Urums
Encyclopedia
Urums, singular Urum is a broad historical term that was used by some Turkic-speaking peoples
(Turks
, Crimean Tatars
) to define Greeks
who lived in Muslim
states, particularly in the Ottoman Empire
and Crimea
. In contemporary ethnography
, the term Urum (or Urum Greek) applies only to Turk population.
word (rūm
), meaning Roman and subsequently Byzantine
and Greek
(see: Rûm
). Since words beginning in [r] were not typical for Turkic languages, earlier speakers would add an extra vowel in order to facilitate the pronunciation. In modern Turkish, the Urum spelling, despite being still used by some, is considered obsolete and is replaced by the spelling Rum.
The term is presently used by the following sub-ethnic groups of Greeks as a way of ethnic self-identification:
, Ukraine) were represented by two groups: the Hellenic-speaking Romaioi and the Turkic-speaking Urums (also called Graeco-Tatars). Both groups populated the region for many centuries (they consisted of both the descendants of the 4th century BC – 4th century AD colonizers and those who immigrated from Anatolia at various times). However, the latter underwent social and cultural processes, which led to them adopting the Crimean Tatar language
as a mother tongue.
In 1777, after the annexation of Crimea by Russia
, Catherine the Great ordered all Greeks from the peninsula to settle in North Azov
, and they have been known as the North Azovian Greeks (приазовские греки priazovskie greki) henceforth. Some linguists believe that the dialect spoken by the North Azovian Urums differs from the common Crimean Tatar language on a more than just dialectical level and therefore constitutes a separate language unit within the Kypchak language sub-group
(see Urum language
).
Urums practice Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Throughout history, they represented an isolated cultural group and rarely settled in towns populated by the Romaioi, despite sharing Greek heritage with them. Unlike Greek, Urum has never been a language of secondary education in Ukraine. Turkologist Nikolai Baskakov estimated that by 1969, 60,000 people spoke Urum as a native language. According to the All-Ukrainian Population Census of 2001, only 112 of the Donetsk Oblast
's 77,516 Greeks listed languages other than Greek
, Ukrainian
and Russian
as their mother tongue.
Greeks or the Transcaucasian Turcophone Greeks. Pontian Greeks call them Τσαλκαλίδες (Tsalkalides); a name that refers to the Georgian town of Tsalka
, where Urums once made up the largest ethnic community.
From the 18th to the early 20th century the Caucasus
experienced mass migrations of Greeks from the Ottoman Empire
, mainly from the region of Pontus
. Many Pontian Greeks spoke Turkish either as part of their Greek-Turkish bilingua, or as a mother tongue due to linguistic assimilation processes that isolated groups of the Anatolian Greeks were exposed to.
According to Andrei Popov, throughout the 19th century hundreds of Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox families from Erzurum
, Gümüşhane
and Artvin
moved to Southern Russia and settled on the Tsalka Plateau, in present-day Georgia. During the Soviet era they populated over 20 villages in Georgia's Tsalka
, Dmanisi
, Tetritsq'aro
, Marneuli
, and Akhaltsikhe
regions. In 1926, there were 24,000 Greeks living in Tiflis and the neighbouring area with 20,000 of them being Turcophone.
The dialect spoken by the Tsalka Urums is similar to many other Central Anatolian dialects of Turkish. However some linguists, like Nikolai Baksakov, classify it as a separate Oghuz language due to differences in phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. Present-day Urum Turkish is also thought by some to be phonetically closer to Azeri
than to the literary Turkish, which leads them to believe that it is rather a dialect of Azeri. Late Soviet censuses also showed Azeri as the mother tongue of the Tsalka Urums, however this may have been done simply due to the Soviets' somewhat unfavourable attitude towards Turkish culture. No secondary education in Urum Turkish has been available; its speakers attend schools where subjects are taught in Russian or Azeri.
The Tsalka Urums themselves call their language bizim dilja (Turkish: our language/talk). With the popularization of the Russian language, many experienced linguistic assimilation and adapted to Russian. Also starting from the 1980s, some sense of a cultural revival has been observed among the Turcophone Greeks. Historian Airat Aklaev's research showed that 36% of them considered Greek
their mother tongue despite their lack of knowledge of that language. 96% expressed their desire to learn Greek.
In comparison with the Hellenophone Greeks of Georgia, the Tsalka Urums were less exposed to emigration
after the fall of the Soviet Union
, hence nowadays they constitute the majority of the country's Greek population. Nevertheless some migration did take place, which is why Greeks are no longer the largest ethnic group in Tsalka. Between 1989 and 2002 their numbers within the region went down from 35,000 to 3,000. Many emigrated to Greece
and to the Krasnodar Krai
, Russia
(cities of Krasnodar
, Abinsk
, Sochi
, and Gelendzhik
).
Turkic languages
The Turkic languages constitute a language family of at least thirty five languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China, and are considered to be part of the proposed Altaic language family.Turkic languages are spoken...
(Turks
Turkish people
Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" , are an ethnic group primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Bosnia and Herzegovina, Georgia, Greece, Kosovo, Macedonia, and Romania...
, Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars
Crimean Tatars or Crimeans are a Turkic ethnic group that originally resided in Crimea. They speak the Crimean Tatar language...
) to define Greeks
Greeks
The Greeks, also known as the Hellenes , are a nation and ethnic group native to Greece, Cyprus and neighboring regions. They also form a significant diaspora, with Greek communities established around the world....
who lived in Muslim
Muslim
A Muslim, also spelled Moslem, is an adherent of Islam, a monotheistic, Abrahamic religion based on the Quran, which Muslims consider the verbatim word of God as revealed to prophet Muhammad. "Muslim" is the Arabic term for "submitter" .Muslims believe that God is one and incomparable...
states, particularly in the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Empire
The Ottoman EmpireIt was usually referred to as the "Ottoman Empire", the "Turkish Empire", the "Ottoman Caliphate" or more commonly "Turkey" by its contemporaries...
and Crimea
Crimean Khanate
Crimean Khanate, or Khanate of Crimea , was a state ruled by Crimean Tatars from 1441 to 1783. Its native name was . Its khans were the patrilineal descendants of Toqa Temür, the thirteenth son of Jochi and grandson of Genghis Khan...
. In contemporary ethnography
Ethnography
Ethnography is a qualitative method aimed to learn and understand cultural phenomena which reflect the knowledge and system of meanings guiding the life of a cultural group...
, the term Urum (or Urum Greek) applies only to Turk population.
Ethnonym
The term Urum is derived from the ArabicArabic language
Arabic is a name applied to the descendants of the Classical Arabic language of the 6th century AD, used most prominently in the Quran, the Islamic Holy Book...
word (rūm
Rûm
Rûm, also Roum or Rhum , an indefinite term used at different times in the Muslim world to refer to the Balkans and Anatolia generally, and for the Byzantine Empire in particular, for the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in Asia Minor, and referring to Greeks living outside of Greece or non-muslims...
), meaning Roman and subsequently Byzantine
Byzantine
Byzantine usually refers to the Roman Empire during the Middle Ages.Byzantine may also refer to:* A citizen of the Byzantine Empire, or native Greek during the Middle Ages...
and Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
(see: Rûm
Rûm
Rûm, also Roum or Rhum , an indefinite term used at different times in the Muslim world to refer to the Balkans and Anatolia generally, and for the Byzantine Empire in particular, for the Seljuk Sultanate of Rûm in Asia Minor, and referring to Greeks living outside of Greece or non-muslims...
). Since words beginning in [r] were not typical for Turkic languages, earlier speakers would add an extra vowel in order to facilitate the pronunciation. In modern Turkish, the Urum spelling, despite being still used by some, is considered obsolete and is replaced by the spelling Rum.
The term is presently used by the following sub-ethnic groups of Greeks as a way of ethnic self-identification:
- Crimean-Tatarophone Greeks of North Azov (UkraineUkraineUkraine is a country in Eastern Europe. It has an area of 603,628 km², making it the second largest contiguous country on the European continent, after Russia...
) - Turcophone Greeks of TsalkaTsalka- Population :The district had a population of 22,000. According to the 2002 census 55% of its population is Armenian, 22% Greek, 12% Georgian, and 9.5% Azerbaijanis...
(GeorgiaGeorgia (country)Georgia is a sovereign state in the Caucasus region of Eurasia. Located at the crossroads of Western Asia and Eastern Europe, it is bounded to the west by the Black Sea, to the north by Russia, to the southwest by Turkey, to the south by Armenia, and to the southeast by Azerbaijan. The capital of...
)
North Azovian Urums
Historically, the Greeks of Crimea (and later of the adjacent Azovian region; present-day Donetsk OblastDonetsk Oblast
Donetsk Oblast is an oblast of eastern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Donetsk. Historically, the province is an important part of the Donbas region...
, Ukraine) were represented by two groups: the Hellenic-speaking Romaioi and the Turkic-speaking Urums (also called Graeco-Tatars). Both groups populated the region for many centuries (they consisted of both the descendants of the 4th century BC – 4th century AD colonizers and those who immigrated from Anatolia at various times). However, the latter underwent social and cultural processes, which led to them adopting the Crimean Tatar language
Crimean Tatar language
The Crimean Tatar language is the language of the Crimean Tatars. It is a Turkic language spoken in Crimea, Central Asia , and the Crimean Tatar diasporas in Turkey, Romania, Bulgaria...
as a mother tongue.
In 1777, after the annexation of Crimea by Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
, Catherine the Great ordered all Greeks from the peninsula to settle in North Azov
Azov
-External links:** *...
, and they have been known as the North Azovian Greeks (приазовские греки priazovskie greki) henceforth. Some linguists believe that the dialect spoken by the North Azovian Urums differs from the common Crimean Tatar language on a more than just dialectical level and therefore constitutes a separate language unit within the Kypchak language sub-group
Kypchak languages
The Kypchak languages , are a major branch of the Turkic language family spoken by more than 12 million people in an area spanning from Lithuania to China....
(see Urum language
Urum language
Urum is a Turkic language spoken by several thousand people who inhabit a few villages in the Southeastern Ukraine and in diaspora communities worldwide. The Urum language is often considered a variant of the Crimean Tatar language....
).
Urums practice Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Throughout history, they represented an isolated cultural group and rarely settled in towns populated by the Romaioi, despite sharing Greek heritage with them. Unlike Greek, Urum has never been a language of secondary education in Ukraine. Turkologist Nikolai Baskakov estimated that by 1969, 60,000 people spoke Urum as a native language. According to the All-Ukrainian Population Census of 2001, only 112 of the Donetsk Oblast
Donetsk Oblast
Donetsk Oblast is an oblast of eastern Ukraine. Its administrative center is Donetsk. Historically, the province is an important part of the Donbas region...
's 77,516 Greeks listed languages other than Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
, Ukrainian
Ukrainian language
Ukrainian is a language of the East Slavic subgroup of the Slavic languages. It is the official state language of Ukraine. Written Ukrainian uses a variant of the Cyrillic alphabet....
and Russian
Russian language
Russian is a Slavic language used primarily in Russia, Belarus, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Tajikistan and Kyrgyzstan. It is an unofficial but widely spoken language in Ukraine, Moldova, Latvia, Turkmenistan and Estonia and, to a lesser extent, the other countries that were once constituent republics...
as their mother tongue.
Tsalka Urums
Little is known about this ethnic subgroup. They are sometimes referred to as the TrialetiTrialeti
Trialeti is a mountainous area in central Georgia. In Georgian its name means "a place of wandering". The Trialeti Range is a part of the greater Trialeti Region....
Greeks or the Transcaucasian Turcophone Greeks. Pontian Greeks call them Τσαλκαλίδες (Tsalkalides); a name that refers to the Georgian town of Tsalka
Tsalka
- Population :The district had a population of 22,000. According to the 2002 census 55% of its population is Armenian, 22% Greek, 12% Georgian, and 9.5% Azerbaijanis...
, where Urums once made up the largest ethnic community.
From the 18th to the early 20th century the Caucasus
Caucasus
The Caucasus, also Caucas or Caucasia , is a geopolitical region at the border of Europe and Asia, and situated between the Black and the Caspian sea...
experienced mass migrations of Greeks from the Ottoman Empire
Ottoman Greeks
Ottoman Greeks were ethnic Greeks who lived in the Ottoman Empire , the Republic of Turkey's predecessor...
, mainly from the region of Pontus
Pontus
Pontus or Pontos is a historical Greek designation for a region on the southern coast of the Black Sea, located in modern-day northeastern Turkey. The name was applied to the coastal region in antiquity by the Greeks who colonized the area, and derived from the Greek name of the Black Sea: Πόντος...
. Many Pontian Greeks spoke Turkish either as part of their Greek-Turkish bilingua, or as a mother tongue due to linguistic assimilation processes that isolated groups of the Anatolian Greeks were exposed to.
According to Andrei Popov, throughout the 19th century hundreds of Turkish-speaking Greek Orthodox families from Erzurum
Erzurum
Erzurum is a city in Turkey. It is the largest city, the capital of Erzurum Province. The city is situated 1757 meters above sea level. Erzurum had a population of 361,235 in the 2000 census. .Erzurum, known as "The Rock" in NATO code, served as NATO's southeastern-most air force post during the...
, Gümüşhane
Gümüshane
-Features:Gümüşhane has a rich historical background so there are many historical places, mosques, churches, castles. Ancient city of Satala in the modern village of Sadak was the most important military camp of the ancient Roman Empire in the east. This place was ruled by the Hittites, Assyrians,...
and Artvin
Artvin
-History:See Artvin Province for the history of the region.-Places of interest:* Artvin or Livana castle, built in 937There are a number of Ottoman Empire houses and public buildings including:* Salih Bey mosque, built in 1792...
moved to Southern Russia and settled on the Tsalka Plateau, in present-day Georgia. During the Soviet era they populated over 20 villages in Georgia's Tsalka
Tsalka
- Population :The district had a population of 22,000. According to the 2002 census 55% of its population is Armenian, 22% Greek, 12% Georgian, and 9.5% Azerbaijanis...
, Dmanisi
Dmanisi
Dmanisi is a townlet and archaeological site in Kvemo Kartli region of Georgia approximately 93 km southwest of the nation’s capital Tbilisi in the river valley of Mashavera.- History :...
, Tetritsq'aro
Tetritsq'aro
Tetri Tsqaro is a town in Kvemo Kartli in southern Georgia, the name of which translates as "White Spring".- See also :*Gudarekhi...
, Marneuli
Marneuli
Marneuli is a small city in the Kvemo Kartli region of southern Georgia and administrative center of Marneuli District that borders neighboring Azerbaijan and Armenia.-Population:...
, and Akhaltsikhe
Akhaltsikhe
Akhaltsikhe is a small city in Georgia's southwestern region of Samtskhe-Javakheti. It is situated on the both banks of a small river Potskhovi, which separates the city to the old city in the north and new in the south. The name of the city translates from Georgian as "new fortress".- History...
regions. In 1926, there were 24,000 Greeks living in Tiflis and the neighbouring area with 20,000 of them being Turcophone.
The dialect spoken by the Tsalka Urums is similar to many other Central Anatolian dialects of Turkish. However some linguists, like Nikolai Baksakov, classify it as a separate Oghuz language due to differences in phonetics, vocabulary and grammar. Present-day Urum Turkish is also thought by some to be phonetically closer to Azeri
Azerbaijani language
Azerbaijani or Azeri or Torki is a language belonging to the Turkic language family, spoken in southwestern Asia by the Azerbaijani people, primarily in Azerbaijan and northwestern Iran...
than to the literary Turkish, which leads them to believe that it is rather a dialect of Azeri. Late Soviet censuses also showed Azeri as the mother tongue of the Tsalka Urums, however this may have been done simply due to the Soviets' somewhat unfavourable attitude towards Turkish culture. No secondary education in Urum Turkish has been available; its speakers attend schools where subjects are taught in Russian or Azeri.
The Tsalka Urums themselves call their language bizim dilja (Turkish: our language/talk). With the popularization of the Russian language, many experienced linguistic assimilation and adapted to Russian. Also starting from the 1980s, some sense of a cultural revival has been observed among the Turcophone Greeks. Historian Airat Aklaev's research showed that 36% of them considered Greek
Greek language
Greek is an independent branch of the Indo-European family of languages. Native to the southern Balkans, it has the longest documented history of any Indo-European language, spanning 34 centuries of written records. Its writing system has been the Greek alphabet for the majority of its history;...
their mother tongue despite their lack of knowledge of that language. 96% expressed their desire to learn Greek.
In comparison with the Hellenophone Greeks of Georgia, the Tsalka Urums were less exposed to emigration
Emigration
Emigration is the act of leaving one's country or region to settle in another. It is the same as immigration but from the perspective of the country of origin. Human movement before the establishment of political boundaries or within one state is termed migration. There are many reasons why people...
after the fall of the Soviet Union
Soviet Union
The Soviet Union , officially the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics , was a constitutionally socialist state that existed in Eurasia between 1922 and 1991....
, hence nowadays they constitute the majority of the country's Greek population. Nevertheless some migration did take place, which is why Greeks are no longer the largest ethnic group in Tsalka. Between 1989 and 2002 their numbers within the region went down from 35,000 to 3,000. Many emigrated to Greece
Greece
Greece , officially the Hellenic Republic , and historically Hellas or the Republic of Greece in English, is a country in southeastern Europe....
and to the Krasnodar Krai
Krasnodar Krai
-External links:* **...
, Russia
Russia
Russia or , officially known as both Russia and the Russian Federation , is a country in northern Eurasia. It is a federal semi-presidential republic, comprising 83 federal subjects...
(cities of Krasnodar
Krasnodar
Krasnodar is a city in Southern Russia, located on the Kuban River about northeast of the Black Sea port of Novorossiysk. It is the administrative center of Krasnodar Krai . Population: -Name:...
, Abinsk
Abinsk
Abinsk , known as Abinsky before 1963, is a town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, located southwest of Krasnodar. Population: 23,000 ....
, Sochi
Sochi
Sochi is a city in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated just north of Russia's border with the de facto independent republic of Abkhazia, on the Black Sea coast. Greater Sochi sprawls for along the shores of the Black Sea near the Caucasus Mountains...
, and Gelendzhik
Gelendzhik
Gelendzhik is a resort town in Krasnodar Krai, Russia, situated on the Gelendzhik Bay of the Black Sea, between Novorossiysk and Tuapse . Greater Gelendzhik sprawls for along the coastline and covers an area of 122,754 ha...
).