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The Hopa-Hamshens: Social and Political Life
http://hetq.am/eng/articles/13063/the-hopa-hamshens-social-and-political-life.html
14:45, April 14, 2012
Cemil Aksu
The article was written within the scope of Vahan Ishkhanyan's
projectregarding
the Hamshens. Read about the author here
.
Recently, social and political issues regarding the Hamshens, the
Hamshen identity have attracted greater attention. This focus is borne
out by the growing number of discussions and publications on the
topic.
Levon Haçikyan's `The Hamshen Enigma',[1] regarded as the first
extensive work on the Hamshens, is an apt name for the issue facing
us. Despite all that has been written and the academic debates, the
question `Who are the Hamshens?' remains unanswered.
Should the Hamshens be viewed as merely residents of this or that
region, or do they constitute a distinct ethnic identity? Is the name
Hamshetsinerjust an appellation given to those living in the districts
of Ã=87amlihemÅ=9Fin and HemÅ=9Fin (Hamshen) in Turkey's Rize
Province? Does it represent those who speak Homshetsma, a distinct
Western Armenian dialect? Is it a combination of both?
[Translator's note: I will use the term `Hamshens' as a noun (the
Hopa-Hamshens) and as an adjective (Hamshen identity)]
The Hopa-Hamshen village of Ã=87amurlu
Do the Hamshens have Armenian or Turkish roots? If they are Turks, then why
do they speak an Armenian dialect? If they are Armenian, then why are they
Muslims? What are the similarities/ differences between the Hamshens of
Hopa and Rize? When and where did they come from? Confusion and debate
still surround such questions.
Along with providing some general definitions regarding the Hamshens, I
will be focusing particular attention to the Hopa-Hamshens in this article.
Professor of Linguistics Bert Vaux explains that the language of the
Armenians of Hamshen (HemÅ=9Fin )
depends on their location.[2]
- Eastern Hamshens - Sunni Muslims living in the Hopa and
Borçka districts of Turkey's Artvin Province who speak a dialect of
Western Armenian called Homshetsma or Hamshesnak.
- Western Hamshens - Sunni Muslims living in Turkey's Rize
Province (districts of Ã=87amlihemÅ=9Fin and HemÅ=9Fin) and, in
smaller numbers, in the mountain valleys of Fındıklı, Ã=87ayeli,
Pazar, ArdeÅ=9Fen and Ä°kizdere. Armenian by extraction, they speak
Turkish peppered with Armenian words.
- Northern Hamshens - Non-Islamicized Hamshen Armenians who
today live in Russia and Georgia and speak the same Homshetsma dialect.
Originally from Hamshen proper, many fled the Ottoman Empire for the
relatively safety of the Caucasus across the border. Others migrated to the
Black Sea towns of Samsun, Trebizond, Giresun and Ordu before 1915.
Today, as a result of past and recent migrations, the Hamshens mainly
reside in the Turkish northeastern provinces of Rize and Artvin, the
province of Erzurum (districts of Tortum and Ä°spir), the western provinces
of Sakarya, Bursa, Düzce, the district center of KemalpaÅ=9Fa in Izmir
Province, the Black Sea coastal towns of Samsun and Trabzon, and the cities
of Istanbul and Ankara.
The Hopa-Hamshens still use Homshetsma as a means of daily communication.
The Hamshens of Rize, to the west, speak Turkish and only know a few
Homshetsma words other than place names, flora, and other sundry items.
Language is the most important means for defining identity. This is so
because to construct linguistic uniformity, the other means applied in the
process of forging an ethnic identity, a unified history and the unity of
the fatherland, must be present.
The thesis propounded by official Turkish historians, that the Hamshens
learnt the Homshetsma language from neighboring Armenians, does not
warrant our attention The arguments they make to back up their claim as to
why Armenian was adopted by the Hamshens are flawed and fly in the face of
historical and social realities. What needs to be clarified is how the
Hopa-Hamshens were able to preserve the Homshetsma language whereas the
Hamshens of Rize forget it.[3]
Also problematic is the label used to describe the Hamshens of Rize. This
`Rize Hamshens' appellation is used to describe everyone living and
regarded as a native resident of the overall Hamshen region that was
divided into two provinces with the founding of the Turkish Republic. The
Hamshen reality, as an ethnic identity, is something else entirely. We know
from history that many Turkish tribes lived in this area under Ottoman
rule. The classical policy of the Ottomans, i.e. the Turkification of
captured non-Muslim lands and the subsequent policy of Islamicization, when
the Ottoman Empire was in a period of retreat, culminating in the Armenian
Genocide, followed by the policy to resettle Muslim exiles in former
Armenian populated areas, lead to many outside families settling in the
region.
For example, Turkish families with the surname Kepenek wound up in the
Hamshen area as a result of such policies and remain well represented with
large extended families. In addition, we know that Laz and other peoples,
both locals and those who migrated from the Caucasus, lived here in the
past just as they do today. Thus, the Hamshen `essence' (hamshenakanutyun),
as an ethnic identity, doesn't include all the Hamshens of Rize. However we
must raise the following question - when we refer to the Hamshens
(Hamshentsi) are all of them ethnically Hamshens?
Village of BaÅ=9Foba - Hamshen woman
It is also important to examine the lineage of these families and
Ottoman documents pertaining to these population settlements.
The Hamshens we are to discuss here, regardless of accepting them as
Armenian, Turk, or only Hamshentsi/Hamshetsi[4], now and in the past
are the speakers of an Armenian dialect. Starting in the 1990s, the
growing economic ties with post-Soviet countries, including Armenia
and the Armenians, have led the Hopa-Hamshens to review the issue of
their origins. The apparent social, cultural and linguistic
differences between the Armenians of Armenia and the Hamshens served
as a basis for the strengthening of the view within the Hamshen
community that they constitute a separate ethnic group. Contributing
factors are the differences between Homshetsma and both the literary
and conversational Armenian spoken in the Republic of Armenia. Such
differences are quite natural and actually few in number when we
factor in the processes of Islamicization and Turkification.
The Hamshens have undergone three major historical events of disassociation:
1. Their departure from Armenia proper as a result of the first
migration towards Hamshen, thus restricting future relations between them
and other Armenian communities.
2. The process of Islamicization that began after the Ottoman conquest
of the eastern Black Sea region.
3. The disconnect resulting from the religious and cultural assimilation
stemming from the Turkification and modernization processes implemented by
the newly formed centralized Turkish state.
All these served as ingredients in the making of a `hybrid' Hamshen
identity.
As a result of Ankara's state policy of assimilation, Turkish
influence on Hamshen identity has been pronounced and dominant. Even
the Hamshen dialect (Hamshesnak/Homshetsma) has not escaped the impact
of the dominant language, Turkish, and now uses Turkish figures of
speech and words.
The infiltration of words into any language, especially from a
dominant language (either state or nationality), is a fairly natural
phenomenon. It is only from a comparison of fundamental words that we
can understand what language the loan words subsequently came
from. Fundamental words are numbers, human body parts, basic actions
(walking, eating, crying) and names of sundry items long since in
use. Examples of non-fundamental words include - republic, book,
fashion, restaurant, capitalism, television, computer, party, nation,
bus, advantage, spirit, octopus, philosophy, etc. >From this
perspective we see that the fundamental words in Homshetsma, either
wholly or with slight phonetic differences, are Armenian. Whether or
not the names we give objects that enter our lives afterwards are the
same as words in another language, depends on the social and political
relations existing between the two societies. Given that the Hamshens
were under Turkish domination for centuries, it is only natural to
find expressions of that domination in their language and
culture. Even though, from an academic perspective, the Hopa-Hamshens
have the right to an ethnic identity, for a number of reasons they
haven't been studied to the degree of the much beloved
Ã=87amlihemÅ=9Fin area.
Field research carried out by the magazine BiryaÅ=9Fam[5] (One Life)
regarding the folklore of the Hopa-Hamshens has been seen an important
step towards rectifying the matter. There are no written records as to
when, why, or from where the Hamshens came to Hopa. Given that oral
testimonies on the subject are relatively new, the question of the
Hamshens' arrival and settling in Hopa hasn't been researched all that
much. In his doctoral thesis `The Geography of Hopa County', Zeki
Koday provides some historical information regarding the settling of
Hopa. Koday notes that the Ottoman traveler Evliya Ã=87elebi visited
the area in 1640 and recorded that the population of Hopa was mostly
Laz and a minority of Greeks. Hamshen storeowners in Hopa
After the area was brought under Ottoman control, the local Hopa
landowners were banished and replaced by Turkish settlers. Turkish
state historian Fahrettin KrzioÄ=9Flu provides information contained
in a 1516 `Registry of the Real Estate of Trebizond Province'
regarding BaÅ=9Foba, the largest Hamshen village in Hopa: `[...] It is
noted that the vilayet of Bagobit (BaÅ=9Foba village), located between
Hopa and Makriyali (KemalpaÅ=9Fa) and the total revenues of five
villages there (BaÅ=9Fköy, Esenkıyı, Yoldere, Ã=87avuÅ=9Flu,
Koyuncular, was handed over to the local Christian martolos[6]
(Martolos, derived from the Greek armatolos, meaning `armed man' or
militia. They were the remnants of the militia of the Byzantine Empire
which the Ottoman gained control of around 1430 and which they
maintained in some form into the early 19th century. At the time of
the full development of their organization under the Ottomans, The
mostly Christian
martolos served in many Ottoman provinces as part of the mobile troops
and received a salary. Over time, most martolos converted to Islam.)
[Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Gábor Ã=81goston & Bruce Alan
Masters; 2009]
In documents dating to 1520-1554, Arhavi is noted as the county seat
and that other centers were Gönye (Muratlı-Borçka), Yagobit
(BaÅ=9Foba-Hopa) and Makriyali (KemalpaÅ=9Fa). According to these, in
1486 KemalpaÅ=9Fa was comprised of 47 Christian families. It also
notes that the center of Yagobit county (BaÅ=9Foba -Hopa) had 68 homes
and that it was founded between 1510 and 1520. The same registry
notes that in 1520 Yagobit (BaÅ=9Foba) and Ä°skele (Hopa) were the
centers of the county and that Yagobit was comprised of the center and
six villages, and Ä°skele of eight villages.[7]
It appears from the above-mentioned sources that Laz, Greeks and
Abazins, (a people related to the Abkhaz people) lived in BaÅ=9Foba,
founded in 1515.
Oral histories show that BaÅ=9Foba lands passed from the Laz to the
Hamshens. Certain place names still use the Lazuri originals. A
number of Hamshen village names are also Laz (The former name of
Yoldere is Zhourpichi, meaning `two brothers', and there's the belief
that Ghigoba (BaÅ=9Foba) derives from Ghigi.)
But we still have no precise data regarding when the Hamshens migrated
to Hopa. Historical research shows that from Hamshen proper
(Ã=87amlihemÅ=9Fin, HemÅ=9Fin, Senoz in Rize), the prevailing
migration routes due to forced Islamicization were to the
west. Anthony Bryer believes that the Hamshens were subject to Islamic
influence in the 15th century and had mostly converted to Islam by the
18th century. Those who remained Christian spread to the towns along
the Black Sea coast, mainly Trebizond. [Bryer, Anthony (1975). "Greeks
and Turkmens: The Pontic Exception"][8]
Bert Vaux believes that there was a mass conversion of Western
Hamshens to Islam in the 16th and 18th centuries, a smaller number at
the start of the 20th century, and that the Eastern Hamshens adopted
Islam in the 17th.[9] Even though the Rize Hamshens still mark the
Christian holiday of Vardavar (its celebration is devoid of any
religious significance and is a summer festival in the mountain
valleys), there are no traces of a former Christian faith amongst the
Hopa-Hamshens. Place names in certain Hopa-Hamshen villages including
the word kilise (Turkish for church) most likely pre-date the arrival
of the Hamshens.
There are many Hamshen villages in Hopa and KemalpaÅ=9Fa today:
BaÅ=9Foba /Ghigoba, Yoldere/Zhulpiji, Ã=87avuÅ=9Flu /Chavoushin,
Koyuncular/Zaluna, EÅ=9Fmekaya /Ardala, GüneÅ=9Fli /Tzaghista,
Balıklı/Anchurogh, Kaya Köyü/Ghalvashi, Ã=87amurlu /Chanchaghan,
Å=9Eana, Ã=9CçkardeÅ=9F, Köprücü, Osmaniye,
Karaosmaniye/Ghetselan, Akdere/Chyolyuket, Kazimiye/Veyi Sarp:
Usually, Hamshen villages are made up of extended families of
brothers. But those of BaÅ=9Foba, Ardala and Hendek are comprised of
different families, leading us to infer that the process of settling
took place in different time periods. It is only in the villages of
Ã=9CçkardeÅ=9F and Köprücü that the Hamshens live alongside the
Laz.
The Hamshens now living in the area of KemalpaÅ=9Fa, a coastal town in
Artvin Province just a few miles from the Georgian border came from
Hopa. Thus, the Hamshens first settled in Hopa and then started to
move to KemalpaÅ=9Fa. It is believed that the Hamshens first arrived
in KemalpaÅ=9Fa as agricultural workers, given that the land was
better suited for this, and that gradually they purchased those lands
themselves. Some of the Hamshen families now living in KemalpaÅ=9Fa
villages have relatives back in Hopa and note that their `native
hearths' are the villages of Hopa. In the past, there were practically
no Hamshens living in the town of Hopa. Today, due to the retreat of
agriculture and animal husbandry and the parallel rise of commerce,
more than half the town is now comprised of Hamshens.
This `descent' of the Hamshens from the mountain valleys down to the
town of Hopa, the seat of the Hopa district, wasn't easy. The
historical disagreements between the area's peoples are still referred
to today as the `Laz-Hamshen conflict.'
The Hamshens still remember the time when the Laz aghas of Hopa
wouldn't permit them to enter the town and the village produce they
would bring to market was forcibly seized by agents of the aghas.
The socio-economic development of the Hamshens is a consequence of
this resettlement. The former employment sectors of the Hamshens -
agriculture (corn), horticulture, animal husbandry, and woodworking -
overtime gave way to the trades and transportation.
The growth and division of families, and the continuing difficulties
associated with maintaining flocks of sheep in the mountain valleys of
Ardahan, Ispir, Olti and elsewhere, were reasons for the Hamshens to
turn to the towns and commerce. (The raising of animals became
increasingly difficult after Hamshen sheep flocks were kicked out of
Batumi, which was used as a winter respite, and the border was
eventually shut tight.)
Hızır Yazıcı, who worked for many years as a bread and pastry
maker in the town of Hopa, describes the process of Hamshens becoming
traders and craftsmen thusly.
`I started out as a bread baker in 1935. There were six bread ovens
back then. The Hamshens owned five in Hopa. There was Muhammed from
the Koyuncu's, two brothers from the YaÄ=9Fcı's and Grandpa Å=9Eukru
Akbıyık. There was Topal Cemal's father, Harun, and a guy called
Mehmet TopaloÄ=9Flu. I was the sixth. The rest were Laz. KibiroÄ=9Flu,
TosunoÄ=9Flu, MustoÄ=9Flu, VajoÄ=9Flu; they all had flocks. That's how
it was until the 1940s.' [10]
Before the construction of the harbor in 1972, Hopa was a fairly
sleepy town. Like other Hopa residents, the Hamshens went off to work
as laborers in Ardahan, Murgul, Batumi and regional towns and centers
like Zonguldak along the western Black Sea coast. In time, they
brought back the crafts they had acquired to Hopa and other places. A
state sponsored plan to introduce tea in the 1970s did away with corn
growing and horticulture. The government made huge investments and all
suitable land was purchased to make way for tea fields. The tea
industry also served as an alternative to animal husbandry.
Parallel to the building of a harbor and the growth of the tea trade,
the transport sector quickly grew. Many Hamshens entered the transport
sector and it remains the chief job market for Hamshens along with
bread baking till today. Early on, Hamshens worked as drivers for
foreigners. Later, they organized companies of their own. With
companies such as Koyuncular, Yalçınlar, Dalkılıç, Yenigüller,
the Hamshens are serious players in the sector. Those large revenue
generating transport companies, who started dealing with the
post-Soviet nations in the 1990s, slowly began to turn to the
manufacturing sector. Today, there are Hamshen businessmen in all
sectors of commerce. The cultural and political life of the Hamshens
is also conditioned by socio-economic developments. The Hopa-Hamshens
are the only Muslim Hamshens who speak Homshetsma.
The fact that the Hopa-Hamshens preserved their language is linked to
their isolated village life. Their continued self-sustaining village
life, due to agriculture and animal husband, allows them to pass down
the language from generation to generation and for the maintenance of
certain traditions. This situation began to change with the founding
of the Turkish Republic, when the central government made the teaching
of Turkish mandatory. Even those who had become merchants in the towns
and those wishing to obtain decent jobs were obliged to know the
official state language as their native tongue.
Many Hamshens only learnt Turkish in school and this was the case
until the 1980s. It's forbidden to use any language other than Turkish
in the schools. School administrations would not only force pupils to
speak Turkish but also instructed families to only speak Turkish at
home to their kids.
The author Cemil with a relative
Those families who wanted their children to get a good education and
decent work afterwards, began to speak Turkish at home. But they
continued to speak Homshetsma while they learnt Turkish. Gradually,
the pressures brought to bear for making Turkish mandatory lead to the
weakening of Homshetsma. In the past, everyone spoke
Homshetsma. Today, many children cannot speak it at all, understanding
only a bit.
Concomitant with economic growth, the Hamshens started to show
progress in their social and political affairs. A Hamshen was elected
mayor of Hopa for the first time in 2004. Israfil Kotil, who heads the
Hopa Drivers' Union, and Engin Koyuncu, Chairman of Hopa's Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, are both Hamshens. Hamshens are well
represented in government and the public health and education sectors.
When it comes to politics, Hamshens are mostly left of center. This
leftist tendency has received its fair share of scrutiny. In the
run-up to the 2011 parliamentary elections, a press interview given by
Cüneyt Aytolan, one of the managers of the ruling party's Arhavi
campaign office, gives an insight into the subconscious mind of the
right-wingers and the authorities.
`The right of center electorate in Arhavi is 70%. It's the exact
opposite in Hopa. The reason isn't the Laz but the Hamshen
Armenians. They are playing at ethnic chauvinism.'[11]
Except for the `official historians' and the Hamshens themselves,
everyone else regards the Hamshens as Armenians. Explaining their
support of the left as a consequence of their being Armenian, would
appear to be an expression of chauvinism.
Then again, the interpretation that all Hamshens vote for leftist
parties is also baseless. For example, BaÅ=9Foba other villages are
well-known as `Little Moscow'. However, the Hamshen villages of Ardala
and Zaluna are bastions of rightwing Turkish nationalist parties.
It would be more correct to say that the Hamshens, parallel to their
economic and social development, are regarded to be more active in the
political arena than others. Leftist partisan movements sprung up in
the aftermath of the civil upheaval of 1974-1980 and the military coup
of 1980. Hamshens were well represented in organizations of mass
popular resistance. To understand what was going on, we have to look
at the situation from different angles. First, the Hamshens were
falling behind in the social and economic spheres. For example, the
Laz living in the district center were integrated with the government
(as city dwellers, modernization came much quicker), whereas the
Hamshens started the process much later. Even as late as the 1980s,
the Hamshens had to build village roads on their own, in a cooperative
effort, without state assistance. Second, having their own `mother
tongue', the Hamshens were out of synch with the Turkish government's
concept of `One language, One Nation'.
Thus, the Hamshens expressed their social and political demands mostly
in terms of leftist politics. In addition to sociological reasons, the
structure of the Hamshen identity also contributed to their becoming
`partisans'; i.e. on the front line of struggle. Tackling the
challenges and arduous conditions of daily life, the Hamshens have
been gifted with a high degree of self-confidence, personal
responsibility and a rebellious and temperamental nature. It was for
these reasons that the Hamshens strove to be `on the front line' of
whatever political movement they supported. Then too, an important
segment of Hamshens preferred to be associated with political parties
supporting the government, since they viewed such affiliation as the
road towards economic advancement.
It's safe to say that, subconsciously, those who adopted the
`pro-government' approach were constantly fearful of being singled out
as Armenians. The Hamshens know they are regarded by others as
Islamicized Armenians and certain Hamshens, in an attempt to shed this
image, wind up supporting the most rightwing political parties in
Turkey. Political affiliation also divides Hamshens into those who
acknowledge or disavow their Armenian roots.
Hamshens who accept their Armenian roots are generally those within
the leftist-socialist political specter. Since the left-socialists are
opposed to the central state ideology, its official view of history,
and the nationalist motto `One language, one nation', they do not
emphasize historical problems that much
This section of the Hamshen community, however, also lacks any
narrative of identity and makes no political demands based on
identity. The issue of Hamshen identity was only put on the agenda in
the late 1990s. Several factors were at play here, the primary one
being the Kurdish movement; a political movement demanding various
cultural and language rights. The Kurdish movement shook Turkey to the
core and spurred other national groups subject to assimilation by the
ruling powers to voice their opposition to the `official
ideology'. The Laz, living alongside the Hamshens, followed the Kurds
and experienced a reawakening of their own. Interest grew regarding
the national language and music. Measures to assimilate the
non-Turkish communities, which continued throughout the entire period
of the Turkish Republic, led to the formation of different mindsets
and psychological hang-ups.
The policy of assimilation spawned the view that Turkish, in addition
to being the state language, was the language of modernity and
urbanites. Local languages, viewed as crude and associated with rural
backwardness, were ridiculed to the point of shame. To speak a
language other than Turkish in public was regarded as unacceptable.
The Kurdish struggle, in defense of their language and cultural
rights, and subsequent measures taken by the Laz to follow the Kurdish
example, put an end to such psychological hang-ups. Members of various
ethnic groups began to relate to their language and culture to a
greater degree.
Laz singer-songwriter and activist Kâzım Koyuncu (1971-2005) issued
a number of CD's that featured songs in the Hamshen dialect. The
Hamshen community, especially the young people, took this as a wake-up
call to mobilize in defense of their endangered language and culture.
Kâzım Koyuncu had no hang-ups when it came to showcasing the music
and culture of the peoples of the Black Sea coast. He became an
instant hit across the country and both the Laz and Hamshen
communities took this to heart and freed themselves from the tradition
of self-belittlement they had come to accept as the norm. Many Hamshen
youth, following Koyuncu's example, rediscovered the songs locked away
in the memories of their grandmothers - songs in the mother tongue
long since forgotten. Young Hamshen songwriters also started to
compose new songs in the mother tongue.
They began to circulate Hamshen language texts over the internet via
social websites. In the music field, the following singers and groups
began to turn out CD's featuring Hamshen songs - Gökhan Birben, Bizim
YaÅ=9Far (KabaosmanoÄ=9Flu), AydoÄ=9Fan Topal, Vova, AydoÄ=9Fan
Yılmaz, Salih Yılmaz, Meluses, etc.
Bilingual Homshetsma-Turkish articles first appeared in the magazine
BiryaÅ=9Fam, published in Hopa. A few months ago, the `Hadig' Hamshen
Cultural Research and Preservation Union, opened its doors in
Istanbul.
These developments in the cultural sector have led to different
approaches regarding the issue of Hamshen identity and related
challenges. What steps can be taken to preserve the Hamshen language;
the main defining component of Hamshen identify? Is the current
Hamshen vocabulary sufficient or must links be re-forged with
Armenian, the prime well-spring of Homshetsma?
Following the lead of the Kurds and other ethnic groups, should the
Hamshens demand that the Hamshen language (Homshetsma) at least be
taught as an elective subject in schools located in Hamshen
communities? What does `Hamshen culture' mean?
Those individuals committed to the survival of Hamshen identity
continue to debate and discuss such issues. It's a recently launched
exploration still fraught with uncertainty.
Photo by Anahit Hayrapetyan
Translated (from Turkish into Armenian) by Tiran Lokmagozyan
------------------------------
[1] Levon Haçikyan "HemÅ=9Fin Gizemi: HamÅ=9Fen ErmenileriTarihinden
Sayfalar", translated and edited by BaÄ=9Fdik Avedisyan (Istanbul:
BelgeYayınları, 1996).
[2] http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hem%C5%9Finliler
[3] An important article on the issue is AyÅ=9Fenur Kolivar's
`Thoughts on the Turkish Dialect Spoken in a Hemshin Village'
[4] Those who speak Homshetsma call themselves Hamshentsi or
Homshetsi, while the Rize Hamshens do not use this Armenian form.
[5] BiryaÅ=9Fam Yerel Tarih, Folklor, Biyografi ve CoÄ=9Frafya
Dergisi, 13 volumes of this Hopa-based magazine have been published to
date. For further information: www.biryasam.com.tr
[6] Zeki Koday, Hopa Ä°lçesinin CoÄ=9Frafyası (`The Geography of
Hopa County'). (Unpublished doctoral thesis, page 112)
[7] Ibid
[8] http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hem%C5%9Finliler
[9] Ibid
[10] BiryaÅ=9Fam, Vol 2
[11] MehveÅ=9F Evin, Milliyet, (
http://siyaset.milliyet.com.tr/artvin-de-secim-cetin-viraj-li/siyaset/siyasetdetay/30.05.2011/1396247/default.htm )
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From...
http://hetq.am/eng/articles/13063/the-hopa-hamshens-social-and-political-life.html
14:45, April 14, 2012
Cemil Aksu
The article was written within the scope of Vahan Ishkhanyan's
projectregarding
the Hamshens. Read about the author here
.
Recently, social and political issues regarding the Hamshens, the
Hamshen identity have attracted greater attention. This focus is borne
out by the growing number of discussions and publications on the
topic.
Levon Haçikyan's `The Hamshen Enigma',[1] regarded as the first
extensive work on the Hamshens, is an apt name for the issue facing
us. Despite all that has been written and the academic debates, the
question `Who are the Hamshens?' remains unanswered.
Should the Hamshens be viewed as merely residents of this or that
region, or do they constitute a distinct ethnic identity? Is the name
Hamshetsinerjust an appellation given to those living in the districts
of Ã=87amlihemÅ=9Fin and HemÅ=9Fin (Hamshen) in Turkey's Rize
Province? Does it represent those who speak Homshetsma, a distinct
Western Armenian dialect? Is it a combination of both?
[Translator's note: I will use the term `Hamshens' as a noun (the
Hopa-Hamshens) and as an adjective (Hamshen identity)]
The Hopa-Hamshen village of Ã=87amurlu
Do the Hamshens have Armenian or Turkish roots? If they are Turks, then why
do they speak an Armenian dialect? If they are Armenian, then why are they
Muslims? What are the similarities/ differences between the Hamshens of
Hopa and Rize? When and where did they come from? Confusion and debate
still surround such questions.
Along with providing some general definitions regarding the Hamshens, I
will be focusing particular attention to the Hopa-Hamshens in this article.
Professor of Linguistics Bert Vaux explains that the language of the
Armenians of Hamshen (HemÅ=9Fin )
depends on their location.[2]
- Eastern Hamshens - Sunni Muslims living in the Hopa and
Borçka districts of Turkey's Artvin Province who speak a dialect of
Western Armenian called Homshetsma or Hamshesnak.
- Western Hamshens - Sunni Muslims living in Turkey's Rize
Province (districts of Ã=87amlihemÅ=9Fin and HemÅ=9Fin) and, in
smaller numbers, in the mountain valleys of Fındıklı, Ã=87ayeli,
Pazar, ArdeÅ=9Fen and Ä°kizdere. Armenian by extraction, they speak
Turkish peppered with Armenian words.
- Northern Hamshens - Non-Islamicized Hamshen Armenians who
today live in Russia and Georgia and speak the same Homshetsma dialect.
Originally from Hamshen proper, many fled the Ottoman Empire for the
relatively safety of the Caucasus across the border. Others migrated to the
Black Sea towns of Samsun, Trebizond, Giresun and Ordu before 1915.
Today, as a result of past and recent migrations, the Hamshens mainly
reside in the Turkish northeastern provinces of Rize and Artvin, the
province of Erzurum (districts of Tortum and Ä°spir), the western provinces
of Sakarya, Bursa, Düzce, the district center of KemalpaÅ=9Fa in Izmir
Province, the Black Sea coastal towns of Samsun and Trabzon, and the cities
of Istanbul and Ankara.
The Hopa-Hamshens still use Homshetsma as a means of daily communication.
The Hamshens of Rize, to the west, speak Turkish and only know a few
Homshetsma words other than place names, flora, and other sundry items.
Language is the most important means for defining identity. This is so
because to construct linguistic uniformity, the other means applied in the
process of forging an ethnic identity, a unified history and the unity of
the fatherland, must be present.
The thesis propounded by official Turkish historians, that the Hamshens
learnt the Homshetsma language from neighboring Armenians, does not
warrant our attention The arguments they make to back up their claim as to
why Armenian was adopted by the Hamshens are flawed and fly in the face of
historical and social realities. What needs to be clarified is how the
Hopa-Hamshens were able to preserve the Homshetsma language whereas the
Hamshens of Rize forget it.[3]
Also problematic is the label used to describe the Hamshens of Rize. This
`Rize Hamshens' appellation is used to describe everyone living and
regarded as a native resident of the overall Hamshen region that was
divided into two provinces with the founding of the Turkish Republic. The
Hamshen reality, as an ethnic identity, is something else entirely. We know
from history that many Turkish tribes lived in this area under Ottoman
rule. The classical policy of the Ottomans, i.e. the Turkification of
captured non-Muslim lands and the subsequent policy of Islamicization, when
the Ottoman Empire was in a period of retreat, culminating in the Armenian
Genocide, followed by the policy to resettle Muslim exiles in former
Armenian populated areas, lead to many outside families settling in the
region.
For example, Turkish families with the surname Kepenek wound up in the
Hamshen area as a result of such policies and remain well represented with
large extended families. In addition, we know that Laz and other peoples,
both locals and those who migrated from the Caucasus, lived here in the
past just as they do today. Thus, the Hamshen `essence' (hamshenakanutyun),
as an ethnic identity, doesn't include all the Hamshens of Rize. However we
must raise the following question - when we refer to the Hamshens
(Hamshentsi) are all of them ethnically Hamshens?
Village of BaÅ=9Foba - Hamshen woman
It is also important to examine the lineage of these families and
Ottoman documents pertaining to these population settlements.
The Hamshens we are to discuss here, regardless of accepting them as
Armenian, Turk, or only Hamshentsi/Hamshetsi[4], now and in the past
are the speakers of an Armenian dialect. Starting in the 1990s, the
growing economic ties with post-Soviet countries, including Armenia
and the Armenians, have led the Hopa-Hamshens to review the issue of
their origins. The apparent social, cultural and linguistic
differences between the Armenians of Armenia and the Hamshens served
as a basis for the strengthening of the view within the Hamshen
community that they constitute a separate ethnic group. Contributing
factors are the differences between Homshetsma and both the literary
and conversational Armenian spoken in the Republic of Armenia. Such
differences are quite natural and actually few in number when we
factor in the processes of Islamicization and Turkification.
The Hamshens have undergone three major historical events of disassociation:
1. Their departure from Armenia proper as a result of the first
migration towards Hamshen, thus restricting future relations between them
and other Armenian communities.
2. The process of Islamicization that began after the Ottoman conquest
of the eastern Black Sea region.
3. The disconnect resulting from the religious and cultural assimilation
stemming from the Turkification and modernization processes implemented by
the newly formed centralized Turkish state.
All these served as ingredients in the making of a `hybrid' Hamshen
identity.
As a result of Ankara's state policy of assimilation, Turkish
influence on Hamshen identity has been pronounced and dominant. Even
the Hamshen dialect (Hamshesnak/Homshetsma) has not escaped the impact
of the dominant language, Turkish, and now uses Turkish figures of
speech and words.
The infiltration of words into any language, especially from a
dominant language (either state or nationality), is a fairly natural
phenomenon. It is only from a comparison of fundamental words that we
can understand what language the loan words subsequently came
from. Fundamental words are numbers, human body parts, basic actions
(walking, eating, crying) and names of sundry items long since in
use. Examples of non-fundamental words include - republic, book,
fashion, restaurant, capitalism, television, computer, party, nation,
bus, advantage, spirit, octopus, philosophy, etc. >From this
perspective we see that the fundamental words in Homshetsma, either
wholly or with slight phonetic differences, are Armenian. Whether or
not the names we give objects that enter our lives afterwards are the
same as words in another language, depends on the social and political
relations existing between the two societies. Given that the Hamshens
were under Turkish domination for centuries, it is only natural to
find expressions of that domination in their language and
culture. Even though, from an academic perspective, the Hopa-Hamshens
have the right to an ethnic identity, for a number of reasons they
haven't been studied to the degree of the much beloved
Ã=87amlihemÅ=9Fin area.
Field research carried out by the magazine BiryaÅ=9Fam[5] (One Life)
regarding the folklore of the Hopa-Hamshens has been seen an important
step towards rectifying the matter. There are no written records as to
when, why, or from where the Hamshens came to Hopa. Given that oral
testimonies on the subject are relatively new, the question of the
Hamshens' arrival and settling in Hopa hasn't been researched all that
much. In his doctoral thesis `The Geography of Hopa County', Zeki
Koday provides some historical information regarding the settling of
Hopa. Koday notes that the Ottoman traveler Evliya Ã=87elebi visited
the area in 1640 and recorded that the population of Hopa was mostly
Laz and a minority of Greeks. Hamshen storeowners in Hopa
After the area was brought under Ottoman control, the local Hopa
landowners were banished and replaced by Turkish settlers. Turkish
state historian Fahrettin KrzioÄ=9Flu provides information contained
in a 1516 `Registry of the Real Estate of Trebizond Province'
regarding BaÅ=9Foba, the largest Hamshen village in Hopa: `[...] It is
noted that the vilayet of Bagobit (BaÅ=9Foba village), located between
Hopa and Makriyali (KemalpaÅ=9Fa) and the total revenues of five
villages there (BaÅ=9Fköy, Esenkıyı, Yoldere, Ã=87avuÅ=9Flu,
Koyuncular, was handed over to the local Christian martolos[6]
(Martolos, derived from the Greek armatolos, meaning `armed man' or
militia. They were the remnants of the militia of the Byzantine Empire
which the Ottoman gained control of around 1430 and which they
maintained in some form into the early 19th century. At the time of
the full development of their organization under the Ottomans, The
mostly Christian
martolos served in many Ottoman provinces as part of the mobile troops
and received a salary. Over time, most martolos converted to Islam.)
[Encyclopedia of the Ottoman Empire, Gábor Ã=81goston & Bruce Alan
Masters; 2009]
In documents dating to 1520-1554, Arhavi is noted as the county seat
and that other centers were Gönye (Muratlı-Borçka), Yagobit
(BaÅ=9Foba-Hopa) and Makriyali (KemalpaÅ=9Fa). According to these, in
1486 KemalpaÅ=9Fa was comprised of 47 Christian families. It also
notes that the center of Yagobit county (BaÅ=9Foba -Hopa) had 68 homes
and that it was founded between 1510 and 1520. The same registry
notes that in 1520 Yagobit (BaÅ=9Foba) and Ä°skele (Hopa) were the
centers of the county and that Yagobit was comprised of the center and
six villages, and Ä°skele of eight villages.[7]
It appears from the above-mentioned sources that Laz, Greeks and
Abazins, (a people related to the Abkhaz people) lived in BaÅ=9Foba,
founded in 1515.
Oral histories show that BaÅ=9Foba lands passed from the Laz to the
Hamshens. Certain place names still use the Lazuri originals. A
number of Hamshen village names are also Laz (The former name of
Yoldere is Zhourpichi, meaning `two brothers', and there's the belief
that Ghigoba (BaÅ=9Foba) derives from Ghigi.)
But we still have no precise data regarding when the Hamshens migrated
to Hopa. Historical research shows that from Hamshen proper
(Ã=87amlihemÅ=9Fin, HemÅ=9Fin, Senoz in Rize), the prevailing
migration routes due to forced Islamicization were to the
west. Anthony Bryer believes that the Hamshens were subject to Islamic
influence in the 15th century and had mostly converted to Islam by the
18th century. Those who remained Christian spread to the towns along
the Black Sea coast, mainly Trebizond. [Bryer, Anthony (1975). "Greeks
and Turkmens: The Pontic Exception"][8]
Bert Vaux believes that there was a mass conversion of Western
Hamshens to Islam in the 16th and 18th centuries, a smaller number at
the start of the 20th century, and that the Eastern Hamshens adopted
Islam in the 17th.[9] Even though the Rize Hamshens still mark the
Christian holiday of Vardavar (its celebration is devoid of any
religious significance and is a summer festival in the mountain
valleys), there are no traces of a former Christian faith amongst the
Hopa-Hamshens. Place names in certain Hopa-Hamshen villages including
the word kilise (Turkish for church) most likely pre-date the arrival
of the Hamshens.
There are many Hamshen villages in Hopa and KemalpaÅ=9Fa today:
BaÅ=9Foba /Ghigoba, Yoldere/Zhulpiji, Ã=87avuÅ=9Flu /Chavoushin,
Koyuncular/Zaluna, EÅ=9Fmekaya /Ardala, GüneÅ=9Fli /Tzaghista,
Balıklı/Anchurogh, Kaya Köyü/Ghalvashi, Ã=87amurlu /Chanchaghan,
Å=9Eana, Ã=9CçkardeÅ=9F, Köprücü, Osmaniye,
Karaosmaniye/Ghetselan, Akdere/Chyolyuket, Kazimiye/Veyi Sarp:
Usually, Hamshen villages are made up of extended families of
brothers. But those of BaÅ=9Foba, Ardala and Hendek are comprised of
different families, leading us to infer that the process of settling
took place in different time periods. It is only in the villages of
Ã=9CçkardeÅ=9F and Köprücü that the Hamshens live alongside the
Laz.
The Hamshens now living in the area of KemalpaÅ=9Fa, a coastal town in
Artvin Province just a few miles from the Georgian border came from
Hopa. Thus, the Hamshens first settled in Hopa and then started to
move to KemalpaÅ=9Fa. It is believed that the Hamshens first arrived
in KemalpaÅ=9Fa as agricultural workers, given that the land was
better suited for this, and that gradually they purchased those lands
themselves. Some of the Hamshen families now living in KemalpaÅ=9Fa
villages have relatives back in Hopa and note that their `native
hearths' are the villages of Hopa. In the past, there were practically
no Hamshens living in the town of Hopa. Today, due to the retreat of
agriculture and animal husbandry and the parallel rise of commerce,
more than half the town is now comprised of Hamshens.
This `descent' of the Hamshens from the mountain valleys down to the
town of Hopa, the seat of the Hopa district, wasn't easy. The
historical disagreements between the area's peoples are still referred
to today as the `Laz-Hamshen conflict.'
The Hamshens still remember the time when the Laz aghas of Hopa
wouldn't permit them to enter the town and the village produce they
would bring to market was forcibly seized by agents of the aghas.
The socio-economic development of the Hamshens is a consequence of
this resettlement. The former employment sectors of the Hamshens -
agriculture (corn), horticulture, animal husbandry, and woodworking -
overtime gave way to the trades and transportation.
The growth and division of families, and the continuing difficulties
associated with maintaining flocks of sheep in the mountain valleys of
Ardahan, Ispir, Olti and elsewhere, were reasons for the Hamshens to
turn to the towns and commerce. (The raising of animals became
increasingly difficult after Hamshen sheep flocks were kicked out of
Batumi, which was used as a winter respite, and the border was
eventually shut tight.)
Hızır Yazıcı, who worked for many years as a bread and pastry
maker in the town of Hopa, describes the process of Hamshens becoming
traders and craftsmen thusly.
`I started out as a bread baker in 1935. There were six bread ovens
back then. The Hamshens owned five in Hopa. There was Muhammed from
the Koyuncu's, two brothers from the YaÄ=9Fcı's and Grandpa Å=9Eukru
Akbıyık. There was Topal Cemal's father, Harun, and a guy called
Mehmet TopaloÄ=9Flu. I was the sixth. The rest were Laz. KibiroÄ=9Flu,
TosunoÄ=9Flu, MustoÄ=9Flu, VajoÄ=9Flu; they all had flocks. That's how
it was until the 1940s.' [10]
Before the construction of the harbor in 1972, Hopa was a fairly
sleepy town. Like other Hopa residents, the Hamshens went off to work
as laborers in Ardahan, Murgul, Batumi and regional towns and centers
like Zonguldak along the western Black Sea coast. In time, they
brought back the crafts they had acquired to Hopa and other places. A
state sponsored plan to introduce tea in the 1970s did away with corn
growing and horticulture. The government made huge investments and all
suitable land was purchased to make way for tea fields. The tea
industry also served as an alternative to animal husbandry.
Parallel to the building of a harbor and the growth of the tea trade,
the transport sector quickly grew. Many Hamshens entered the transport
sector and it remains the chief job market for Hamshens along with
bread baking till today. Early on, Hamshens worked as drivers for
foreigners. Later, they organized companies of their own. With
companies such as Koyuncular, Yalçınlar, Dalkılıç, Yenigüller,
the Hamshens are serious players in the sector. Those large revenue
generating transport companies, who started dealing with the
post-Soviet nations in the 1990s, slowly began to turn to the
manufacturing sector. Today, there are Hamshen businessmen in all
sectors of commerce. The cultural and political life of the Hamshens
is also conditioned by socio-economic developments. The Hopa-Hamshens
are the only Muslim Hamshens who speak Homshetsma.
The fact that the Hopa-Hamshens preserved their language is linked to
their isolated village life. Their continued self-sustaining village
life, due to agriculture and animal husband, allows them to pass down
the language from generation to generation and for the maintenance of
certain traditions. This situation began to change with the founding
of the Turkish Republic, when the central government made the teaching
of Turkish mandatory. Even those who had become merchants in the towns
and those wishing to obtain decent jobs were obliged to know the
official state language as their native tongue.
Many Hamshens only learnt Turkish in school and this was the case
until the 1980s. It's forbidden to use any language other than Turkish
in the schools. School administrations would not only force pupils to
speak Turkish but also instructed families to only speak Turkish at
home to their kids.
The author Cemil with a relative
Those families who wanted their children to get a good education and
decent work afterwards, began to speak Turkish at home. But they
continued to speak Homshetsma while they learnt Turkish. Gradually,
the pressures brought to bear for making Turkish mandatory lead to the
weakening of Homshetsma. In the past, everyone spoke
Homshetsma. Today, many children cannot speak it at all, understanding
only a bit.
Concomitant with economic growth, the Hamshens started to show
progress in their social and political affairs. A Hamshen was elected
mayor of Hopa for the first time in 2004. Israfil Kotil, who heads the
Hopa Drivers' Union, and Engin Koyuncu, Chairman of Hopa's Chamber of
Commerce and Industry, are both Hamshens. Hamshens are well
represented in government and the public health and education sectors.
When it comes to politics, Hamshens are mostly left of center. This
leftist tendency has received its fair share of scrutiny. In the
run-up to the 2011 parliamentary elections, a press interview given by
Cüneyt Aytolan, one of the managers of the ruling party's Arhavi
campaign office, gives an insight into the subconscious mind of the
right-wingers and the authorities.
`The right of center electorate in Arhavi is 70%. It's the exact
opposite in Hopa. The reason isn't the Laz but the Hamshen
Armenians. They are playing at ethnic chauvinism.'[11]
Except for the `official historians' and the Hamshens themselves,
everyone else regards the Hamshens as Armenians. Explaining their
support of the left as a consequence of their being Armenian, would
appear to be an expression of chauvinism.
Then again, the interpretation that all Hamshens vote for leftist
parties is also baseless. For example, BaÅ=9Foba other villages are
well-known as `Little Moscow'. However, the Hamshen villages of Ardala
and Zaluna are bastions of rightwing Turkish nationalist parties.
It would be more correct to say that the Hamshens, parallel to their
economic and social development, are regarded to be more active in the
political arena than others. Leftist partisan movements sprung up in
the aftermath of the civil upheaval of 1974-1980 and the military coup
of 1980. Hamshens were well represented in organizations of mass
popular resistance. To understand what was going on, we have to look
at the situation from different angles. First, the Hamshens were
falling behind in the social and economic spheres. For example, the
Laz living in the district center were integrated with the government
(as city dwellers, modernization came much quicker), whereas the
Hamshens started the process much later. Even as late as the 1980s,
the Hamshens had to build village roads on their own, in a cooperative
effort, without state assistance. Second, having their own `mother
tongue', the Hamshens were out of synch with the Turkish government's
concept of `One language, One Nation'.
Thus, the Hamshens expressed their social and political demands mostly
in terms of leftist politics. In addition to sociological reasons, the
structure of the Hamshen identity also contributed to their becoming
`partisans'; i.e. on the front line of struggle. Tackling the
challenges and arduous conditions of daily life, the Hamshens have
been gifted with a high degree of self-confidence, personal
responsibility and a rebellious and temperamental nature. It was for
these reasons that the Hamshens strove to be `on the front line' of
whatever political movement they supported. Then too, an important
segment of Hamshens preferred to be associated with political parties
supporting the government, since they viewed such affiliation as the
road towards economic advancement.
It's safe to say that, subconsciously, those who adopted the
`pro-government' approach were constantly fearful of being singled out
as Armenians. The Hamshens know they are regarded by others as
Islamicized Armenians and certain Hamshens, in an attempt to shed this
image, wind up supporting the most rightwing political parties in
Turkey. Political affiliation also divides Hamshens into those who
acknowledge or disavow their Armenian roots.
Hamshens who accept their Armenian roots are generally those within
the leftist-socialist political specter. Since the left-socialists are
opposed to the central state ideology, its official view of history,
and the nationalist motto `One language, one nation', they do not
emphasize historical problems that much
This section of the Hamshen community, however, also lacks any
narrative of identity and makes no political demands based on
identity. The issue of Hamshen identity was only put on the agenda in
the late 1990s. Several factors were at play here, the primary one
being the Kurdish movement; a political movement demanding various
cultural and language rights. The Kurdish movement shook Turkey to the
core and spurred other national groups subject to assimilation by the
ruling powers to voice their opposition to the `official
ideology'. The Laz, living alongside the Hamshens, followed the Kurds
and experienced a reawakening of their own. Interest grew regarding
the national language and music. Measures to assimilate the
non-Turkish communities, which continued throughout the entire period
of the Turkish Republic, led to the formation of different mindsets
and psychological hang-ups.
The policy of assimilation spawned the view that Turkish, in addition
to being the state language, was the language of modernity and
urbanites. Local languages, viewed as crude and associated with rural
backwardness, were ridiculed to the point of shame. To speak a
language other than Turkish in public was regarded as unacceptable.
The Kurdish struggle, in defense of their language and cultural
rights, and subsequent measures taken by the Laz to follow the Kurdish
example, put an end to such psychological hang-ups. Members of various
ethnic groups began to relate to their language and culture to a
greater degree.
Laz singer-songwriter and activist Kâzım Koyuncu (1971-2005) issued
a number of CD's that featured songs in the Hamshen dialect. The
Hamshen community, especially the young people, took this as a wake-up
call to mobilize in defense of their endangered language and culture.
Kâzım Koyuncu had no hang-ups when it came to showcasing the music
and culture of the peoples of the Black Sea coast. He became an
instant hit across the country and both the Laz and Hamshen
communities took this to heart and freed themselves from the tradition
of self-belittlement they had come to accept as the norm. Many Hamshen
youth, following Koyuncu's example, rediscovered the songs locked away
in the memories of their grandmothers - songs in the mother tongue
long since forgotten. Young Hamshen songwriters also started to
compose new songs in the mother tongue.
They began to circulate Hamshen language texts over the internet via
social websites. In the music field, the following singers and groups
began to turn out CD's featuring Hamshen songs - Gökhan Birben, Bizim
YaÅ=9Far (KabaosmanoÄ=9Flu), AydoÄ=9Fan Topal, Vova, AydoÄ=9Fan
Yılmaz, Salih Yılmaz, Meluses, etc.
Bilingual Homshetsma-Turkish articles first appeared in the magazine
BiryaÅ=9Fam, published in Hopa. A few months ago, the `Hadig' Hamshen
Cultural Research and Preservation Union, opened its doors in
Istanbul.
These developments in the cultural sector have led to different
approaches regarding the issue of Hamshen identity and related
challenges. What steps can be taken to preserve the Hamshen language;
the main defining component of Hamshen identify? Is the current
Hamshen vocabulary sufficient or must links be re-forged with
Armenian, the prime well-spring of Homshetsma?
Following the lead of the Kurds and other ethnic groups, should the
Hamshens demand that the Hamshen language (Homshetsma) at least be
taught as an elective subject in schools located in Hamshen
communities? What does `Hamshen culture' mean?
Those individuals committed to the survival of Hamshen identity
continue to debate and discuss such issues. It's a recently launched
exploration still fraught with uncertainty.
Photo by Anahit Hayrapetyan
Translated (from Turkish into Armenian) by Tiran Lokmagozyan
------------------------------
[1] Levon Haçikyan "HemÅ=9Fin Gizemi: HamÅ=9Fen ErmenileriTarihinden
Sayfalar", translated and edited by BaÄ=9Fdik Avedisyan (Istanbul:
BelgeYayınları, 1996).
[2] http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hem%C5%9Finliler
[3] An important article on the issue is AyÅ=9Fenur Kolivar's
`Thoughts on the Turkish Dialect Spoken in a Hemshin Village'
[4] Those who speak Homshetsma call themselves Hamshentsi or
Homshetsi, while the Rize Hamshens do not use this Armenian form.
[5] BiryaÅ=9Fam Yerel Tarih, Folklor, Biyografi ve CoÄ=9Frafya
Dergisi, 13 volumes of this Hopa-based magazine have been published to
date. For further information: www.biryasam.com.tr
[6] Zeki Koday, Hopa Ä°lçesinin CoÄ=9Frafyası (`The Geography of
Hopa County'). (Unpublished doctoral thesis, page 112)
[7] Ibid
[8] http://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hem%C5%9Finliler
[9] Ibid
[10] BiryaÅ=9Fam, Vol 2
[11] MehveÅ=9F Evin, Milliyet, (
http://siyaset.milliyet.com.tr/artvin-de-secim-cetin-viraj-li/siyaset/siyasetdetay/30.05.2011/1396247/default.htm )
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