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Zazas
Regions with significant populations
Primarily in Turkey, and some in Georgia, Germany, Kazakhstan, and the Netherlands
Languages
Zazaki (Dimli)
Religion
Islam (Alevi and Sunni)
Related ethnic groups
other Iranian peoples
The region where the majority of Zazas live in Turkey

The Zazas or Dimilis are an ethnic group which is one of the Iranian peoples. They primarily live in the eastern Anatolian provinces, such as Adıyaman, Aksaray, Batman, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Erzurum, Erzincan, Gümüşhane, Kars, Malatya, Muş, Şanlıurfa, Sivas, and Tunceli provinces. Since Zazas are one of the Iranic ethnic groups, their culture and language show some similarities to those of the Gilakis, Kurmanji, Mazandaranis, Persians, and other Iranic ethnic groups.[1][2][3]Almost all speakers of the Zaza language actually consider themselves Kurds.[4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12]


Disputed claims

About their ethnicity, language and origin, there are certain disputed claims.[1][13][14][15] and one of them is the claim that they are of Kurdish origin.[15]

According to Halajian, the Armenian word Kʿrder (Kurds) in this context denotes social status of life, rather than nationality. But according to Asatrian, who is a known Armenian nationalist, they use this word explicitly distinguish the Dimlī from the ethnic Kurdish people.[16]

According to Martin van Bruinessen, some of the Zaza-speakers, who had been considered, and had considered themselves, as Kurds, have started speaking of themselves as a separate people and their distinct identity has been denied not only by the Turkish state but also by the Kurdish movement as well. But their number is very small and the idea of a separate ethnic identity has only impact on a small group of "Exilromantics".virtually still all Zazaki Speakers consider themselves as Kurds and refuse strict the idea of a different ethnic identity.[13]

According to Hakan Özoğlu, Hani could use the word "Kurd" or its Arabic plural "al-Akrad" interchangeably with Kurmanci. This testifies that Hani regards the Kurmanci-speakers as Kurds, however it is not very clear whether he regards other groups: such as the Zazas, Lurs or Kelhurs as Kurds. However this makes not much sense because the plural "Al Akrad" means land of the Kurds and was traditionally also reffed to non Kurmanci speaking areas.[17] The Zazas, a subgroup that is traditionally considered Kurdish, have been reexamining their own identity, and there exists a rponounced Zaza identity independent from the Kurdish. However the number of Zaza who consider themselves as a separate ethnic minority is very small and refused by the large majority of Zazaki Speakers.[13][18]


Demographics

The exact number of Zaza people is unknown, due to the absence of recent and extensive census analyses. 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 mass evacuation of villages, the economically miserable situation of the Zaza areas forces the local population to emigrate to Turkish or European cities. There are many Zazas living in major Turkish cities such as Istanbul, Ankara, and İzmir. Moreover, the Zaza diaspora is spread across Europe (mainly in Germany) and beyond (United States, Canada, etc.) According to estimated figures, the Zaza population should be somewhere between 1 to 2 million.[19].

According to a March 2007 survey published by a Turkish newspaper, Kurmanjs and Zazas together comprise an estimated 13.4% of the adult population, and 15.68% of the whole population in Turkey.[20]

Ethnogenesis

According to Ludwig Paul, while some linguists agree that the Zazaki language is not a dialect of Kurmanji but rather a independent language mainly spoken by Kurds, they also agree on the fact that the Zazaki and Kurmanji Kurds build a ethno-cultural unity.[21] According to Durk Gorter, it is different from Kurdish language. Zaza and Kurdish languages are not mutually comprehensible. Different from Kurdic people, Kurdic people. Zaza identity is effectively based firstly on language.[22]. According to Martin van Bruinessen, few Kurmanji-speakers understand Zazaki, but most Zazaki-speakers know at least some Kurmanji.[13]

Historic roots of the Zaza people

Main article: History of the Zaza people

Linguistic studies shows that the Zazas may have immigrated to their modern-day homeland from the southern shores of the Caspian Sea. Some Zazas use the word Dimli (Daylami) to describe their ethnic identity. The word Dimli (Daylami) also describes a region of Gilan Province in today’s Iran. Some 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 Daylam towards the west. Today, Iranic languages are still spoken in southern regions of Caspian Sea (also called the Caspian languages), including Sangsarī, Māzandarānī, Tātī (Herzendī), Semnānī, Tāleshī, and they are grammatically and lexically very close to Zazaki; this supports the argument that Zazas immigrated to eastern Anatolia from southern regions of Caspian Sea.[23] Zazas also live in a region close to the Kurds, who are also another Iranic ethnic group. But, historic sources such as the Zoroastrian holy book, Bundahishn, places the Dilaman (Dimila/Zaza) homeland in the headwaters of the Tigris [citation needed], as it is today. This points to that the Dimila/Zaza migrated to the Caspian sea and not the other way around [original research?].

This Hypotheses however is not supported by genetics. Recent studies show the Origin of Zaza being native to eastern Anatolia and genetically indistinguishable from their Kurmanji neighbors and just linguistically connected to the South of the Caspian Sea. [24]

Religion

Approximately half of the Zazas are Alevis, while the remainder are Sunni Muslims. The Alevi-Zazas live in the northern part of the Zaza region, whereas the Sunni Zazas inhabit the southern Zaza region. The ancient religion of Zazas is believed to have been Zoroastrianism.

Language

Main article: Zazaki language

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.

The use of the Latin alphabet for writing the Zazaki language 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 promote their native language by the written word is beginning to bear fruit: the number of publications in Zaza is increasing. 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 rarely speak Zaza as a mother tongue anymore) in favor of the Zaza language, and thus their interest in their heritage. In the diaspora, a limited amount of Zaza-language programmes are broadcast. Moreover, with the gradual easing of restrictions on local languages in Turkey in preparation for European Union membership, the state owned TRT television launched a Zazaki TV program and a radio program, which is broadcast on Fridays.

According to David Romano, Dimili speakers are divided int tow additional sub-dialects, Zaza and Kirmanci (differnet from Kurmanci).[25]

Notes

  1. ^ a b Ludwig Paul, "Zaza(ki) - Dialekt, Sprache, Nation?" in Gernot Wiessner, Bärbel Beinhauer-Köhler (et.), Religion und Wahrheit: Religionsgeschichtliche Studien: Festschrift für Gernot Wiessner zum 65. Geburtstag, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, 1998, ISBN 9783447039758, pp. 385-399. Template:De icon
  2. ^ Ludwig Paul, "The position of Zazaki among West Iranian languages"
  3. ^ Krisztina Bodrogi, "Turks, Kurds, or a people in their own right? Competing Collective Identities among the Zazas", The Muslim World Vol. LXXXIX, No. 3-4 (July-October 1999), pp. 439-454.
  4. ^ http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LuVSkpVuAkAC&pg=PA385&dq=zaza+paul+ludwig&hl=de&ei=sFUCTpvML8-OswbH4smODQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=zaza%20paul%20ludwig&f=false , page 386
  5. ^ http://www.let.uu.nl/~martin.vanbruinessen/personal/publications/Bruinessen_Ethnic_identity_Kurds.pdf , page 1
  6. ^ http://www.scribd.com/doc/35883517/Kurds ,see page 3
  7. ^ http://www.zazaki.net/haber/among-social-kurdish-groups-general-glance-at-zazas-503.htm
  8. ^ http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1046/j.1529-8817.2005.00174.x/full
  9. ^ "Kurdish Nationalism and Competing Ethnic Loyalties", Original English version of: "Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes", Peuples Méditerranéens no. 68-69 (1994), 11-37
  10. ^ Kehl-Bodrogi, Krisztina. "Syncretistic religious communities in the Near East: Collected Papers of the International Symposium, Alevism in Turkey and Comparable Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East in the Past and Present”, Berlin, 14-17 April 1995
  11. ^ Ozoglu, Hakan. "Kurdish notables and the Ottoman state." Albany: State University of New York Press, 2004
  12. ^ http://www.amazon.com/Zaza-Kurds-Turkey-Minority-Globalised/dp/1845118758
  13. ^ a b c d Martin van Bruinessen, "Kurdish Nationalism and Competing Ethnic Loyalties", Original English version of: "Nationalisme kurde et ethnicités intra-kurdes", Peuples Méditerranéens no. 68-69 (1994), pp. 11-37.
  14. ^ Martin van Bruinessen, "Zaza, Alevi and Dersimi as Deliberately Embraced Ethnic Identities" in '"Aslını İnkar Eden Haramzadedir!" The Debate on the Ethnic Identity of The Kurdish Alevis' in Krisztina Kehl-Bodrogi, Barbara Kellner-Heinkele, Anke Otter-Beaujean, Syncretistic Religious Communities in the Near East: Collected Papers of the International Symposium "Alevism in Turkey and Comparable Sycretistic Religious Communities in the Near East in the Past and Present" Berlin, 14-17 April 1995, BRILL, 1997, ISBN 9789004108615, pp. 1-24.
  15. ^ a b Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State, State University of New York Press, 2004, p. 122.
  16. ^ G. Asatrian, "DIMLĪ" in Encyclopaedia Iranica. [1] "DIM(I)LĪ (or Zāzā), the indigenous name of an Iranian people living mainly in eastern Anatolia, in the Dersim region (present-day Tunceli) between Erzincan (see ARZENJĀN) in the north and the Muratsu (Morādsū, Arm. Aracani) in the south, the far western part of historical Upper Armenia (Barjr Haykʿ)."
  17. ^ Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State, State University of New York Press, 2004, p. 32.
  18. ^ Hakan Özoğlu, Kurdish Notables and the Ottoman State, State University of New York Press, 2004, p. 42.
  19. ^ 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.
  20. ^ Article on Konda survey in Turkish
  21. ^ http://books.google.co.uk/books?id=LuVSkpVuAkAC&pg=PA385&dq=zaza+paul+ludwig&hl=de&ei=sFUCTpvML8-OswbH4smODQ&sa=X&oi=book_result&ct=result&resnum=1&ved=0CCYQ6AEwAA#v=onepage&q=zaza%20paul%20ludwig&f=false , page 386 and 390 Paul Ludwig Template:De icon
  22. ^ Durk Gorter, Guus Extra, The Other Languages of Europe: Demographic, Sociolinguistic, and Educational Perspectives, Multilingual Matters, 2001, ISBN 9781853595097, p. 418.
  23. ^ Ludwig Paul, The position of Zazaki among West Iranian languages, 15 November 2006.
  24. ^ www.zazaki.org/files/Kurds.pdf
  25. ^ David Romano, The Kurdish Nationalist Movement: Opportunity, Mobilization, and Identity, Cambridge University Press, 2006, ISBN 9780521850414, p. 102.

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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