Turkmen (Middle East)
The ethnonym Turkmen, which is often used in a historical context , refers to the Near East (here: Syria , Iraq , Jordan , Turkey and the western half of Iran ) people living there who speak or spoke a Turkic language. An outdated form of the name is Turkoman . From the tribes mentioned as Turkmen in the Middle Ages, today's peoples of the Turks and Azerbaijanis emerged. The name Turkmen has remained in use for the groups that were not involved in this development in Iraq and Syria, as well as for groups of nomads or descendants of settled nomads in Turkey.
Differentiation of terms
Since the Middle Ages, the names Turkmen and Turkomanen have been a designation for different groups who speak or spoke Southwest Turkish dialects and who live or lived in Central Asia and the Near East. In concrete terms, the are since the time of the Mongol Empire so Oghusen meant that had embraced Islam. At this time the name Oghuz became out of use and the name Turkmen took its place. This article deals only with the Turkmens who came to the countries of the Near East as part of the Seljuks or fleeing from the Mongols, and their descendants. For the Turkic-speaking people, the titular nation of the Republic of Turkmenistan , but also represented in the neighboring countries of Iran, Afghanistan , Uzbekistan etc., see Turkmen (Central Asia) . Some confusion arises from the fact that the rulers of Iran also relocated Turkmen tribes from their northeastern border to Mesopotamia when they attacked the Ottomans . It should also be noted that during the Soviet Union, Turkey accepted emigrants from Central Asia, including Central Asian Turkmens, which is why the term “Turkmen” in Turkey can refer to both native Turkmen and these emigrants.
language
The Turkmen language is often classified as a South Azerbaijani dialect, but it is also assigned to Turkey-Turkish . This indifference is generally due to the great commonality of all Turkic languages ; in particular, it plays a role that Azerbaijani only developed as a separate written language at the beginning of modern times. While Turkish and Azerbaijani are clearly different as written languages despite their similarity, the situation at dialect level is often confusing. Some of the dialects of Turkish show similar or more serious differences to the written language than the written Azerbaijani language. The Syrian and Iraqi communities now use Turkey-Turkish as the written language.
Number and settlement area
The Turkmens are minorities with two million in Iraq, mainly in the provinces of Nineveh , Erbil , Kirkuk , Salah ad-Din and Diyala , with Kirkuk being specifically claimed as a “Turkmen city”. In Syria, their number is estimated at around 500,000, with Turkmen villages mainly in the area around Hama , Homs , Idlib and Aleppo and in the area known as “Bayir-Bucak” northeast of the port city of Latakia .
A small Turkmen minority (6,100) is also native to Jordan.
Turkey
Certain ethnic groups in Turkey refer to themselves as "Turkmen" (Turkish: Turkmenler ), which means tribal nomads or their settled descendants who carry on the traditions. In some cases tribal names from pre-Islamic times, such as those of the Çepni and Avşar , are also used, which are already mentioned in Mahmud al-Kāschgharī . A demarcation from or belonging to the Yörük , who are in similar living conditions, is controversial. It is assumed that the differences in the names go back to a different administrative position of the Turkmens and the Yörük at the time of the Ottoman Empire. The Turkmen of Turkey speak Turkish.
Around 150,000 "Anatolian Turkmens" live in the Gaziantep Province in the districts of Oğuzeli , Nizip and Karkamış and in the Province of Şanlıurfa in the districts of Birecik and Halfeti . This area is called Barak Ovası (Eng. Barak Plain), and the Turkmens there are called Barak Turkmenleri . There is also a large Turkmen community in Çorum Province in the villages between Iskilip and Çorum counties . In Turkish usage the area is called Dedesli Ovası (Dedesli plain).
religion
Turkmens are predominantly Sunni or Alevi Muslims. There are also Shiite communities in Syria .
In the 15th century, the Turkmen tribal associations of the Akkoyunlu and the Karakoyunlu founded both a Sunni and a Shiite nomad empire.
Individual evidence
- ↑ Ahmet Caferoğlu: The Anatolian and Rumelian dialects in: Jean Deny et al. (Ed.): Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta Tomus Primus [: Turkic languages]. Steiner, Wiesbaden, 1959, pp. 239-260
- ↑ Gerhard Doerfer: Das Gagausische in: Jean Deny et al. (Ed.): Philologiae Turcicae Fundamenta Tomus Primus [: Turkic languages]. Steiner, Wiesbaden, 1959, p. 262, note 1
- ↑ Peter A. Andrews: Ethnic groups in the Republic of Turkey L. Reichert, Wiesbaden 1989, ISBN 3-88226-418-7 , Volume 1, pp. 63-68