Hemshin people - Knowledge

938:

and hands lopped off. Then, taking the Iranians, crossed the Chorox river and went to Hamam's city, named Tambur, which he attacked with fire and sword and enslaved. Now the blessed bishop of the city, Manknos, severely cursed the prince. ordered the Iranians to kill the priests in the church named Holy Zion. The bishop had silently prayed to God to ask only that the city be turned into a desert and a ruin and that for all eternity no one reside there. He threw himself on the altar and sacrificed him on Pentecost before mass was offered to Christ. On the next day there was a cloudburst and was consumed by fire as he sat by the city gates of Tambur. Hamam subsequently built this calling it after himself, Hamamashen. And Mangnos' prayer was realized. In one night 3,000 men died, others fled, and the city remained a ruin.

1265:

Hamshenis". Hemşinli and Hopa Hemşinli are separated not only by geography but also by language and some features of culture. The two groups are almost oblivious to one another's existence. Simonian reports various theories regarding the appearance of the Hopa Hemshinli group. Those theories relate to whether the groups migrated from Hemshin or they were settled by the Ottoman authorities, whether the migration/settlement was in the early 16th or late 17th centuries, and whether the migration took place in one step or two waves. The Hopa Hemşinli are exclusively Muslim as well. Simonian reports that there is a controversy regarding whether they arrived in the Hopa region as Muslims or converted to Islam after arrival.

1008:. The translation of He'tum's related passage to modern English uses the term Hamshen. Hayton describes the region to be "miraculous and strange place" unbelievable unless seen by one's own eyes, dark and without roads. Signs of human settlement are that "People in those parts say that one frequently hears the sounds of men bellowing, of cocks crowing, of horses neighing in the forest," Those people are described by Hayton, leaning upon Georgian and Armenian Histories, to be the descendants of the men of the "wicked" Iranian Emperor Shaworeos who had chased and harassed Christian people. The referenced translation suggests this Emperor could be 1393:, "offered no security for minorities" with "the tiny Hemşinli group having especially compelling reasons to keep its head down" because "its members are the descendants of Armenians." Beginning in the 1930s, a number of Turkish historians attempted to ascribe an entirely Turkish origin to the Hemshinli, the most prominent of them being M. Fahrettin Kırzıoğlu, whose theories have since gained wide currency among the community. His theories on the Hemshinli, however, have come under close scrutiny and have been roundly criticized. The German scholars Wolfgang Feurstein and Tucha Berdsena describe Kırzıoğlu's methodology as so: 289: 1667: 1645: 977: 973:

in Mamikonian's history, and cautions not to take everything at face value. Hachikian states "There is no clue as to where Tambur, the legendary capital of Hamshen, was located. The only certain thing about it is that it clearly belonged to a much earlier time - if it existed at all". He also mentions in the footnote the name similarity between Tambur and a yayla known as Tahpur or Tagpur, in the heights of Kaptanpasa. Simonian states that Tambur is probably in the vicinity of Varoşkale (altitude 1800 m).

69: 1286: 1741: 3650: 177: 97: 195: 1575: 1355: 1501:'s external aid instrument, that touch their issues. The more recently (2007) launched "Ecodialogue Project" has set itself as goal raising environment consciousness of the region's enterprises and improving the poor levels and quality of the information relayed by local guides, many of whom are self-styled and unlicensed. The other project, started 2004 and involving also the 1410:("Grandma"), released in 2000. As a result, Alper was accused in the Court for State Security of producing material intended to destroy the unity of the state, under article 8 of Turkey's anti-terror law. This law was repealed in 2003 after EU pressure, and Alper's trial did not go ahead. Hamsheni singer 1272:

In addition to these two groups there are people speaking Hemşince / Homshetsma in the countries of the former USSR whose ancestors probably originated from Hemşin and/or Hopa Hemşin in course of the various population movements to the Caucasus. Many of the Muslim Hemşince speakers in the former USSR

1521:

Interest in Hamshen heritage is rising among Christian Hamshenis in the former Soviet Union. 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

1023:

Sources of the ruling powers in the region, (Byzantine, Trapezuntine, Georgian, Armenian and Turkish) are silent about Hemshin; until the conquest by the Ottomans. It is deduced that Hemşin has been governed by local lords under the umbrella of the greater regional powers changing by the time namely

1246:

Two major developments in the Hemshin region during the Ottoman era: Islamization and population movements. Islam may have begun to spread prior to the Ottoman rule, but it did not become the general religion before the end of the 16th century. A number of population movements (both into and out of

972:

Benninghaus specifies "Tambur" as the destination of the migration led by Hamam and his father Shapuh Amaduni and says that they have seemingly met people there who were already Christians, possibly Greeks. Redgate informs about possible symbolism used in the Ghewond's history and possible garbling

937:

As soon as read the letter, another letter arrived the same day from Vashdean's sister's son, Hamam, acquainting with the treachery before him from the troops who had come from Iran. He immediately wrote a letter to Vashdean reprimanding him for his plot. Vashdean grew angry and had Hamam's feet

3261:

The origin of another Armenian Diaspora community, Hamshenis, has been a controversial subject for scholars of various disciplines throughout the years. Three regions were considered as a putative homeland for this isolated ethnic group, namely Eastern Armenia, Western Armenia and Central Asia.

1268:

The Hopa Hemşinli speak a language called "Hemşince" or ("Homşetsi" and/or Homshetsma in some sources) as well as Turkish. Recent studies by Hovann Simonian (Author: The Hemshin: A Handbook (Caucasus World)) suggest that this language is an archaic dialect of Armenian subject to influence from

1019:

In his analysis of the literary and non-literary sources from the 8th through the 19th centuries, combined with excursions into Hamšēn during the 1980s to identify the surviving Armenian architecture, Dr. Robert W. Edwards has defined the geographical perimeters of that region and assessed the

873:

is located to be populated by a people with different designations throughout the ancient and early medieval history. He indicates thereby that some designations may have alternative forms and partially presents the names used with question marks. In summary from 13th century to 6th century BC

1264:

A distinct community settled about 50 km east of Hemşin in villages around Hopa and Borçka also call themselves "Hemşinli". They are often referred to as the "Hopa Hemşinli". Professor of Linguistics Bert Vaux at the University of Wisconsin-Milwaukee refers to this group as the "Eastern

1397:

At first Kırzıoğlu assaults the reader with a flow of historical peoples; he then searches for some kind of phonetic correspondence or similarity with an old Turkish tribe, flavors this alleged historical outpouring with a pinch of "Islam," and presents himself as a competent researcher of

1297:

Hemshin peoples are well known for their baking, tea growing, and the clever jokes, riddles, and stories that they tell. Some of the anecdotes that the Muslim Hemshinli tell are actually based on older Armenian ones. They accompany dances with their own brand of music using the

1598:

From October 13 to 15, 2005, a Hamsheni 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 (commissioned by the

1000:, written around 1307, translated into English in 1520, and later reproduced in the travellers' tales of Samuel Purchas published in 1614. Purchas uses the term "Hamsem" to designate the region and concludes that this is the place of the original Cimmerian gloom of 1366:

The people of Hemshin are known for their traditional dress. Women often choose to wrap their head with a "pushi" or long piece of cloth donned with beads, while men often choose to wear hats and vests made of wool or cotton.

1015:

Simonian considers the so described difficulty in access not to imply total isolation. On the contrary, he reports, Hamshen served sometimes as a transit route between the coastal regions and the Armenian Highlands.

932:

in a short passage about a war between the ruler of Tambur, Hamam, and his maternal uncle the Georgian Prince, which resulted in the destruction of the town to be rebuilt by Hamam and be named after him, namely

3262:

However, the results of the genetic survey based on the Y-chromosomal markers indicated the central part of historical Armenia as a plausible place of origin for the Hamsheni population (Margaryan et al. 2011).

1269:

Turkish and Laz. Vaux also reports that "Hemşince" has been subject to influence from Turkish to a much greater extent than other Armenian dialects. Hemşince and Armenian are largely mutually unintelligible.

1273:

were deported from the Adjara area of Georgia during the Stalin era to Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan. Since 1989, a considerable number of these deportees have moved to Krasnodar Krai since 1989, along with the

1563:. 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 805:

during the second half of the 15th century. In Turkey, apart from those living in provinces of Artvin and Sakarya, Hemshin people do not speak the Homshetsi dialect and their mother tongue is Turkish.

1261:

The present community of Hemshinli is exclusively Muslim and Turkish speaking. This goes for the people living in Hemshin or people maintaining links to the area and living elsewhere in Turkey.

1726:(1947–1972) – political activist, revolutionary and militant who was leader of left-wing organisations such as People's Liberation Army of Turkey and Revolutionary Youth Federation of Turkey. 1703:(1947–2020) – politician who has held ministerial positions such as minister of culture and tourism, minister of state and deputy prime minister, including prime ministry also chairman of 1548:

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

857:

first settled in that region in the end of 8th century. While escaping Arab persecutions, about 12,000 Armenians led by Prince Shapuh Amatuni and his son Hamam moved to

816:

and in the Western part of the Black Sea coast. Thus, is a significant Hamsheni population were formed in Trabzon, Artvin and Western part of the Black Sea coast.

2846: 2157:

Türkiye'de yaşayan Hemşinlilerin Hopa, Borçka ve Adapazarı'ında yaşayanlarının dışındakiler, Ermenice'nin bir lehçesi olan Hemşin Ermenicesi'ni konuşamamaktadır.

1251:

some Hemshinli who were members of the Armenian Orthodox Church emigrated to other countries on the eastern Black Sea during the early centuries of Ottoman rule;

2797: 1559:(about 1000 total) have repeatedly attempted to formally receive registration from the local authorities. This is similar and related to the problem of the 2904: 3552: 1545:. However, this move was denied by Moscow because of fears that the Muslim Hamshenis might spark ethnic conflicts with their Christian Armenian brothers. 921:(654–750). The specific location of Hemşin is indicated as Tambur/Hamamašen as a fort and town for the first time in the map covering the period 654–750. 1254:

some Muslim Hemshinli migrated to western Anatolia and the Caucasus as a result of the Turco-Russian wars and related hardships during the 19th century;

3381:. UCLA Armenian History and Culture Series: Historic Armenian Cities and Provinces. Vol. 8. Costa Mesa, CA: Mazda Publishers. pp. 382–387. 1571:

to intervene in this case and overrule the regional officials who seem intent on preventing Hamshenis from gaining a status of permanent residency.

3638: 2405:

Purchas his Pilgrimage, or, Relations of the world and the religions obserued in all ages and places discoured, from the Creation vnto this present

1247:

the region) also happened during the Ottoman era. Even though detailed information regarding the nature of these movements is missing, in summary:

2403: 1697:(1911–1961) – statesman who served as deputy prime minister, minister of national education, minister of public works and minister of transport. 3425: 829:

The origins of the Hemshin people has remained a subject of debate among scholars. The main two purported homelands of the Hemshin have been

3508: 3816: 3616: 1688: 1590:

In the 2002 Russian Federation census, 1,542 people identified themselves as Hamshenis, two-thirds of whom were living in Krasnodar Krai.

773:

who practice Sunni Islam after they had been converted from Christianity in the beginning of the 18th century and are affiliated with the

3862: 1603:) with help from the Armenian Scientific Informational and Cultural Center, "Hamshen" (Krasnodar, Russia) and Russian Armenian newspaper 808:

For centuries, the ongoing migration from the geographically isolated highlands to lowlands made Hemshin people settle in the areas near

3186: 3811: 3268:

Edwards, Robert W. (1988). "Hamšēn: An Armenian Enclave in the Byzanto-Georgian Pontos. A Survey of Literary and Nonliterary Sources".

1991: 1422:

had also sung in Homshetsi. In 2005, the first music album exclusively of anonymous Hamshen folk songs and sung mostly in Homshetsi,

3536: 1347:. The Northern Hamshenis of Russia and Georgia, meanwhile, are primarily known as citrus, corn, tobacco and tea growers as well as 2966: 1687:(b. 1943) – politician who served as minister of foreign affairs, deputy prime minister, mayor of Ankara and the founder of the 3028:. Supplements to the Tübingen Atlas of the Middle East: Series B (Humanities) No. 60.2. Wiesbaden: Dr. Ludwig Reichert Verlag. 2864: 3441: 3386:

Benninghaus, Rüdiger (2002) . "Zur Herkunft und Identität der Hemşinli ". In Andrews, Peter A.; Benninghaus, Rüdiger (eds.).

3354: 3089: 3472: 1124:

As a result of those developments, distinctive communities with the same generic name have also appeared in the vicinity of

961:

and his son Hamam. Ghewond conveys this immigration to be to avoid heavy taxes imposed on Armenians by the Arab rulers. The

3631: 2874:(8). The Strengthening Freedom of Association for Further Development of Civil Society Project. April 2007. Archived from 3326: 3303: 3050: 2935: 2894:

himself had as primary Hemshinli informant a young man in his twenties, whose name was changed "to protect the innocent".

1474:

in 1853 were also of Hamsheni descent. The community issued other important names in Turkish history and society such as

718: 1117:

and members of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The details and the accompanying circumstances for the migrations and the

837:. A 2011 genetic survey based on the Y-chromosomal markers of the Hemshin indicated the central part of the historical 2140: 3857: 3806: 3492: 3411: 3336:

Wixman, R. (2012). "K̲h̲ems̲h̲in". In P. Bearman; Th. Bianquis; C.E. Bosworth; E. van Donzel; W.P. Heinrichs (eds.).

2703: 1600: 3135:

Hachikian, Hagop (2007). "Notes on the Historical Geography and Present Territorial Distribution of the Hemshinli".

1915: 3847: 3842: 3837: 2805: 1555:

Since 2000, several hundred of the Muslim Hamshenis in Russia who have resettled from Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan to

957:

of Taron, report in short passages in their histories about a migration from Armenia/Oshakan led by prince Shapuh

3624: 1938: 2917: 3872: 3605: 1058:

The Ottoman conquest of Hemshin occurred sometime in the 1480s: an Ottoman register dated around 1486 calls it

2432: 3710: 3577: 1467: 460: 3646: 1961: 131: 2305: 114: 692: 572: 567: 3162:

Redgate, Anne Elizabeth (2007). "Morale, Cohesion and Power in the First Centuries of Amatuni Hamshen".

1541:

in the late 1980s, the Hamshenis of Kazakhstan began petitioning for the government to move them to the

2409: 688: 1880: 1704: 1204: 1082: 794: 611: 599: 558: 241: 17: 3430:

Evidence and Counter-Evidence: Essays in honour of Frederik Kortlandt. Volume 2, General linguistics

3867: 3742: 2912: 1502: 563: 2052: 3852: 3516: 3153:

Simonian, Hovann H. (2007b). "Hemshin from Islamicization to the End of the Nineteenth Century".

1331:) (for the Northern group). The traditional occupations of the Turkish Hemshinli are cultivating 711: 643: 625: 494: 418: 3223: 1398:

Turkishness. Probably never before has a single person in Turkey falsified history so massively!

3705: 3654: 3374: 1987: 1840: 1460: 965:

lords are offered fertile land to settle down by the Byzantine Emperor, after they crossed the

619: 489: 465: 288: 3732: 3727: 3197: 1684: 1675: 1522:

cultural heritage of the Hamshenis living in the region. The Armenian newspaper published in

1475: 1372: 969:. This migration is dated to be after 789 by Ghewond and as 750 by Stephen Asoghik of Taron. 348: 305: 3117:

Benninghaus, Rüdiger (2007). "Turk and Hemshinli: Manipulating Ethnic Origin and Identity".

1444: 3715: 3678: 3566:"CD with Songs Having Lyrics in Hamshen Dialect of Armenian Language Released in Krasnodar" 1973: 1870: 1118: 1110: 586: 446: 441: 414: 122: 8: 3790: 3785: 3780: 3775: 3770: 3765: 3760: 3722: 3683: 3421: 3291: 1855: 1825: 1718: 1644: 1498: 1452: 1113:. Most sources agree that prior to Ottoman era majority of the residents of Hemshin were 1074: 1055:

which collapsed as a result of the World War I and gave birth to the Republic of Turkey.

1033: 549: 484: 470: 455: 450: 432: 427: 423: 390: 385: 373: 363: 328: 3544: 3126:

Blasing, Uwe (2007). "Armenian in the vocabulary and culture of the Turkish Hemshinli".

2820: 2763: 1483: 1359: 1157: 981: 778: 3695: 3433: 3252: 2974: 2936:"Muslim Armenians Part III: The Current Situation of Hamshentsi Armenians in the World" 2430: 2174: 1666: 1549: 1448: 1429:

Older generations of Turkish Hemshinli see the reference "Ermeni" (often used by their

1419: 1090: 1037: 989: 838: 704: 670: 499: 479: 437: 399: 395: 338: 296: 3524: 3144:

Simonian, Hovann H. (2007a). "Hamshen Before Hemshin: The Prelude to Islamicization".

2095: 2093: 118: 110: 3737: 3437: 3407: 3350: 3322: 3299: 3244: 3085: 3046: 1534: 1230: 997: 736: 665: 649: 595: 475: 404: 380: 219: 215: 49: 950:

who conveys this story reports also that the date given by the author may be wrong.

849:

The region of Hemshin is located on the coast of the Black sea, in the highlands of

167: 3752: 3688: 3279: 3256: 3236: 3060: 2875: 2090: 1860: 1850: 1560: 1274: 1234: 1149: 1094: 1086: 1029: 1025: 954: 946:

to have taken place in early seventh century. Hamamashen became Hamshen over time.

866: 862: 750: 683: 679: 630: 367: 333: 314: 224: 163: 149: 140: 31: 3209: 1761: 1749: 1411: 976: 634: 3700: 3673: 3565: 3479: 3072: 2301: 1771: 1305: 1300: 1290: 1229:. They speak Homshetsma as well. There are also some Muslim Hamshentsi living in 1200: 1106: 947: 929: 858: 834: 830: 409: 127: 2647: 1700: 1694: 1653: 1436: 3668: 3173: