Karachays

The Karachays ( proper name: Къарачайлыла / Qaratschajlyla ) are a Turkic ethnic group in the Caucasus region. They are among the Turkic peoples and are related to the neighboring Balkar, from which they are spatially separated by the massif of Mount Elbrus. Their language is a dialect of Karachay - Balkar Karachay. In Russia live according to the census 2010 218.406 Karachay, which in the Russian republic of Karachay -Cherkessia 194 324 (41% of the population). Worldwide, their number is estimated at over 260,000 people, including some native speaking descendants of refugees of the 19th century in Turkey. Linguistically, the Karachay- Balkar not two different people names, but names for two different geographical zones whose majority Turkic population shares a common language and history.

Settlement area

Karachay today live mainly in the belonging to Russia 's Republic of Karachay -Cherkessia, where they form with about 169,000 people (almost 39 %) are the largest ethnic group, and in the Stavropol region. Main place of their settlement area is today the city Karatschajewsk.

Origin

The Karachays are probably descendants kumanischer and Tatar Turkic tribes. However, according to their own tradition they come from the Crimea peninsula, before they were pushed in the 15th century in the North Caucasus. There they came with the Circassians, Cossacks later to pastures in conflict and moved higher into the mountains. There they assimilated parts of the local Iranian Alans and kaukasischsprachigen population.

Religion

By the end of the 17th century, most of Karachay Orthodox Christians. After that, they were converted to Sunni Islam.

Tradition

In contrast to the neighboring kaukasischsprachigen Circassians and Kabardians the Karachay had no pronounced nobility and princes layer but lived in traditional tribal society. They were, as most of the North Caucasian peoples, semi-nomadic and lived in transhumance. So your residence alternated between higher summer pasture and farming villages and lower wintering areas and the Karachay were considered independent and warlike.

The karatschaische society was divided into about 30 tribes or clans, and handed down a common law governed issues of life behavior, marriage, hospitality, revenge, festivals, clan decisions, funeral, etc. In principle, the culture was also influenced heavily caucasian.

History

The Karachays are detectable since the 15th century. In the 16th century they came into the sphere of influence of the Crimean khanate, and later under the influence of the Ottoman Empire. In the 17th century the supremacy of the Persian Safawidenreiches followed. End of the 17th century they were converted mainly by Crimean Tatars to Islam. In the 18th century, they were subjugated by the neighboring Circassians and in the 1820s by the Russian Empire. Many Karachay involved in the uprising under Imam Shamil, after the end escaped the majority of Karachay into the Ottoman Empire, according to estimates. Those who remained were left in the Tsarist empire a largely self-government, which is why these were partially loyal.

Because of their resistance to the 1943 reinstated back Red Army were banished to command Josef Stalin under the false charge of collaboration with the Wehrmacht to Siberia and Central Asia. Nikita Khrushchev rehabilitated the Karachay in 1957 and they were allowed to return. Together with the Circassians have today in the Caucasus again own autonomous republic within Russia. Their cohesion was temporarily endangered 1996-1999 because Circassian associations demanded independence. Since then the situation has stabilized. Since the 1960s, the Elbrus area an economically emerging area of tourism.