Yörük
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| Yörük |
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| Total population |
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n/a |
| Regions with significant populations |
| Turkey |
| Languages |
| Turkish |
| Religions |
| Islam |
| Related ethnic groups |
| Turkish people and other Turkic peoples |
The Yörük, also Yürük or Yuruk, are a Turkish people ultimately of Oghuz descent, some of whom are still nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia and partly Balkan peninsula.[1][2] Their name is generally accepted to derive from the Turkish verb yürü- (yürümek in infinitive), which means "to walk", with the word Yörük designating "those who walk, walkers".[3]
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[edit] Yörüks in Europe
![Main areas inhabited by Yörük tribes in Anatolia[citation needed]](../../../../images/local/thumb/5/52/Yoruk-map.gif/250px-Yoruk-map.gif)
The Yörük to this day appear as a distinct segment of the population of the Republic of Macedonia and Thrace where they settled as early as the 14th century.[4] While today the Yörük are increasingly settled, many of them still maintain their nomadic lifestyle, breeding goats and sheep in the Pindus (Epirus, Greece and southern Albania), Shar (Republic of Macedonia), Pirin, Rhodope (Bulgaria) and Dobrudja.[citation needed] An earlier offshoot of the Yörüks, the Kailars or Kayılar Turks are amongst the first Turkish colonists in Europe,[4] (Kailar being the Turkish name for the newly renamed Greek town of Ptolemaida [5]) formerly inhabited parts of Thessaly and Greek Macedonia. Settled Yörüks could be found until 1923 especially near and in the town of Kozani. The Yörüks are credited with converting in the 18th century to the Muslim religion, after a period of cohabitation, a part of the native Megleno-Romanians or "Meglen-Vlachs" of what is today Greece who in 1923 were expelled by the Greek authorities to Turkey.[citation needed]
[edit] Yörüks and Sarakatsani
Their nomadic way of life and the fact that they spread through the Balkans led Arnold van Gennep to try and establish a connection between the Yörüks and the Sarakatsani or Karakachans of Greece. However, the Sarakatsani when for the first time mentioned under this name were already Orthodox Christians and speaking a Greek dialect. While there are no actual linguistic or religious links to the Yörük, there are nevertheless connections and similarities as to the transhumant, nomadic way of life.[6] According to Gennep both of these pastoral ethnic groups may ultimately share a common Turkic ancestry.[6]
[edit] Kailar Yörüks
A particular puzzle constitute the above mentioned Kailar Turks, who formerly inhabited parts of Thessaly and Macedonia (especially near the town of Kozani and modern Ptolemaida). These Turks, associated often by scholars with the Yörüks too,[4] whose splinter group they are generally recognised to be, were a little group of semi-settled cattle breeders -who adopted Christianity in order to avoid expulsion after Thessaly became part of Greece in 1881[citation needed] respectively Southern Macedonia in 1913. These Kailar Turks are known also by the alternate name of Konariotes.[4] The Kailar Turks, especially those of the Erdemuş village of Kailar claim descent from what they describe the "noble, sober Yörükhan family" who hail in turn from the so-called Pervaneoğulları 'timariot' according to the Ottoman archives.
This section incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
[edit] Yörüks in Anatolia and the Middle East
The Yörüks of Anatolia are often called by historians and ethnologists by the additional appellative 'Yörük Turcoman' or 'Turkmens'. In Turkey's general parlance today, the terms "Türkmen" and "Yörük" indicate the gradual degrees of preserved attachment with the former semi-nomadic lifestyle of the populations concerned, with the "Türkmen" now leading a fully sedentary life, while keeping parts of their heritage through folklore and traditions, in arts like carpet-weaving, with the continued habit of keeping a yayla house for the summers, sometimes in relation to the Alevi community etc. and with Yörüks maintaining a yet stronger association with nomadism. These names ultimately hint to their Oghuz Turkish roots. The remaining transhumant or "true" Yörüks of today's Anatolian region traditionally use the camel as means of transportation though these are more and more replaced by trucks.
[edit] Clans, related tribes and offshoots
Clans closely related to the Yörüks are scattered throughout the Anatolian peninsula and beyond its boundaries, particularly around the chain of Taurus Mountains and further east around the shores of the Caspian sea. Of the Turcomans of Iran, the Yomuts come the closest to the definition of the Yörüks. An interesting offshoot of the Yörük mass are the Tahtadji of the mountainous regions of Western Anatolia who, as their name implies, have been occupied with forestry work and wood craftsmanship for centuries, although they share similar traditions (with markedly matriarchal tones in their society structure) with their other Yörük cousins. The Qashqai people of southern Iran (around Shiraz), and the Chepni of Turkey's Black Sea region are also worthy of mention due to their shared characteristics. A considerable number of the original Turkish population of Northern Cyprus are also of Yörük descent.
[edit] Gallery
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_baby.JPG/90px-Kailar_(_Kayılar_)_baby.JPG) |
 Sultan Selim II's tughra for Kailar Yörüks in Ottoman Archives |
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.jpg/104px-Kayalar_ilk_meskunları_(firs_stalments_of_Kailar).jpg) The first settlements of Kailar Yörüks in Erdemuş |
 Kailar Yörüks in center of Kailar as a formal name of Cuma Pazarı |
[edit] See also
- Kailar
- Qashqai
- Serik; a town in Turkey's Antalya Province
- Serinhisar
- Turkmen people
- Yaylag
[edit] Notes
- ^ Vakalopoulos, Apostolos Euangelou. " Origins of the Greek Nation: The Byzantine Period, 1204-1461". Rutgers University Press, 1970. web link, p. 163, p. 330
- ^ Marushiakova, Elena & Popov, Vesselin. "Gypsies in the Ottoman Empire: A Contribution to the History of the Balkans". Univ of Hertfordshire Press, 2001. page 35
- ^ Türk Dil Kurumu - TDK Online Dictionary. yörük, yürük
- ^ a b c d Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition - Macedonia: Races
- ^ Ptolemaida.net - History of Ptolemaida web page
- ^ a b Kavadias, Georges B. Pasteurs-Nomades Mediterraneens: Les Saracatsans de Grece. Gauthier-Villars, 1965. page 6, link
[edit] References
- This article incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
- Brailsford, H.N. Macedonia: Its Races and Their Future. Methuen & Co., London, 1906. Kailar Turks
- Cribb, Roger. Nomads in Archaeology. Cambridge University Press, 2004. web page
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[edit] External links
- Web portal for information sharing on and between Yörüks
- The disappearing Yörük and their music
- Vlach, Yuruk and Sarakatsani confluences in the Balkans
- Foundation of Yörüks in Turkey
- A Yörük town in Adana province on the south coast of Turkey (Turkish)
