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Zazas

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Zazas
Regions with significant populations
Turkey and (recently) Germany Georgia Kazahstan
Languages
Zazaki (Dimli)
Religion
Islam (predominantly Alevi and Sunni)
Related ethnic groups
other Iranian people, particularly Gilakis, Kurds, Mazandaranis, and Persians
File:Zaza Map.gif
The region where Zazas live in Turkey

The Zazas are an ethnic minority in eastern Anatolia region of Turkey, and they primarily live in Adiyaman, Aksaray, Batman, Bingöl, Diyarbakir, Elazig, Erzurum, Erzincan, Gumushane, Kars, Malatya, Mus, Sanli Urfa, Sivas, and Tunceli provinces.

Demographics

The exact number of Zaza people is unknown, due to an absence of recent and extensive census analysis. The fact that some Zazas have mixed into other regional ethnic groups has also contributed to the uncertainty. Many Zazas live outside their homeland. Apart from widespread suppression and wholesale evacuation of villages, the economically miserable situation of the Zaza areas forces the local population to emigrate into Turkish or European metropoles. There are many Zazas living in Turkish metros, such as Istanbul, Ankara, and Izmir. Moreover, there are some Zaza diaspora both in Europe (mainly in Germany) and in other countries (U.S., Canada, etc.) According to estimated figures, the Zaza population should be somewhere between 2 to 4 million. [1]

Historic roots of the Zaza people

Main article: History of the Zaza people

Some linguists think the ancestors of the contemporary Zazas immigrated between the 10th and 11th centuries to their present-day homeland in eastern Anatolia from southern regions of Caspian Sea Those linguists connect the word Dimli with the Daylamites in the Alborz Mountains near the shores of Caspian Sea in Iran and believe that the Zaza have migrated from Daylamestan towards the west. Today the Iranian languages are still spoken in southern regions of Caspian Sea (also called the Caspian dialects) like Sangsarī, Māzandarānī, Tātī (Herzendī), Semnānī, Tāleshī, and they are very close to Zazaki both grammar rules and lexicons which supports the argument that Zazas immigrated to eastern Anatolia from southern regions of Caspian Sea.[2] However, a recent genetic analyses argue against this hypothesis. According to the analysis, genetically Zazas are more similar to other Kurdish groups.[3] Zazas live in a region close to the Kurmanc Kurds and another Iranian people. Also historic sources such as the Zoroastrian holy book, Bundahishn, places the Dilaman (Dimila/Zaza) homeland in the headwaters of the Tigris, as it is today. This points to that the Dimila/Zaza migrated to the Caspian sea and not the other way around.

Religion

The majority of the Zazas are Muslims. Almost half of them are Sunni and half of them are Alevi Muslims. The Alavi-Zazas live in the northern part of the Zaza region, whereas the Sunni Zazas inhabit the southern Zaza region. The religious division is very strong among Zazas which prevents them from interacting with each other.

Language

Main article: Zazaki language
Geographic distribution of the Iranian languages

According to Ethnologue, the Zaza language (Zazaki) is a part of the northwestern group of the Iranian section of the Indo-Iranian branch of the Indo-European family. Even though Zazaki is an Iranian Language, it is recently influenced by Turkish language. Moreover, the US State Department "Background Note" lists Zaza as one of the languages of Turkey, along with Turkish (official), Kurdish, Armenian, Greek, and Arabic[4] However, Britannica lists Zazaki as a subdialect of Kurdish language [5].

There are three main dialects of Zazaki:

  • Southern Zazaki, mainly spoken among Hanefi-Sunni Zazas in Urfa-Sivere, Diyarbakir-Çermik-Çüngüš, Adıyaman-Gerger. See Ethnologue[6]
  • Central Zaza, mainly spoken among Shafii-Zazas in Bingöl, Elazig, Nothern-Diyarbakir.
  • Northern Zazaki mainly spoken among Alevi Zazas in Tunceli, Erzincan, Mus-Varto, Sivas-Zara, Kangal, Ulas, Gümüshane. See Ethnologue[7]
  • Cross and side dialects.

The first written statements in the Zaza language were compiled by the linguist Peter Lerch in 1850. Two other important documents are the religious writings (Mewlıd) of Ehmedê Xasi of 1899, and of Usman Efendiyo Babıc (published in Damascus in 1933); both of these works were written in the Arabic alphabet.

Zazaki written in Latin letters only became popular in the diaspora after meager efforts in Sweden, France and Germany at the beginning of the 1980s. This was followed by the publication of magazines and books in Turkey, particularly in Istanbul. The efforts of Zaza intellectuals to advance the comprehensibility of their native language by alphabetizing were not fruitless: the number of publications in Zaza increased many times. The rediscovery of the native culture by Zaza intellectuals not only caused a renaissance of Zaza language and culture, it also triggered feelings among younger generations of Zazas (who unfortunately, rarely speak Zaza as a mother tongue anymore) in favor of modern western in the Zaza language, and thus their interest in the most important inheritance of their ancestors. In diaspora, a limited amount of Zaza-language broadcasts are realized. Moreover, since the recent years, the state owned TRT television lanched a Zazaki TV program and a radio program on Fridays as a gesture to Zazas.

Recent situation of Zaza people

The lives of many Zazas were significantly devastated in the past two decades because of the guerrilla war between the Kurdistan Workers Party (PKK) and the Turkish army. Due to the fact that many villages were either thoroughly depopulated or integrally destroyed, many villages now remain eerily empty or are only inhabited by the elderly during the summer months. In Turkish metropoles, the refugees struggle in difficult living conditions. Moreover, emigration into diaspora accelerated the process of cultural assimilation, i.e. the loss of native languages.

A cause for cultural assimilation is mainly rooted in the assimilation policies of the Turkish government. Until the beginning of the 2000s, public use of Zaza language was not legal and Turkish-nationalist education policies obtained substantial successes. The consequences of this process of “turkification” were so detrimental that under the Alavi-Zaza population the youngest generations hardly speak the language or teach it to its children. Cultural assimilation is also becoming a tangible issue among the Sunni-Zazas. Nevertheless, it is pleasant to note that among young Zazas the interest to learn their native language or extend their basic knowledge is gradually growing.

Notes

  1. ^ Duus (EDT) Extra, D. (Durk) Gorter, Guus Extra, The Other Languages of Europe: Demographic, Sociolinguistic and Educational Perspectives, Multilingual Matters (2001). ISBN 1-85359-509-8. p. 415. Cites two estimates of Zaza-speakers in Turkey, 1,000,000 and 2,000,000, respectively. Accessed online at Google book search.
  2. ^ Ludwig Paul, The position of Zazaki among West Iranian languages, provenance unclear, accessed online at azargoshnasp.net 15 November 2006.
  3. ^ Ivan Nasidze, Dominique Quinque, Murat Ozturk, Nina Bendukidze and Mark Stoneking, "MtDNA and Y-chromosome Variation in Kurdish Groups", Annals of Human Genetics, July 2005, Volume 69 Page 401. Abstract accessed online 15 Novemeber 2006.
  4. ^ Background Note: Turkey, U.S. Department of State. Accessed online 15 November 2006.
  5. ^ Kurdish language, Encyclopædia Britannica
  6. ^ Dimli, Ethnologue 15th edition. Accessed online 15 November 2006.
  7. ^ Kirmanjki, Ethnologue 15th edition. Accessed online 15 November 2006.

References

  • Raymond Gordon, Jr., Editor. Ethnologue: Languages of the World. Fifteenth Edition. (Classification of Zazaki Language.)
  • Bozdağ, Cem and Üngör, Uğur. Zazas and Zazaki. (Religion and the recent situation of Zaza People.)
  • Paul, Ladwig. (1998) The Position of Zazaki Among West Iranian languages. (Classification of Zazaki Language.)
  • Blau, Gurani et Zaza in R. Schmitt, ed., Compendium Linguarum Iranicarum, Wiesbaden, 1989, ISBN 3-88226-413-6, pp. 336-40 (About Daylamite origin of Zaza-Guranis)
  • Extra, Guus. and Gorter Durk. The Other Languages of Europe. (About Demography of Zazas.)
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