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Greek people, Turkish people and other Turkic peoples |
The Yorouks, also Yuruks or Yörüks (Greek: Γιουρούκοι, Bulgarian: юруци, Macedonian: Јуруци, Turkish: Yörük) are immigrants, ultimately of Thracian descent,[1]some of whom are still nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia and partly Balkan peninsula. Their name derives from the Turkish verb yürü- (yürümek in infinitive), which means "to walk", with the word yorouk or Yuruk designating "those who walk, walkers".[2][3]
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The Yorouk to this day appear as a distinct segment of the population of Macedonia and Thrace where they settled as early as the 14th century.[4] While today the Yoruk are increasingly settled, many of them still maintain their nomadic lifestyle, breeding goats and sheep in the Šar Mountains (Kosovo), the Pirin and Rhodope Mountains (Bulgaria) and Dobrudja. An earlier offshoot of the Yörüks, the Kailar or Kayılar Turks were amongst the first settlements in Europe,[4] The Yorouks are credited with the conversion to Islam in the 18th century, after a period of cohabitation, of a part of the native Meglen Vlachs of Greece who in 1923 were expelled to Turkey under the terms of the population exchange between the two countries. In Belgium and The Netherlands are there also Yorouks, with a little change in the family name. They have Greco-Turkish origins and their family name is Yürük.
Their nomadic way of life and the fact that they spread through the Balkans led Arnold van Gennep to try to establish a connection between the Yorouks and the people of Greek origin Sarakatsani (Greek: Σαρακατσάνοι) (or Karakachans) of Greece.[5] However, the Sarakatsani when for the first time mentioned under this name were Orthodox Christians and speaking a Greek dialect. While there are no actual linguistic or religious links to the Yorouk, there are nevertheless connections and similarities as to the transhumant, nomadic way of life.[6]
A particular puzzle constitute the above mentioned Kailar Turks, who formerly inhabited parts of Thessaly and Macedonia (especially near the town of Kozani and modern Ptolemaida). These Turks, associated often by scholars with the Yörüks too,[4] whose splinter group they are generally recognised to be, were a little group of semi-settled cattle breeders -who adopted Christianity in order to avoid expulsion after Thessaly became part of Greece in 1881 respectively Southern Macedonia in 1913. These Kailar Turks are known also by the alternate name of Konariotes.[4] In Ansiklopedia Brittanica 1911 The Kailar Turks, especially those of the Erdemuş village of Kailar descent are described the "noble, sober\ordered Yörükhan family" who hail in turn from the so-called Pervaneoğulları 'timariot' according to the Ottoman archives.
This section incorporates text from the Encyclopædia Britannica Eleventh Edition, a publication now in the public domain.
The Yorouks of Anatolia are often called by historians and ethnologists by the additional appellative 'Yörük Turcoman' or 'Turkmens'. In Turkey's general parlance today, the terms "Turkmen" and "Yoruk" indicate the gradual degrees of preserved attachment with the former semi-nomadic lifestyle of the populations concerned, with the "Turkmen" now leading a fully sedentary life, while keeping parts of their heritage through folklore and traditions, in arts like carpet-weaving, with the continued habit of keeping a yayla house for the summers, sometimes in relation to the Alevi community etc. and with Yörüks maintaining a yet stronger association with nomadism. These names ultimately hint to their Oghuz Turkish roots. The remaining transhumant or "true" Yörüks of today's Anatolian region traditionally use the camel as means of transportation though these are more and more replaced by trucks.
Clans closely related to the Yorouks are scattered throughout the Anatolian peninsula and beyond its boundaries, particularly around the chain of Taurus Mountains and further east around the shores of the Caspian sea. Of the Turcomans of Iran, the Yomuts come the closest to the definition of the Yörüks. An interesting offshoot of the Yorouk mass are the Tahtadji of the mountainous regions of Western Anatolia who, as their name implies, have been occupied with forestry work and wood craftsmanship for centuries, although they share similar traditions (with markedly matriarchal tones in their society structure) with their other Yorouk cousins. The Qashqai people of southern Iran (around Shiraz), and the Chepni of Turkey's Black Sea region are also worthy of mention due to their shared characteristics. A considerable number of the original Turkish population of Northern Cyprus are also of Yoruk descent.