Çepni
The Çepni ( Azerbaijani Çəpni ) were an important Oghusen strain.
Mahmud al-Kāshgharī mentioned them as 21st of the 24 Oghuz tribes and mentioned their mark.
The Çepni came to Anatolia from Central Asia with the Seljuks in the 11th century . They played a major role in the conquest of Anatolia, which can be seen from the fact that around 45 towns bore their name in the 16th century. From 1277 they conquered the Byzantine cities of Kerasous , Kotyora and Sinope . The Çepni repeatedly attacked the Byzantines until the collapse of the Trebizond Empire in 1461. The Spanish author Ruy González de Clavijoreported during his trip to Central Asia in 1404 that they would control the cities of Giresun and Ordu. He also reported that the Çepni army was about 10,000 strong and was under the control of the local Turkmen ruler Hacı Süleyman Bey.
During the rule of the Ottoman Sultan Selim I , the area around the provinces of Giresun and Ordu as well as Beşikdüzü , Şalpazarı , Vakfıkebir (all three Trabzon Province ), Koyulhisar ( Sivas Province ) and Kürtün ( Gümüşhane Province ) was called Vilâyet-i Çepni . At that time, however, they were not, as could be read from this name, as a state-supporting element, but as Shiite heretics. Mehmet Aşık, who comes from Trabzon , wrote of them: “It is a tribe of uncivilized Turks, raw by nature and bad customs. Your language is a very strange Turkish. Given that they are Muslims, they are a bunch of heretics without religion. The fools among this people pay homage to the Shiite Shah, no less than - God forbid! - the deity. God destroy them! "
To this day the tribe has left traces under the place names of Turkey, where there are 32 places with the names Çepni, Çetme, Çetmi or Çitme .