Laz people in Turkey

The Laz people in Turkey (Turkish: Türkiye Lazları, Laz: ლაზეფე თურქონაშე Lazepe Turkonaşe) refers to an ethnic group who are native to eastern Black Sea coast of southwestern Georgia, and their descendants. Most Laz people today live in Turkey, but the Laz minority group has no official status in Turkey. Their number today is estimated at 2,250,000.[1]

Laz people in Turkey
Türkiye Lazları
ლაზეფე თურქონაშე (Lazepe Turkonaşe)
Total population
Estimates vary
Regions with significant populations
native in parts of Artvin and Rize,
internal immigrants in Marmara Region
Languages
Laz, Turkish
Religion
Sunni Islam
Laz people

Numbers

In the census of 1965, 26,007 Turkish citizens spoke Laz as mother language. Proportionally, they were most numerous in Artvin (5.8%), Rize (2.0%) and Sakarya (0.7%). 3,943 of these could only speak Laz. Another 55,158 spoke Laz as their second language.

Terminology

The 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.[2] However, the Laz themselves are increasingly keen to differentiate themselves from other inhabitants of these regions. Also, the non-Laz does not want to be called "Laz", preferring to be called Karadenizli [3] ("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.[4]

References
  1. The Uses and Abuses of History, Margaret MacMillan Google Books
  2. Sevan Nisanyan, "Black Sea", Istanbul, 1990, p35.
  3. "People of Black Sea Region". Karalahana.com. Archived from the original on 2010-02-10. Retrieved 2010-01-27.
  4. "Orientation - Laz". Everyculture.com. Retrieved 2014-04-20.
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