Social:Hellenization of Laz people

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Hellenisation of Laz people was cultural assimilation of the Laz people into the Ottoman Greek society. conditioned by the different reasons: it could be political, economical and especially religious factors. Hellenization is the historical spread of Greek culture, religion and, to a lesser extent, language, over foreign peoples conquered by Greeks or brought into their sphere of influence. In modern times, Hellenization has been associated with the adoption of modern Greek culture and the ethnic and cultural homogenization of Greece.[1][2]

Background

After the fall of Constantinople, Mehmed II appointed Gennadius Scholarius as the Patriarch in 1454 and designated him as the spiritual leader as well as the ethnarch or, in Turkish, milletbashi of all the Orthodox Christians in the Empire, regardless of ethnic origin; not only Greeks, but also Bulgarians, Serbs, Albanians, Wallachians, Moldavians, Croatians, Syrians, orthodox Arabs, Georgians and Lazs came under the spiritual, administrative,[3] fiscal, cultural and legal[3] jurisdiction of the Patriarchate.[4] This jurisdiction was not only religious, but also had a secular simension, as the Patriarchate and its bishops had control over education of the Orthodox population.[5]

History

During the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (c. 527–565) the warlike tribes of the interior Pontus, called Sannoi or Tzannoi, the ancestors of modern Laz people, were subdued, Christianized and brought to central rule.[6] Locals began to have closer contact with the Greeks and acquired various Hellenic cultural traits, including in some cases the language. After the sack of Constantinople in 1204 by Latin crusaders, Byzantine successor state, the Empire of Trebizond, was created on the southwestern coast of the Black Sea, populated by a large Georgian-speaking (inc. Laz language) population.[7] Though Greek in higher culture, the rural areas of Trebizondine Empire appear to have been predominantly Laz in ethnic composition.[8] Laz family names, with Hellenized terminations, are noticeable in the records of the mediaeval empire of Trebizond, and it is perhaps not too venturesome to suggest that the antagonism between the "town-party" and the "country-party," which existed in the politics of "the Empire," was in fact a national antagonism of Laz against Greek.[9] After the Ottoman conquest of Trebizond Empire in 1461, Laz people were making considerable part of Trebizond Eyalet's native population. They were a target of the Ottoman Islamization policy and gradually converted to Islam, while part of the them who remained Orthodox were subordinated to the Greek Church, and were thus gradually subjected to Hellenization: the Christian Laz had Greek names and had to study and perform the Greek liturgy.[5] The Laz language was even banished from families as a language of irreligious people.[5] According to Armenian linguist Hrachia Adjarian: "There are orthodox Lazs who are under the control of the Greek patriarchate in Istanbul. They speak Greek and call themselves Greeks."[10] Lazs who were under the control of Constantinople, soon lost their language and self-identity as they became Greeks and learned Greek,[5] especially the Pontic dialect of Greek language, although native language was preserved by Lazs who had become Muslims.[5]

Nowadays, officially there are not Christian Lazs in Turkey, they are called Greeks although they still remember their Laz roots.[5]

See also

References

  1. ↑ Zacharia 2008, p. 232.
  2. ↑ Koliopoulos & Veremis 2002, pp. 232–241.
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 Jelavich, Barbara, “History of the Balkans, 18th and 19th Centuries” (1983), ISBN:0-521-27458-3 p.52
  4. ↑ Ortaylı, İlber (2003). "Osmanlı Barışı", p.15. ISBN:975-6571-50-0
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 5.4 5.5 ქართველთა დენაციონალიზაცია XVII-XX საუკუნეებში; ლაზეთი-თრიალეთი (ქართველთა გაბერძნება) Metropolitan of Manglisi, Ananias Japaridze, nplg.gov.ge
  6. ↑ Evans 2000, p. 93.
  7. ↑ Mikaberidze, A. (2015). Historical dictionary of Georgia. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD, United States: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD, p.634.
  8. ↑ Encyclopedia of World Cultures, Laz
  9. ↑ ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY (GREAT BRITAIN). (1893). The Geographical journal. London, Royal Geographical Society.
  10. ↑ Марк Юнге, Бернд Бонвеч (2015). Большевистский порядок в Грузии.. Moscow: АИРО-XXI. pp. 93. ISBN 978-5-91022-306-0. "Армянский лингвист АЧАРЯН, который специально занимался лазами и лазским языком, сообщает, что существуют и христиане-лазы, которые говорят по-гречески и считают себя греками. Их узнают по произношению. Они занимают западную часть Лазистана, начиная от Платана к востоку до Трапезунта и южнее до Гюмашхаче. Главные города, где их можно встретить, это Платана, Трапезунт и Гюмишхане." 




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