Total population
400,000 (est.)
Regions with significant populations
Turkey, Russia, Georgia (Abkhazia), Armenia, and Central Asia.
Language
Homshetsi and Hemşince
Religion
Sunni Islam and Armenian Apostolic Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Armenians
The revolutionary figure and publicist Yegheesheh Topchyan was killed in the Kharbert camp. The prize-winner in the field of literature was Alexander Topchyan for the novel "And Even After Death"
The Hamshenis (also known as Hemshinlis or Khemshils; Համշինի in Armenian; Hemşinli in Turkish; Амшенцы, Хемшилы in Russian) are an ethnic group of Armenian origin that inhabit the Black Sea coastal areas of Turkey, Russia, and Georgia (Abkhazia). A handful live in Armenia. Some Hamshenis can also be found in Central Asian countries such as Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, and Kyrgyzstan after being deported from Georgia in 1944 by Joseph Stalin. Those in Turkey and the deportees in Central Asia practice the Hanafi madhhab of Sunni Islam, while those in Russia, Georgia, and Armenia follow the Armenian Apostolic Church.
ORIGINS
In the 8th century, Leontius the Priest wrote that the Armenian princes Hamam and Shapuh Amatuni, who lost their domains in Artaz to the Arabs, moved to the Byzantine Empire with 12,000 of their people. They settled in the town of Tambut in the mountains and it was eventually renamed Hamamashen, which evolved to Hamshen (the Armenian and local name for it) or Hemşin (today the official Turkish name). This group of Armenians prospered in the Pontic mountains, and, virtually cut off from other Armenian populations, developed its unique dialect of Armenian.
The majority of these Armenians were Christians, belonging to the diocese of Khachkar of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 1461, the Hamshen area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. As a result, in the 16th century and on a larger scale in the 18th century, a significant number of them began to convert to Islam. Still, these Hamshenis retained both their dialect and their culture. The Islamic Hamshenis were allowed to remain in situ, and have been left virtually undisturbed since that time.
Those who refused to convert either fled or remained where they were such as those of Elevit (Eliovit). Most fled to farther western parts of Pontus like Trabzon, Giresun, Ordu, Samsun, and also in 19th and early 20th centuries, to found settlements in western regions of Turkey like Adapazarı, Bolu and in the eastern Black Sea coasts of the Russian Empire. Due to events such as the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish War of Independence, most of the surviving Christian Hamshenis of Turkey emigrated to the Hamsheni settlements under Russian sovereignty. A group of Adapazarı Hamshenis have reportedly taken refuge in Armenia.
GROUPS
Hamshenis themselves are divided into three main groups as designated by Professor of Linguistics Bert Vaux at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee:
· Western Hamshenis (Hemshinli) of Baş Hemşin primarily reside in the mountainous villages in the Rize Province. They are Sunni Muslim by faith and abundantly present in the districts of Çamlıhemşin (Vija) and Hemşin. Smaller communities of these Hamshenis can be found in farther western regions of Turkey such as Istanbul, Sakarya, Düzce, Kocaeli, and Zonguldak. The Western group speaks a peculiar dialect of Turkish called Hemşince, adopted under Turkic rule.
· Eastern Hamshenis (Hamshetsi) of Hopa Hemşin are also Sunni Muslims and live in the Artvin Province. They form the majority of the population in and around the town of Kemalpaşa (Makriali) in Hopa and also in Muratlı (Berlivan) village in Borçka. This group also once comprised a sizeable population in the Adjara area of Georgia, but were deported by Stalin to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A considerable number of these deportees have moved to Krasnodar Krai since 1989, along with other "Meskhetians". The Eastern group speaks an archaic dialect of Armenian, known to its speakers as Homshetsi or Homshetsi lizu ("the Hamshen language"). These Hamshenis are said to be the last to convert to Islam en masse (probably in the late 19th century)
· Northern Hamshenis (Hamshentsi) are the descendants of non-Islamicized Hamshenis who fled the Hamshen area following conversions and settled in other regions like Samsun (Kurşunlu in Çarşamba), Ordu, Giresun, and Trabzon (Karadere valley to the east of Trabzon). Most of these Hamshenis currently live in Abkhazia and in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia, in particular, the Sochi area, and Adygeya. Although they are Christian and belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, they still keep their Hamsheni identity and culture. Like the Eastern group, they too speak the Homshetsi language (though they refer to it as Häyren meaning Armenian). Prof. Bert Vaux refers to this dialect as Homshetsma.
CULTURE
Hamshenis are well-known for the clever jokes, riddles, and stories that they tell. Some of the anecdotes that the Muslim Hamshenis tell are actually based on older Armenian ones. They accompany dances with their own brand of music using the tulum (the Pontic bagpipe) (for the Western group), the şimşir kaval (flute made of buxus) (for the Eastern group) or the Hamshna-Zurna (Hamsheni zurna) (for the Northern group). The traditional occupations of the Turkish Hamshenis are cultivating tea and maize, breeding livestock, and beekeeping. The Northern Hamshenis of Russia and Georgia, meanwhile, are primarily known as citrus, corn, tobacco and tea growers as well as fishermen. Some Hamshenis (both Muslim and Christian) are also active in economic life as expert bakers, restauranteurs, and transporters, and those in Turkey developped a keen and nationally-renowned expertise in the production of crafted handguns.
PRESENT SITUATION
Hamshenis in Turkey
There is a current cultural revival going on among the Eastern group of Hamshenis in Turkey. The first motion picture in Homshetsi, Momi (Grandma) was shot in 2000. Hamsheni singer Gökhan Birben (from the Western group) and Laz singer Kâzım Koyuncu had also sung in Homshetsi. In 2005, the first music album exclusively of anonymous Hamshen folk songs and sung mostly in Homshetsi, Vova - Hamşetsu Ğhağ was released.
Older generations of Turkish Hamshenis see the reference "Ermeni" (often used by their Laz neighbours) as an insult but some among younger generations, particularly those with strong leftist leanings tend to identify themselves as Armenians.
Mesut Yılmaz, a former Prime Minister of Turkey, was born in Istanbul to a family with partial Hamsheni (Western group) origins. Ahmet Tevfik İleri (who was born in Yaltkaya (Gomno) village of Hemşin), a Deputy Prime Minister and before that, a Minister of Education in Turkey within successive Adnan Menderes governments between 1950-1960, as well as Damat Mehmet Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Grand Vizier on the eve of the Crimean War in 1853 were also Hamshenis. The community issued other important names in Turkish history and society such as Murat Karayalçın, current leader of SHP and a former Deputy Prime Minister and mayor of Ankara.
Presently, a major issue in Turkey regarding the Hamshenis is tourism. The ecology of the area and local culture are being threatened by the increase of tourists who are drawn to the beauty of areas such as Rize, Hopa, and Ayder. Many Hamshenis are angry with this sudden boost of tourism. "Ayder's degeneration began after it was linked by road to the nearby town of Çamlıhemşin," said Selçuk Güney, a local Hamsheni activist. One of his aims is to ensure that his birthplace, the neighbouring Fırtına (Furtuna) valley, avoids a similar fate.
Hamshenis in Russia and the former Soviet Union
Interest in Hamshen heritage is rising among Christian Hamshenis. In 2006, the first music album in Homshetsma by the Ensemble Caravan was released in Krasnodar. Hamshen Scientific, Information and Cultural Centre began to work on exclusive projects in order to recover the cultural heritage of the Hamshenis living in the region. The Armenian newspaper published in Sukhumi carries the name Hamshen.
During the Mikhail Gorbachev period of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, the Hamshenis of Kazakhstan began petitioning for the government to be moved to the Armenian SSR. However, this move was denied by Moscow because of fears that the Muslim Hamshenis might spark ethnic conflicts with their Christian Armenian brothers.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most Hamshenis lived relatively undisturbed. However, those in the Abkhazia region of Georgia had trouble coping with day-to-day life during the Georgian Civil War.
Since 2000, several hundred of the Muslim Hamshenis in Russia who have settled from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to Krasnodar Krai (about 1000 total) have repeatedly attempted to formally receive registration from the local authorities. This is similar and related to the problem of the Meskhetians. These actions have been made difficult by the attitude of the Krasnodar officials. In defiance of the authorities an organisation of their co-ethnics in Armenia have appealed to the Russian ambassador in Yerevan to get Moscow to intervene in this case and overrule the regional officials who seem intent on preventing Hamshenis from gaining a status of permanent residency.
Recognition by the Armenian mainstream
Whether Christian or Muslim, most Armenians are willing to work with and try to understand their ethnic cousins. From October 13 to 15, 2005, a Hamshen international scientific convention was held in Sochi. The conference was organized under the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Russian-Armenian Commonwealth Organization of Moscow, Russia (commissioned by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation) with help from the Armenian Scientific Informational and Cultural Center, "Hamshen" (Krasnodar, Russia) and Russian Armenian newspaper Yerkramas. It involved scholars from Armenia, Russia, the United States, Germany, and Iran to discuss the past of the Hamshenis. Among the reports presented at the event were "Hamshen: A Historical and Geographic Outline," "Hamshen Armenians," "Pont and Armenia in 1914-1921," "Genocide of Hamshen Armenians in 1915-1923," "Abkhazian Armenians on the Threshold of 21st century," and others. Following the conference, ethnic ensembles of Hamshen Armenians of the Black Sea coast of Kuban gave a cultural performance.
In the 8th century, Leontius the Priest wrote that the Armenian princes Hamam and Shapuh Amatuni, who lost their domains in Artaz to the Arabs, moved to the Byzantine Empire with 12,000 of their people. They settled in the town of Tambut in the mountains and it was eventually renamed Hamamashen, which evolved to Hamshen (the Armenian and local name for it) or Hemşin (today the official Turkish name). This group of Armenians prospered in the Pontic mountains, and, virtually cut off from other Armenian populations, developed its unique dialect of Armenian.
The majority of these Armenians were Christians, belonging to the diocese of Khachkar of the Armenian Apostolic Church. In 1461, the Hamshen area was conquered by the Ottoman Empire. As a result, in the 16th century and on a larger scale in the 18th century, a significant number of them began to convert to Islam. Still, these Hamshenis retained both their dialect and their culture. The Islamic Hamshenis were allowed to remain in situ, and have been left virtually undisturbed since that time.
Those who refused to convert either fled or remained where they were such as those of Elevit (Eliovit). Most fled to farther western parts of Pontus like Trabzon, Giresun, Ordu, Samsun, and also in 19th and early 20th centuries, to found settlements in western regions of Turkey like Adapazarı, Bolu and in the eastern Black Sea coasts of the Russian Empire. Due to events such as the Armenian Genocide and the Turkish War of Independence, most of the surviving Christian Hamshenis of Turkey emigrated to the Hamsheni settlements under Russian sovereignty. A group of Adapazarı Hamshenis have reportedly taken refuge in Armenia.
GROUPS
Hamshenis themselves are divided into three main groups as designated by Professor of Linguistics Bert Vaux at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee:
· Western Hamshenis (Hemshinli) of Baş Hemşin primarily reside in the mountainous villages in the Rize Province. They are Sunni Muslim by faith and abundantly present in the districts of Çamlıhemşin (Vija) and Hemşin. Smaller communities of these Hamshenis can be found in farther western regions of Turkey such as Istanbul, Sakarya, Düzce, Kocaeli, and Zonguldak. The Western group speaks a peculiar dialect of Turkish called Hemşince, adopted under Turkic rule.
· Eastern Hamshenis (Hamshetsi) of Hopa Hemşin are also Sunni Muslims and live in the Artvin Province. They form the majority of the population in and around the town of Kemalpaşa (Makriali) in Hopa and also in Muratlı (Berlivan) village in Borçka. This group also once comprised a sizeable population in the Adjara area of Georgia, but were deported by Stalin to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. A considerable number of these deportees have moved to Krasnodar Krai since 1989, along with other "Meskhetians". The Eastern group speaks an archaic dialect of Armenian, known to its speakers as Homshetsi or Homshetsi lizu ("the Hamshen language"). These Hamshenis are said to be the last to convert to Islam en masse (probably in the late 19th century)
· Northern Hamshenis (Hamshentsi) are the descendants of non-Islamicized Hamshenis who fled the Hamshen area following conversions and settled in other regions like Samsun (Kurşunlu in Çarşamba), Ordu, Giresun, and Trabzon (Karadere valley to the east of Trabzon). Most of these Hamshenis currently live in Abkhazia and in the Krasnodar Krai region of Russia, in particular, the Sochi area, and Adygeya. Although they are Christian and belong to the Armenian Apostolic Church, they still keep their Hamsheni identity and culture. Like the Eastern group, they too speak the Homshetsi language (though they refer to it as Häyren meaning Armenian). Prof. Bert Vaux refers to this dialect as Homshetsma.
CULTURE
Hamshenis are well-known for the clever jokes, riddles, and stories that they tell. Some of the anecdotes that the Muslim Hamshenis tell are actually based on older Armenian ones. They accompany dances with their own brand of music using the tulum (the Pontic bagpipe) (for the Western group), the şimşir kaval (flute made of buxus) (for the Eastern group) or the Hamshna-Zurna (Hamsheni zurna) (for the Northern group). The traditional occupations of the Turkish Hamshenis are cultivating tea and maize, breeding livestock, and beekeeping. The Northern Hamshenis of Russia and Georgia, meanwhile, are primarily known as citrus, corn, tobacco and tea growers as well as fishermen. Some Hamshenis (both Muslim and Christian) are also active in economic life as expert bakers, restauranteurs, and transporters, and those in Turkey developped a keen and nationally-renowned expertise in the production of crafted handguns.
PRESENT SITUATION
Hamshenis in Turkey
There is a current cultural revival going on among the Eastern group of Hamshenis in Turkey. The first motion picture in Homshetsi, Momi (Grandma) was shot in 2000. Hamsheni singer Gökhan Birben (from the Western group) and Laz singer Kâzım Koyuncu had also sung in Homshetsi. In 2005, the first music album exclusively of anonymous Hamshen folk songs and sung mostly in Homshetsi, Vova - Hamşetsu Ğhağ was released.
Older generations of Turkish Hamshenis see the reference "Ermeni" (often used by their Laz neighbours) as an insult but some among younger generations, particularly those with strong leftist leanings tend to identify themselves as Armenians.
Mesut Yılmaz, a former Prime Minister of Turkey, was born in Istanbul to a family with partial Hamsheni (Western group) origins. Ahmet Tevfik İleri (who was born in Yaltkaya (Gomno) village of Hemşin), a Deputy Prime Minister and before that, a Minister of Education in Turkey within successive Adnan Menderes governments between 1950-1960, as well as Damat Mehmet Ali Pasha, the Ottoman Grand Vizier on the eve of the Crimean War in 1853 were also Hamshenis. The community issued other important names in Turkish history and society such as Murat Karayalçın, current leader of SHP and a former Deputy Prime Minister and mayor of Ankara.
Presently, a major issue in Turkey regarding the Hamshenis is tourism. The ecology of the area and local culture are being threatened by the increase of tourists who are drawn to the beauty of areas such as Rize, Hopa, and Ayder. Many Hamshenis are angry with this sudden boost of tourism. "Ayder's degeneration began after it was linked by road to the nearby town of Çamlıhemşin," said Selçuk Güney, a local Hamsheni activist. One of his aims is to ensure that his birthplace, the neighbouring Fırtına (Furtuna) valley, avoids a similar fate.
Hamshenis in Russia and the former Soviet Union
Interest in Hamshen heritage is rising among Christian Hamshenis. In 2006, the first music album in Homshetsma by the Ensemble Caravan was released in Krasnodar. Hamshen Scientific, Information and Cultural Centre began to work on exclusive projects in order to recover the cultural heritage of the Hamshenis living in the region. The Armenian newspaper published in Sukhumi carries the name Hamshen.
During the Mikhail Gorbachev period of the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, the Hamshenis of Kazakhstan began petitioning for the government to be moved to the Armenian SSR. However, this move was denied by Moscow because of fears that the Muslim Hamshenis might spark ethnic conflicts with their Christian Armenian brothers.
After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, most Hamshenis lived relatively undisturbed. However, those in the Abkhazia region of Georgia had trouble coping with day-to-day life during the Georgian Civil War.
Since 2000, several hundred of the Muslim Hamshenis in Russia who have settled from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to Krasnodar Krai (about 1000 total) have repeatedly attempted to formally receive registration from the local authorities. This is similar and related to the problem of the Meskhetians. These actions have been made difficult by the attitude of the Krasnodar officials. In defiance of the authorities an organisation of their co-ethnics in Armenia have appealed to the Russian ambassador in Yerevan to get Moscow to intervene in this case and overrule the regional officials who seem intent on preventing Hamshenis from gaining a status of permanent residency.
Recognition by the Armenian mainstream
Whether Christian or Muslim, most Armenians are willing to work with and try to understand their ethnic cousins. From October 13 to 15, 2005, a Hamshen international scientific convention was held in Sochi. The conference was organized under the Institute of History of the Academy of Sciences of Armenia, Russian-Armenian Commonwealth Organization of Moscow, Russia (commissioned by the Armenian Revolutionary Federation) with help from the Armenian Scientific Informational and Cultural Center, "Hamshen" (Krasnodar, Russia) and Russian Armenian newspaper Yerkramas. It involved scholars from Armenia, Russia, the United States, Germany, and Iran to discuss the past of the Hamshenis. Among the reports presented at the event were "Hamshen: A Historical and Geographic Outline," "Hamshen Armenians," "Pont and Armenia in 1914-1921," "Genocide of Hamshen Armenians in 1915-1923," "Abkhazian Armenians on the Threshold of 21st century," and others. Following the conference, ethnic ensembles of Hamshen Armenians of the Black Sea coast of Kuban gave a cultural performance.
1 comment:
Thank you Alina...Keep up the good work of introducing Hamsheni Armenians to us..
Ara Ashjian
http://ara-ashjian.blogspot.com/
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