon and Erzurum , where they are clearly outnumbered by the national minority of the Lasen .
literature
- Hovann H. Simonian (Ed.): The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey. London, New York 2007.
- Hovann H. Simonian: History and Identity among the Hemshin. (PDF; 139 kB) In: Central Asian Survey 25 (1–2) , March – June 2006, pp. 157–178
- Hovann H. Simonian: Hemshin from Islamicization to the end of the nineteenth century. (PDF; 349 kB) In: Hovann H. Simonian (Ed.): The Hemshin. History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey. (Caucasus World: Peoples of the Caucasus) Routledge, London / New York 2007, pp. 52–99
Web links
Individual evidence
- ↑ The Armenians in the Medieval Islamic World: The Arab Period in Armnyah Seventh to Eleventh Centuries in the Google Book Search, by Seta B. Dadoyan. Page 85–86
- ^ A b History and identity among the Hemshin , by Hovann H. SIMONIAN, rbedrosian.com
- ↑ Hovann H. Simonian: History and Identity among the Hemshin. In: ISIM Newsletter , June 14, 2004, p. 24
- ↑ Hovann H. Simonian (ed.): The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of North East Turkey. Routledge, London / New York 2007, foreword; also in: History and Identity amont the Hemshin , 2006, p. 162