The Laz people in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Lazları, Laz: ლაზეფე თურქონაშე Lazepe Turkonaşe) are Turkish citizens of Laz descent, an ethnic group native to the eastern Black Sea coast of Turkey and southwestern Georgia.
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 250,000[1][2][3][4][5] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| native in parts of Artvin and Rize, internal immigrants in Marmara Region | |
| Languages | |
| Laz, Turkish | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam |
Terminology
editThe Turkish public sometimes uses the name "Laz" generally to refer to all inhabitants of Turkey's Black Sea provinces east of Samsun, and the word is often associated with certain social stereotypes.[6] However, the Laz themselves are increasingly keen to differentiate themselves from other inhabitants of these regions.[citation needed] Also, the non-Laz does not want to be called "Laz", preferring to be called Karadenizli [7] ("from the Black Sea region"). The Laz language (Lazca in Turkish) is a Kartvelian language, also known as South Caucasian, unrelated to the Black Sea dialect of Turkish language.[8]
References
edit- ^ MacMillan, Margaret. The Uses and Abuses of History. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
- ^ bianet.org Archived April 6, 2009, at the Wayback Machine
- ^ "僕が突き進む道はこれだ！人生山あり谷ありのものでも僕はめげないとキメた日は今日という日になります。 – 人生は楽しい。". Lightningturkish.com. Archived from the original on 7 June 2011. Retrieved 8 November 2017.
- ^ "ecoi.net". ecoi.net. Archived from the original on 2008-07-04. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
- ^ "Turkey – General Information". Usefoundation.org. Archived from the original on 2014-05-27. Retrieved 2014-06-17.
- ^ Sevan Nisanyan, "Black Sea", Istanbul, 1990, p35.
- ^ "People of Black Sea Region". Karalahana.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
- ^ "Orientation - Laz". Everyculture.com. Retrieved 2014-04-20.