Ethnic Groups at ‘Critical Junctures’: The Laz vs. Kurds

Abstract

Click to increase image sizeClick to decrease image size Notes See P.A. Andrews, Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey (Göttingen: Hubert and Co. 1989). Although the origin of the Kurds is still disputed, one prevalent view asserts that the Kurds are the descendants of Medes, an Indo-European tribe. See N. Entessar, Kurdish Ethnonationalism (Boulder, CO and London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1992), p.3; P.J. White, Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers? The Kurdish National Movement in Turkey (London and New York: Zed Books, 2000), p.14. There has been no consensus on the size of the Kurdish population in Turkey. For a widely-shared view, there are about 25 million Kurds living in the Middle East and at least half of them live in Turkey, corresponding to 17 per cent of total population (see M.M. Gunter, The Kurds in Turkey: APolitical Dilemma (Boulder, San Francisco and Oxford: Westview Press, 1990), p.1; D. McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds (London: I.B. Tauris, 1996), p.3. Regarding its linguistic and religious characteristics, the Kurdish language is identified as a member of the Iranian languages, which stem from the Indo-European family (Entessar, Kurdish Ethnonationalism, p.4; White, Primitive Rebels orRevolutionary Modernizers?, p.16; W. Jwaideh, Kurdish National Movement: Its Origins and Development (New York: Syracuse University Press, 2006), p.11. Like their Turkish compatriots, most Kurds are Sunni Muslim. See Entessar, Kurdish Ethnonationalism, pp.81–9; Jwaideh, Kurdish National Movement, pp.203–18; White, Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers?, pp.54–92. For more discussion on Kurdish ethnonationalism in Turkey, see H.J. Barkey and G.E. Fuller, Turkey's Kurdish Question (New York: Rowman and Littlefield Publishers, Inc., 1998); Entessar, Kurdish Ethnonationalism; M.M. Gunter, The Kurds and the Future of Turkey (New York: St. Martin's Press, 1997); K. Kirişçi and G.M. Winrow, The Kurdish Question and Turkey: An Example of Trans-state Ethic Conflict (Portland, OR: Frank Cass, 1997); McDowall, A Modern History of the Kurds; R.Olson, The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in the 1990s: Its Impact on Turkey and The Middle East (Lexington, KY: The University of Kentucky Press, 1996); White, Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers?; M.H. Yavuz, ‘Five Stages of the Construction of Kurdish Nationalism in Turkey’, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol.7 (2001), pp.1–24. Currently, the Peace and Democracy Party (BDP), set up as a successor to the banned DTP, represents the above-mentioned Kurdish interests in the political arena. See also Gunter, The Kurds and the Future of Turkey, p.127; Olson, The Kurdish Nationalist Movement in the 1990s, p.1; M. Somer, ‘Resurgence and Remaking of Identity: Civil Beliefs, Domestic and External Dynamics, and the Turkish Mainstream Discourse on Kurds’, Comparative Political Studies, Vol.38 (2005), p.595. Even though the people living on the Black Sea coast anywhere east of Samsun are sometimes referred as ‘Laz’ in Turkey, the term ‘Laz’ in this study refers to a specific ethnic group mostly living on the East Black Sea coast (concentrated in the region between Pazar and Sarp districts) and speaking the Laz language (also known as Lazuri). See also I. Beller-Hann and C. Hann, Turkish Region: State, Market and Social Identities on the East Black Sea Coast (Santa Fe, NM: School of American Research Press, 2001) and M.E. Meeker, ‘The Black Sea Turks: Some Aspects of Their Ethnic and Cultural Background’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol.2 (1971), p.321. There are competing arguments about the origins of the Laz. For instance, they have been associated with the Georgians: M. Vanilişi and A. Tandilava, Lazların Tarihi (Istanbul: Ant Yayinlari, 1992)); the Turks (M.F. Kırzıoğlu, ‘Bir Kitabın Anatomisi: Gürcüstan’, Milli Işık, Vol.3 (1969), pp.10–13; A. Sırtlı, Doğu Karadeniz Türklüğü (Gürcüler, Hemşinliler, Lazlar, Çepniler) ve Karadeniz Fıkraları (Istanbul: Türk Dünyası Araştırmaları Vakfı, 1996)) or the Greeks (O. Asan, Pontos Kültürü (Istanbul: Belge Yayınları, 1996)). A more convincing argument, however, is that the Laz constitute one of the autochthon peoples of the Caucasus, with a distinct language and culture (see A.I. Aksamaz, Dil, Tarih, Kültür ve Gelenekleriyle Lazlar (Istanbul: Sorun Yayınları, 2000); R. Benninghaus, ‘The Laz: An Example of Multiple Identification’, in P.A. Andrews (ed.), Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey (Göttingen: Hubert and Co. 1989), pp.497–502; Beller-Hann and Hann, Turkish Region; W.Feurstein, Lazuri Alfabe; Lazca Alfabe; Entwurf eines Lazischen Alphabetes (Parpali 1) (Gundelfingen: Lazebura, 1984); B. Geiger, T. Halasi-Kun, A.H. Kuipers and K.H. Menges, Peoples and Languages of the Caucasus: A Synopsis (Hague: Mouton and Co. Printers, 1959), pp.14–15; M.R. Özgün, Lazlar (Istanbul: Çiviyazıları, 1996). The Laz language (Lazuri), for instance, is classified as one of the main languages of the Southern Caucasian family (Ibero-Caucasion or Kartvelian). It is related to Mingrelian and more distantly to Georgian languages. Regarding religion, the vast majority of the Laz are Sunni Muslims. There are also substantial numbers of Christian Laz people, known as Mingrelians, living in the Samegrelo region of Georgia (i.e. the western part). However, the majority of the Laz (around 1.5 million) reside in Turkey. ‘Lazlar da TV istiyor’, Radikal, 13 Jan. 2009; ‘Bu Lazlar da nereden çıktı?’, Birgün, 6 July 2008. See also Aksamaz, Dil, Tarih, Kültür ve Gelenekleriyle Lazlar, pp.25–6; S. Koçiva, Lazona: Laz Halk Gerçekliği Üzerine (Istanbul: Tümzamanlaryayincilik, 2000), pp.96–7; H. Yılmaz, ‘Constructing a New Laz Identity in Turkey and its Future Prospects’, in Y. Kalogeras, E. Arapoglou and L. Manney (eds.), Transcultural Localisms: Responding to Ethnicity in a Globalized World (Heidelberg: Winter, 2006), pp.266–9. Benninghaus, ‘The Laz’, p.501. Beller-Hann and Hann, Turkish Region, p.208. See also C. Hann, ‘Ethnicity, Language and Politics in North-east Turkey’, in C. Govers and H. Vermeulen (eds.), The Politics of Ethnic Consciousness (London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1997), pp.121–56, and C. Hann, ‘The Nation-State, Religion, and Uncivil Society: Two Perspectives from the Periphery’, Daedalus, Vol.126 (1997), p.35; M.E. Meeker, ‘Concepts of Person, Family, and State in the District of Off’, in G. Rasuly-Paleczek (ed.), Turkish Families in Transition (Frankfurt: Peter Lang, 1996), pp.45–60. A.I. Aksamaz, Kafkasya'dan Karadeniz'e Lazların Tarihsel Yolculuğu (Istanbul: Çiviyazıları, 1997), p.45; see also Koçiva, Lazona, pp.28–41. Author's interview with Gürbüz Akyüz, the Artvin Cultural and Solidarity Association, Ankara, July 2009 and Orhan Küçükali, the Association of People from Hopa, Istanbul, July 2009. Hann, ‘Ethnicity, Language and Politics in North-east Turkey’, p.141. These cases are selected for comparison because these ethnic groups are similar across several background conditions, such as having a distinct language and culture, regional concentration, and a kin group across the border that might affect the outcome of interest (i.e. ethnonationalism). See J.G. March and J.P. Olsen, ‘The New Institutionalism: Organizational Factors in Political Life’, American Political Science Review, Vol.78 (1984), pp.734–49. D.J. Smith and G. Chambers, Inequality in Northern Ireland (Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1991). Lazistan was an Ottoman sub-province (sancak), which was created in the mid-nineteenth century and extended from Trabzon to Batum inside the modern Georgian Republic. The new town names were introduced in the first decade of the Republic. For instance Pazar rather than Atina; Fındıklı rather than Vitse; Arılı rather than Papilat. For more examples, see Aksamaz, Kafkasya'dan Karadeniz'e Lazların Tarihsel Yolculuğu, pp.27–9. A.I. Aksamaz, Doğu Karadeniz'de Resmi İdeolojiler Kuşatması (Istanbul: Sorun Yayınları, 2003), p.50; Koçiva, Lazona, pp.63–4. See also Aksamaz, Kafkasya'dan Karadeniz'e Lazların Tarihsel Yolculuğu, and Doğu Karadeniz'de Resmi İdeolojiler Kuşatması, pp.47–53; Beller-Hann and Hann, Turkish Region; Koçiva, Lazona. T.R. Gurr, Why Men Rebel (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1970) and ‘Why Minorities Rebel: A Global Analysis of Communal Mobilization and Conflict Since 1945’, International Political Science Review, Vol.14 (1993), p.167. P.R. Brass, Ethnicity and Nationalism: Theory and Comparison (New Delhi, Newbury Park and London: Sage Publications, 1991), p.8. A. Lecours, ‘Ethnonationalism in the West: A Theoretical Exploration’, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol.6 (2000), p.118. J. McGarry, ‘Explaining Ethnonationalism: The Flaws in Western Thinking’, Nationalism and Ethnic Politics, Vol.1 (1995), p.134. See N.F. Watts, ‘Activists in Office: Pro-Kurdish Contentious Politics in Turkey’, Ethopolitics, Vol.5 (2006), pp.125–44. W. Connor, ‘Beyond Reason: The Nature of the Ethnonational Bond’, Ethnic and Racial Studies, Vol.16 (1993), p.386. Ibid., p.384. A.D. Smith, National Identity (Reno, NV: University of Nevada Press, 1991). See W. Feurstein, ‘Untersuchungen zur Materiellen Kultur der Lazen’ (MA thesis, Universitate zur Freiburg, 1983); Koçiva, Lazona; Yılmaz, ‘Constructing a New Laz Identity in Turkey and its Future Prospects’. Hann, ‘Ethnicity, Language and Politics in North-east Turkey’, p.122. There are few studies of ethnonationalism employing path dependence approach. For some examples, see J. Ruane and J. Todd, ‘The Roots of Intense Ethnic Conflict may not in Fact be Ethnic: Categories, Communities and Path Dependence’, European Journal of Sociology, Vol.45 (2004), pp.209–32; ‘Path Dependence in Settlement Processes: Explaining Settlement in Northern Ireland’, Political Studies, Vol.55 (2007), pp.442–58. P. Pierson, ‘Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics’, The American Political Science Review, Vol.94 (2000), p.263. W.H. Sewell, ‘Three Temporalities: Toward an Eventual Sociology’, in T.J. McDonald (ed.), The Historic Turn in the Human Sciences (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1996), pp.262–3. S.J. Liebowitz and S.E. Margolis, ‘Path Dependence’, 1999, p.981, http://encyclo.findlaw.com/0770book.pdf (accessed 6 Jan. 2011). See also S. Berman, ‘Path Dependency and Political Action: Reexamining Responses to the Depression’, Comparative Politics, Vol.30 (1998), pp.379–400. W.B. Arthur, Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy (Ann Arbor: University of Michigan Press, 1994), pp.37, 44, 45; F. Gains, P.C. John and G. Stoker, ‘Path Dependency and the Reform of English Local Government’, Public Administration, Vol.83 (2005), p.28; J. Mahoney, ‘Path Dependence in Historical Sociology’, Theory and Society, Vol.29 (2000), p.511; Pierson, ‘Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics’, p.253. P. Pierson, Politics in Time: History, Institutions and Social Analysis (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 2004); H. Schwartz, ‘Down the Wrong Path: Path Dependence, Markets and Increasing Returns’, http://people.virginia.edu/∼hms2f/Path.pdf (accessed 6 Jan. 2010). Pierson, Politics in Time, p.157. S.J. Liebowitz and S.E. Margolis, ‘Path Dependence, Lock-In, and History’, The Journal of Law, Economics and Organization, Vol.11 (1995), pp.205–26. See Mahoney, ‘Path Dependence in Historical Sociology’, p.508; Pierson, ‘Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics’, pp.253–4. Pierson, ‘Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics’, pp.253–4. See D.G. Dimitrakopoulos, ‘Incrementalism and Path Dependence: European Integration and Institutional Change in National Parliaments’, Journal of Common Market Studies, Vol.39 (2001), pp.405–22; P. Genschel, ‘The Dynamics of Inertia: Institutional Persistence and Change in Telecommunications and Health Care’, Governance: An International Journal of Policy and Administration, Vol.10 (1997), pp.43–66; M. Levi, ‘A Logic of Institutional Change’, in K.S. Cook and M. Levi (eds.), The Limits of Rationality (Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 1990), p.415; J.Mahoney, ‘Path-Dependent Explanations of Regime Change: Central America in Comparative Perspective’, Studies in Comparative International Development, Vol.6 (2001), pp.111–41; Pierson, Politics in Time, p.153; D.J. Solinger, ‘Path Dependency Reexamined: Chinese Welfare Policy in the Transition to Unemployment’, Comparative Politics, Vol.38 (2005), pp.83–101. R.B. Collier and D. Collier, Shaping the Political Arena: Critical Junctures, the Labor Movement and Regime Dynamics in Latin America (Princeton, NJ: Princeton University Press, 1991); J. Mahoney, ‘Path-Dependent Explanations of Regime Change’, p.113. S. Krasner, ‘Approaches to the State: Alternative Conceptions and Historical Dynamics’, Comparative Politics, Vol.16 (1984), pp.223–46. See W.B. Arthur, ‘Competing Technologies, Increasing Returns, and Lock-In by Historical Events’, Economic Journal, Vol.97 (1989), pp.642–65; Arthur, Increasing Returns and Path Dependence in the Economy; P.A. David, ‘Clio and the Economics of QWERTY’, American Economic Review, Vol.75 (1985), pp.332–7. I. Greener, ‘Two Cheers for Path Dependence – Why it is Still Worth Trying to Work with Historical Institutionalism: A Reply to Ross’, British Politics, Vol.2 (2007), p.101. Pierson, ‘Increasing Returns, Path Dependence, and the Study of Politics’. Ibid., p.252. See also M. Blyth, ‘The Transformation of the Swedish Model: Economic Ideas, Distributional Conflict, and Institutional Change’, World Politics, Vol.54 (2001), pp.1–26; R. Cox, ‘The Path-dependency of an Idea: Why Scandinavian Welfare States Remain Distinct’, Social Policy and Administration, Vol.38 (2004), pp.204–19. Cox, ‘The Path-dependency of an Idea’. J. McCarthy, Death and Exile: The Ethnic Cleansing of Ottoman Muslims 1821–1922 (Pennington, NJ: The Darwin Press, Inc., 1995), p.32. H. Bammate, ‘The Caucasus and the Russian Revolution’, Central Asian Survey, Vol.10 (1991), p.5. McCarthy, Death and Exile, p.15; M.E. Meeker, A Nation of Empire: The Ottoman Legacy of Turkish Modernity (Berkeley: University of California Press, 2002), p.288. See S. Erkan, Kırım ve Kafkasya Göçleri 1878–1908 (Trabzon: Karadeniz Teknik Üniversitesi, 1996); McCarthy, Death and Exile; A. Saydam, Kırım ve Kafkas Göçleri 1856–1876 (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 1997). N. Ascherson, Black Sea (London: Jonathan Cape, 1995); Saydam, Kırım ve Kafkas Göçleri 1856–1876; S.J. Shaw, The Ottoman Empire in World War I (Volume 2: Triumph and Tragedy November 1914–July 1916) (Ankara: Türk Tarih Kurumu, 2008), p.871. Based on various estimates, it is concluded that approximately 1.2 million Caucasians emigrated from Russian-conquered lands; 800,000 of them were able to reach the Ottoman lands (McCarthy, Death and Exile, p.36). For more on massive Muslim migration to the Ottoman Empire, see also K. Karpat, Ottoman Population 1830–1914: Demographic and Social Characteristics (Madison: The University of Wisconsin Press, 1985). The Russian forces also gained the control of some parts of the Eastern Anatolia such as Kars and Ardahan. McCarthy, Death and Exile, p.30. Ibid., p.30. Aksamaz, Kafkasya'dan Karadeniz'e Lazların Tarihsel Yolculuğu, pp.25–6 and Dil, Tarih, Kültür ve Gelenekleriyle Lazlar, p.22; Erkan, Kırım ve Kafkasya Göçleri 1878–1908; McCarthy, Death and Exile, pp.113–15; M.A. Özder, Artvin ve Çevresi 1828–1921 Savaşları (Ankara: Artvin Turizm ve Tanıtma Derneği, 1971), pp.78, 149–56; Özgün, Lazlar, p.93. It is estimated that the total number of Muslim refugees from the Caucasus during and immediately after the war of 1877–78 was greater than 70,000. See McCarthy, Death and Exile, pp.113–16. Shaw, The Ottoman Empire in World War I, p.836. Bammate, ‘The Caucasus and the Russian Revolution’, pp.5–6. McCarthy, Death and Exile, p.14; Shaw, The Ottoman Empire in World War I, pp.774, 797, 836–7. Aksamaz, Doğu Karadeniz'de Resmi İdeolojiler Kuşatması, p.86; Özgün, Lazlar, pp.93–4. Several studies (e.g. S. Aydın, ‘Amacımız Devletin Bekası’: Demokratikleşme Sürecinde Devlet ve Yurttaşlar (Istanbul: Tesev Yayınları, 2005); Karpat, Ottoman Population 1830–1914, pp.76–7) observe a similar tendency toward Turkish nationalism and statism among other immigrants to the Ottoman Empire such as Circassians, Crimean Tatars and Georgians. See Aksamaz, Doğu Karadeniz'de Resmi İdeolojiler Kuşatması, p.46; Erkan, Kırım ve Kafkasya Göçleri 1878–1908; McCarthy, Death and Exile, p.114; Meeker, A Nation of Empire, pp.285–317; Özder, Artvin ve Çevresi 1828–1921 Savaşları; Shaw, The Ottoman Empire in World War I. Ozder, Artvin ve Çevresi 1828–1921 Savaşları, p.74. S. Aydın and O. Özel, ‘Power Relations between State and Tribe in Ottoman Eastern Anatolia’, Bulgarian Historical Review, Vol.3–4 (2006), pp.51–67; M. Heper, The State and Kurds in Turkey: The Question of Assimilation (New York: Palgrave Macmillan, 2007), pp.35–57; C. Houston, Kurdistan: Crafting of National Selves (New York: Berg, 2008), pp.35–48; Jwaideh, Kurdish National Movement, p.17; White, Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers?, p.55. Shaw, The Ottoman Empire in World War I. See K.M. Ahmad, Kurdistan during the First World War (London: Saqi Books, 1994). See Aydın and Özel, ‘Power Relations between State and Tribe in Ottoman Eastern Anatolia’; M.V. Bruinessen, Agha, Shaikh and State: The Social and Political Structures of Kurdistan (London: Zed Books, 1992); Jwaideh, Kurdish National Movement; H. Özoğlu, ‘Nationalism and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era’, International Journal of Middle East Studies, Vol.33 (2001), pp.383–409. See Ahmad, Kurdistan during the First World War, pp.91–3; Jwaideh, Kurdish National Movement, pp.115–24, 128–32; Z. Zardykhan, ‘Ottoman Kurds of the First World War Era: Reflections in Russian Sources’, Middle Eastern Studies, Vol.42 (2006), pp.74–5. Jwaideh, Kurdish National Movement, pp.129–32; Ozoglu, ‘Nationalism and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era’, pp.393–5, 402. For instance N. Kendal, ‘The Kurds under the Ottoman Empire’, in G. Chaliand (ed.), A People Without a Country: The Kurds and Kurdistan (New York: Olive Branch Press, 1993), pp.15–16. See Aydın and Özel, ‘Power Relations between State and Tribe in Ottoman Eastern Anatolia’. For Kendal, more than 50 revolts took place in this period. Major ones were the Baban Revolt (1806–8), the Mir Muhammed Revolt (1833–37), the Bedir Khan Revolt (1847) and the Sheikh Ubeidullah Revolt (1880–81). See also Özoğlu, ‘Nationalism and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era’; and Jwaideh, Kurdish National Movement, pp.54–101. See Ozoğlu, ‘Nationalism and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era’. Ahmad, Kurdistan during the First World War, pp.60–64; Özoğlu, ‘Nationalism and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era’. See Ahmad, Kurdistan during the First World War, pp.6–3; Entessar, Kurdish Ethnonationalism, p.82; Özoğlu, ‘Nationalism and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era’; White, Primitive Rebels or Revolutionary Modernizers?, pp.65–9. Özoğlu, ‘Nationalism and Kurdish Notables in the Late Ottoman–Early Republican Era’, p.403. Beller-Hann and Hann, Turkish Region, p.38 (emphasis added).