The Zazas or Dimilis are an ethnic Iranian people whose native language is Zazaki spoken in eastern Anatolia. They primarily live in the eastern Anatolian provinces, such as Adıyaman, Aksaray, Batman, Bingöl, Diyarbakır, Elazığ, Erzurum, Erzincan (Erzıngan), Gumushane, Kars, Malatya, Mus, Sanliurfa, Sivas, and Tunceli provinces. A large number of speakers of the Zaza language actually consider themselves Kurds.
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.
According to a March 2007 survey published by a Turkish newspaper, Kurds and Zazas together comprise an estimated 13.4% of the adult population, and 15.68% of the whole population in Turkey.
Historic roots 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,
Iranian 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. 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 , as it is today. This points to that the Dimila/Zaza migrated to the Caspian sea and not the other way around .
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.
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
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.
Notes
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.)
External links
zazaki-institut.de - Zazaki Language Institute (In German, Zazaki, and Turkish)
ZazaPress: journal of zaza language and culture (In Zazaki, Swedish, English and Turkish)
Iremet Publishing (iremet publishing was created in order to principally protect, develop and promote the Zaza language.)
zazaki.de - Zazas and Zazaki
Web Center of Zaza People (Weblinks of Zaza people)
Ethnic Differentiation among the Kurds: Kurmancî, Kizilbash and Zaza
A web site about Zazas and Zaaki: Zazaki.net
Category:Ethnic groups in Turkey
Category:Iranian peoples
Category:Muslim communities
