Karamanlides

The Karamanlı ( Karamanlis ) ( Turkish Karamanlılar or Karamaniyanlar, Greek Καραμανλήδες ) are a Turkic-speaking, Orthodox Christian minority in Greece and Turkey, which was originally established in Anatolia. In German the names Karamaner, Karamanid or rarely Karamanliden be used.

Language and ethnicity

The Karamanlı mostly spoke a Turkish Ottoman embossed with Greek loanwords and with many old Turkish words, some of which only rarely be used in present-day Turkish. The Ottoman traveler Evliya Çelebi reported travel writers in the 17th century that the Greeks could not speak Greek Antalya and only spoke Turkish. The name of this dialect is Karamanlı Karamanlıca ( " Karamanisch " ) or Karamanlı Türkçesi ( " Karamaner - Turkish "). The Karamanlıca initially only spoken was recorded in writing with the time what it was used the Greek alphabet. Examples of this can be found except in the below -mentioned literature on the receive in Turkey remained decorated with sayings and poems, grave stones of Karamanlı. It remains unclear whether the Karamanlı Turkicised were Greeks who had maintained their faith, or Turks, who had converted to Christianity. When population exchange between Greece and Turkey had about 60,000 Karamanlı because of their affiliation to Orthodox Christianity to Greece zwangsumsiedeln. A small number of Karamanlı still live in Turkey. The Karamanlıca dialect is threatened both in Greece and in Turkey extinction.

Origin of the name

Your name Karamanlı is originally the name for the inhabitants of the city and province of the same name Karaman in Turkey today. The Greek word for Karamanlı ( Karamaner ) is Karamanlis. For example, have the ancestors of Konstantinos Karamanlis also lived in Karaman and this origin is still imprinted her name. The Karamanlı are not to be confused with the residents of the historic Principality of Karamaner even with the almost exclusively Muslim inhabitants of the province of Karaman.

Settlement areas

The formerly living in the Turkish cities Karaman, Aksaray, Ankara, Goreme, Ihlara, Istanbul, Kahramanmaras, Kayseri, Konya, Nevsehir, Nigde, Sivas, Tokat and Urgup and their environment Karamanlı are mostly based in Greece today. Only a small number still living in Turkey.

Origin and History

There are two theories about the origin of the Karamanlı:

  • From the Turkish perspective Karamanlı are mainly considered Oghuz Turkish origin who converted by their proximity to the Byzantines to Christianity and original as the Seljuks, next to the Turkish dominated the Persian language. The still living in Turkey Karamanlı support this theory of descent, because they feel as descendants of the Seljuks. After 1000 AD. , In times of the Byzantine Empire, migrated the ancestors of Karamanlı into their new home Anatolia. Here they took under the influence of the Greeks to the Christian faith. They were accepted by the Muslim Turks and respected in their religious practice. The Greeks had their autonomy, which guaranteed them cultural and religious freedom in the Ottoman Empire. The Karamanlı also made ​​of this belief use.
  • From the Greek point of view Karamanlı be regarded as Greeks, who have been türkisiert, but have retained their Greek Orthodox faith. The fact that it came with people of Greek descent to the merger of these ethnic groups, is quite possible.

After the conquest of Constantinople by the Ottomans in 1453, many people were relocated there, among many Karamanlı were. 1551 sees the traveling Nicolas de Nicolay, that the Karamanlı lived in Yedikule together in a separate district and their livelihood with the trade - deserved and with business and crafts - especially the gem trade.

Their stores and were located near the Grand Bazaar, Kapali the bazaar. Nicolay also reported that the Karamanlı - women like the Greek women rarely except to church and hammam visits took to the streets. At home, they were busy with the budget and embroidery, which they sold in Kapali Çarşı or in other bazaars. Some Karamanlı women were a little contribute to the livelihood by selling on the streets eggs, chicken, cheese and vegetables.

The Karamanlı belonged to the Ecumenical Patriarchate. By the time they moved to other parts of the city as Fener, Cibali, Tahtakale, Kumkapı, where many rum lived. They had their shops in Istanbul's Eminönü and Galata districts, see also: Districts of Istanbul.

During the First World War and in the wars of liberation they fought together with Muslims against the occupiers. Mustafa Kemal began on 19 May 1919, the mobilization of resistance. Through several battles, he managed to prevent the occupation and division, as she had been provided in the Treaty of Sevres. After the victory of Turkey this was on July 24, 1923 to revise the provisions of the Treaty of Sevres Treaty of Lausanne and thus prevent the loss of much of the present-day territory. With the Treaty of Turkey's borders were recognized under international law. Simultaneously, the " population exchange " with Greece was drawn into regular lanes.

This population exchange the Karamanlı lost their old home and had zwangsumsiedeln in a country whose language and culture they did not know. The desire of many Turks to keep their friends and neighbors in Anatolia failed. After the forced resettlement of Christians from Turkey, the tragedy of Karamanlı went on. A great pressure to assimilate, integration problems, switching to the other culture, the torn-off contact with their native land, learning the Greek language and a ban on the Turkish and thus also the dialect of Karamanlı in public 1936-1941 were just a few problems.

One result of this is that the now living in Greece Karamanlı no longer dominate their original Turkish language. However, the unity consciousness remained largely intact: Under international exchange, the Karamanlı contributed by charities to build and development of their home villages and cities with much.

Areas of origin and typical occupations of Karamanlı

  • Village Kurdonos / Nigde: soap salesman
  • Aravan: dry food dealers ( kuruyemişçi )
  • Uluağaç: middleman
  • Nigde: Cheese and Grain seller
  • Fertek: Wine Seller
  • Village Sinasos / Urgup / Nevsehir: Caviar and fish seller
  • Kayseri: Dried Meat seller

Personal names and Culture

Ottoman tax records, according to the Karamanlı wore in the 17th - 18th Century, as derived from the Arabic name as Hasan, Hüseyin, Ahmed etc were widely used in the Turkish population of Anatolia, only Turkish origin names such as Aslan, Kaplan, Tursun, Sefer, Mehmet Karaca, Kaya, Ayvaz, Karagöz.

Their culture was dominated by Turkish Orthodox Christian influences. Between the 15th and 18th centuries, Karamanlı wrote handwritten orthodox literary works. As of 1718 the books of the Karamanlı were printed in the 19th century over 500 works, mostly novels, religious books and history books. The publications in Greek characters mainly include the period from 1584 up to 1923. A catalog of works has been preserved and published in the four volumes of the Karamanlidika.

An example of the independent literature of Karamanlı is the poem " Kayseria Mitropolitleri ve Malumat -i Mütenevvia " ( 1896). It describes their culture, which is characterized by their Orthodox Christian religion, Greek script and Turkish ethnicity and their Ottoman identity.

Example of poetry

In this poem, it is pointed out that only their Greek writing connects with the Anatolian Greeks and everything else is regulated in the Turkish language and culture.

( Turkish )

Rum isek de Rumca bilmez, Türkce söyleriz;

Ne Türkce yazar okuruz, de ne Rumca söyleriz;

Öyle bir mahlut i - hatt tarikatimiz ( Karišik yazi bicimimiz ) vardir;

Hurufumuz Yunanice, Türkce meram eyleriz "

( German )

"Even if we are Greeks, we do not speak Greek, but Turkish;

Neither Turkish we can write and read or speak Greek

We have a difficult to understand written language;

Our letters are Greek, but we express our desires ( pray ) in Turkish. "

Sources and Literature

  • Robert Anhegger: Hurufumuz Yunanca. A contribution to the knowledge of the Karamanisch -Turkish literature. In: Anatolica 7, 1979/80, pp. 157-202
  • Robert Anhegger: addenda to Hurufumuz Yunanca. In: Anatolica 10, 1983, pp. 149-164
  • Yonca Anzerlioğlu: Karamanlı ortodoks Türkler. Phoenix Yayınevi 2003 ISBN 975-6565-55-1
  • Yakup Aygil: Turanlı Hıristiyanlar. Ant Yayınları İstanbul 2003 ISBN 975-10-2028- X
  • Mustafa Ekincilikli: Türk Ortodoksları. Ankara 1998 ISBN 975-7351-29-6
  • Mehmet Eröz Hıristiyanlaşan Türkler. Türk Kültürünü Arastirma Enstitüsü, Ankara 1983
  • Harun Güngör, Mustafa Argunşah & Ötüken Neşriyat: Gagauzlar. İstanbul, 1998 ISBN 975-437-270-5
  • L. Ligeti: bilinmeyen iC Asya I & II Translated by Sadrettin Karatay, Eğitim Bakanlığı Yayınları. Bilim ve Kültür Eserleri dizisi, İstanbul 1997 ISBN 975-11-0118-2.
  • Hale Soysü: Kavimler Kapisi: Lazlar, Yahudiler, Sudanlılar, Asurlular, Ermeniler, Hemşinliler Cecen - İnguşlar, Pomaklar, Gagauzlar, Karamanlılar. Kaynak Yayınları, İstanbul 1992 ISBN 975-343-028-0
  • Temel Britannica - Article Karaman, ISBN 975-7760 -51- X
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