Laz people

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Laz, Lazi
(ლაზი, ლაზეფე)
Statue of a Laz man and woman in Arhavi (Ark'abi), Turkey
Regions with significant populations
 Turkey103,900 (Ethnologue, 2019)[1]
 Georgia1,000 (2007)[1]
 Germany1,000 (2007)[1]
 Russia160 (2010)[2]
Languages
Laz, Georgian, Turkish
Religion
In Turkey: majority Sunni Islam[3]
In Georgia: majority Georgian Orthodox[4]
Related ethnic groups
Georgians (especially Mingrelians), Pontic Greeks
Laz people
Place of distribution
Religion
Culture
History
Related peoples

The Laz people, or Lazi (

ethnic group native to the South Caucasus, who mainly live in Black Sea coastal regions of Turkey and Georgia. They traditionally speak the Laz language (which is a member of the Kartvelian language family) but have experienced a rapid language shift to Turkish
.

Of the 103,900 ethnic Laz in Turkey, only around 20,000 speak Laz and the language is classified as threatened (6b) in Turkey and shifting (7) in Georgia on the Expanded Graded Intergenerational Disruption Scale.[1]

Etymology

Maunsell's map, a pre-World War I British ethnographical map of the Caucasus, showing the Laz region in orange.

The ancestors of the Laz people are cited by many classical authors from Scylax to Procopius and Agathias, but the word Lazi in Latin language (Greek: Λαζοί, romanized: Lazoí) themselves are firstly cited by Pliny around the 2nd century BC.[5][6][7]

Boundaries of southern part of Colchis, from Reditus Decem Millium Graecorum, 1815

Identity

Self-Identification

Vladimir Minorsky, Russian scholar of Oriental studies, argued in 1913 that the Laz living in Turkey and Georgia have developed different understandings of what it means to be Laz as their identity in Georgia has largely merged with a Georgian identity with the meaning of "Laz" being seen as merely a regional category.[8]

Identification by non-Laz

In a stereotyping manner, non-Laz often use the exonym Laz for groups that are mostly not ethnic Laz:

  1. In Turkey, the term Laz is a 'folk' definition and exonym for anyone originating in the eastern Black Sea coast of Turkey. Sometimes, the term is extended to the western portion of the coast as well. Therefore, this term is often used mostly for ethnic
    Hemshins
    in addition to Laz in Turkey.
  2. The residents of the northwestern portion of the Gümüşhane are viewed as Laz by other people from Gümüşhane.
  3. The residents of Posof are named as Laz by neighboring communities.
  4. Pontic Greeks are seen as Laz by other Greeks.[citation needed]
  5. People from
    Hemshins of Erzurum
    are thought to be Laz by other people from Erzurum.
  6. The Pontic Greek-speakers from the village of Dönerdere in Van are called as Laz by the neighboring communities.
  7. A small community living in the Caspian coast of Iran is called as Laz.[9]

History

Origins

The Lazuri-speaking ancestors of the modern Laz originally hailed from the northeast, around Abkhazia and Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti and settled in the present homeland of the Laz in antiquity.[10]

Modern theories suggest that the

Colchian tribes are direct ancestors of the Laz-Mingrelians, they constituted the dominant ethnic and cultural presence in the south-eastern Black Sea region in antiquity, and hence played a significant role in the ethnogenesis of the modern Georgians.[11]

Antiquity

In the thirteenth century

Milesian traders from Sinope in 756 BC. Trebizond's trade partners included the Proto-Laz tribes of Mossynoeci
.

Ethnic map of the Caucasus in the 5th and 4th centuries BC

By the sixth century BC, the tribes living in the southern Colchis (

Mithridates VI conquered the Colchis, and gave it to his son Mithridates of Colchis
.

As a result of the Roman campaigns between 88 and 63 BC, led by the generals Pompey and Lucullus, the kingdom of Pontus was completely destroyed by the Romans and all its territory, including Colchis, was incorporated into the Roman Empire. The former southern provinces of Colchis were reorganized into the Roman province of Pontus Polemoniacus, while the northern Cholchis became the Roman province of Lazicum. Roman control remained likewise only nominal over the tribes of the interior.[16]

The first-century historians Memnon and Strabo remark in passing that the people formerly called Macrones bore in his day the name of Sanni, a claim supported also by Stephanus of Byzantium. The second-century historian Arrian notes that Tzanni, same as the Sanni[17] are neighbours of the Colchians, while the latter were now referred to as the Lazi. By the mid-third century, the Lazi tribe came to dominate most of Colchis, establishing the kingdom of Lazica.

Middle Ages

The kingdom of Lazica in late antiquity

The warlike tribes of the Chaldia, called Tzanni, the ancestors of modern Laz people lived in Tzanica, the area located between the Byzantine and the Lazica. It included several settlements named: Athenae, Archabis and Apsarus; Tzanni were neither subjects of the Romans nor of the king of the Lazica, except that during the reign of the Byzantine emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565) they were subdued, Christianized and brought to central rule.[18][19] The bishops of the Lazica appointed their priests, seeing they are Christians. Tzanni began to have closer contact with the Greeks and acquired various Hellenic cultural traits, including in some cases the language.

Map of the Caucasus, c. 740 AD

From 542 to 562, Lazica was a scene of the protracted rivalry between the

Abul Feda
regards city of Trebizond as being largely a Lazian port.

In 780, kingdom of Abkhazia incorporated the former territories of Lazica via a dynastic succession, thus ousting the Pontic Lazs (formerly known as Tzanni) from western Georgia; thereafter, the Tzanni lived under nominal Byzantine suzerainty in the theme of Chaldia, with its capital at Trebizond, governed by the native semi-autonomous rulers, like the Gabras family,[21] of possibly "Greco-Laz" or simply Chaldian origin.[22]

Map of the Trebizond Empire in Anatolia, c. 1300

With the

Bessarion, regarded the Trapezuntian Empire as being no more than a Lazian border state.[25] Though Greek in higher culture, the rural areas of Trebizond empire appear to have been predominantly Laz in ethnic composition.[26] 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.[27]

In 1282, kingdom of Imereti besieged Trebizond, however after the failed attempt to take the city, the Georgians occupied several provinces,[28] and all the Trebizontine province of Lazia threw off its allegiance to the king of the 'Iberian' and 'Lazian' tribes and united itself with the Georgian Kingdom of Imereti.

Early Modern era

Sanjak of Lazistan, Ottoman Anatolia, 1914

Laz populated area was often contested by different Georgian principalities, however through Battle of Murjakheti in 1535, Principality of Guria ensured control over it, until 1547, when it was finally conquered by resurgent Ottoman forces and reorganized into the Lazistan sanjak as part of eyalet of Trabzon.

The Ottomans fought for three centuries to

Islamization policy, throughout of seventeenth century Lazs gradually converted to Islam. As the Ottomans consolidated their rule, the Millet system was brought to the newly conquered territories. Local orthodox inhabitants, once subordinated to the Georgian Orthodox Church, had to obey Patriarchate of Constantinople,[30] thus gradually becoming Greeks, the process known as Hellenization of Laz people.[30] Lazs who were under the control of Constantinople, soon lost their language and self-identity as they became Greeks and learned Greek,[31] especially Pontic dialect of Greek language, although native language was preserved by Lazs who had become Muslims. In the middle of the seventeen century, several governors of Tunis, who bore the title of Dey
were Laz origin, such as: Muhammad Laz (1647-1653), Mustafa Laz (1653-1665) and Ali Laz (1673).

Not only the Pashas (governors) of Trabzon until the 19th century, but real authority in many of the cazas (districts) of each sanjak by the mid-17th century lay in the hands of relatively independent native Laz derebeys ("valley-lords"), or feudal chiefs who exercised absolute authority in their own districts, carried on petty warfare with each other, did not owe allegiance to a superior and never paid contributions to the sultan. In the period following the war of 1828–1829, Sultan Mahmud II attempted to break the power of the great independent derebeys of Lazistan. In the event, the Laz derebeys, led by Tahir Ağa Tuzcuoğlu of Rize, did rise in revolt in 1832. The revolt was initially successful: at its height in January 1833, but by the spring of 1834, the rising had been put down.[32] The suppression of the rising had finally broken the power of the Laz derebeys. This state of insubordination was not really broken until the assertion of Ottoman authority during the reforms of the Osman Pasha in the 1850s.[32]

In 1547, Ottomans built coastal fortress of

Izmit, Adapazarı and Sapanca.[35] With the spread of Young Turk movement in Lazistan, the short-lived autonomist national movement headed by Faik Efendişi was established. However, it was soon eliminated as the result of Abdul Hamid's intervention.[36] During the First World War (1914–18) Russians invaded the provinces of Rize and Trabzon. However, following the Bolshevik Revolution in 1917, the Russian forces had to withdraw from the region and finally left the area to the Ottoman-Turkish forces in March 1918. From 1918 to 1920, the national movement swept rapidly all around Lazistan, committees and an interim government was created. It was oriented towards Soviet Russia. But as soon as, the Soviet-Turkish treaty of friendship was concluded, it helped the Turks, to integrate Lazistan.[37] The autonomous Lazistan sanjak existed until 1923, while the designation of the term of Lazistan was officially banned in 1926, by the Kemalists. Lazistan was divided between Rize and Artvin provinces.[38]

During the beginning of the Stalinist era, the Lazs living under Soviet domination had a certain cultural autonomy in the Soviet Union but after breakout of the Second World War, Soviet authorities designed a strategy to ethnically cleanse the border regions of populations it deemed unreliable. The Laz population was sent to exile in Siberia and Central Asia. After the death Stalin in 1953, the political climate had changed that between 1953 and 1957 the surviving Lazs were allowed to return to their homeland.

Modern

Most Laz people today live in Turkey, but the Laz minority group has no official status in Turkey. The number of the Laz speakers is decreasing, and is now limited chiefly to some areas in Rize and Artvin.

Population and geographical distribution

Further information: Laz people in Turkey

The total population of the Laz today is only estimated, with numbers ranging widely. The majority of Laz live in Turkey, where the national census does not record ethnic data on minor populations.[39]

Settlements

Country / region Official data Estimate Concentration Article
 Turkey — 103,900[1]
Ikizdere
districts.

Artvin: Arhavi and Hopa. minorities in: Borçka district.

Of
Anatolia: Karamürsel in Kocaeli, Akçakoca in Düzce, Sakarya, Zonguldak, Bartın, Istanbul and Ankara

 Laz people in Turkey
 Georgia — 1,000[1]
Gonio, Makho, Batumi and Kobuleti
.

Samegrelo-Zemo Svaneti: Zugdidi and Anaklia.

Laz people in Georgia
 Germany — 1,000[1] — Laz people in Germany
 Russia 160[2] — — —

Area

See also: Lazistan
Map of Lazistan

The majority of the Laz today live in an area they call Laziǩa, Lazistan, Lazeti or Lazona name of the cultural region traditionally inhabited by the Laz people in modern northeast Turkey and southwest Georgia. Geographically, Lazistan consists of a series of narrow, rugged valleys extending northward from the crest of the

Çoruh Valley, and stretches east–west along the southern shore of the Black Sea. Lazistan is a virtually a forbidden term in Turkey.[A] the name was considered to be an 'unpatriotic' invention of ancien regime.[38]

Laz ancestral lands are not well-defined and there is no official geographic definition for the boundaries of Lazistan. However, parts of the following provinces are usually included:

Economy

Historically, Lazistan was known for producing hazelnuts.[40] Lazistan also produced zinc, producing over 1,700 tons in 1901.[40] The traditional Laz economy was based on agriculture—carried out with some difficulty in the steep mountain regions and also on the breeding of sheep, goats, and cattle. Orchards were tended and bees were kept, and the food supply was augmented by hunting. The Laz are good sailors and also practise agriculture rice, maize, tobacco and fruit-trees. The only industries were smelting, celebrated since ancient times, and the cutting of timber used for shipbuilding.

Culture

Over the past 20 years, there has been an upsurge of cultural activities aiming at revitalizing the Laz language, education and tradition. Kâzım Koyuncu, who in 1998 became the first Laz musician to gain mainstream success, contributed significantly to the identity of the Laz people, especially among their youth.[41]

The Laz Cultural Institute was founded in 1993 and the Laz Culture Association in 2008, and a Laz cultural festival was established in Gemlik.[2][42] The Laz community successfully lobbied Turkey's Education Ministry to offer Laz-language instruction in schools around the Black Sea region. In 2013, the Education Ministry added Laz as a four-year elective course for secondary students, beginning in the fifth grade.[43]

Language

Further information: Laz language
Distribution of the South Caucasian languages

Lazuri is a complex and morphologically rich tongue belonging to the

N. Marr regarded Laz and Megrelian, two dialects of "linguistically one" language, as two languages. The Laz language does not have a written history, thus Turkish and Georgian serve as the main literary languages for the Laz people. Their folk literature has been transmitted orally and has not been systematically recorded. The first attempts at establishing a distinct Laz cultural identity and creating a literary language based on the Arabic alphabet was made by Faik Efendisi in the 1870s, but he was soon imprisoned by the Ottoman authorities, while most of his works were destroyed. During a relative cultural autonomy granted to the minorities in the 1930s, the written Laz literature—based on the Laz script—emerged in Soviet Georgia, strongly dominated by Soviet ideology. The poet Mustafa Baniṣi spearheaded this short-lived movement, but an official standard form of the tongue was never established.[44]
Since then, several attempts have been made to render the pieces of native literature in the Turkish and Georgian alphabets. A few native poets in Turkey such as Raşid Hilmi Pehlivanoğlu have appeared later in the 20th century.

Religion

Pironity in Arhavi
etc.

There are also a few Christian Laz in the Adjara region of Georgia who have reconverted to Christianity.[51]

Mosque and Orthodox church in Sarpi, border village on the coast of the Black Sea, on the border between Turkey and Georgia.

Mythology

epic poem Argonautica (3rd century BC) tells the myth of their voyage to retrieve the Golden Fleece. This painting is located in the Palace of Versailles
.

Famous for its saga and myths and bounded by the Black Sea and the Caucasian Mountains, the ancient region of Colchis spreads out from West Georgia to Northeast Turkey. The famous tale in Greek mythology of the Golden Fleece in which Jason and the Argonauts stole the Golden Fleece from King Aeetes, with the help of his daughter Medea, has brought Colchis into the history books.

Festival

Kolkhoba is an ancient Laz festival. It is held at the end of August or at the beginning of September in Sarpi village, Khelvachauri District. Festival has revived the former lifestyle of Lazeti residents and moments of human relations typical to the times of ancient Greece and Colchis related to the Argonauts journey to Colchis. During the celebration of Kolkhoba theater performances are followed by a variety of activities and it is considered one of the main public festivals.

Music

The national instruments include

folk-rock musician Kâzım Koyuncu attained to significant popularity in Turkey and toured Georgia. Koyuncu, who died of cancer in 2005, was also an activist for the Laz people and has become a cultural hero.[52]

Dance

Extension and distribution of folk dances in Turkey

The Laz are noted for their folk dances, called the

Horon dance of the Black Sea, originally of pagan worship which was to become a sacred ritual dance. There are many different types of this dance in different regions. Horon is related to those performed by the Ajarians known as Khorumi. These may be solemn and precise, performed by lines of men, with carefully executed footwork, or extremely vigorous with the men dancing erect with hands linked, making short rapid movements with their feet, punctuated by dropping to a crouch. The women's dances are graceful but more swift in movement than those encountered in Georgia. In Greece such dances are still associated with the Pontic Greeks
who emigrated from this region after 1922.

Postcard of Laz soldiers dressed in national clothes (Trabzon, Turkey).

Traditional clothing

The traditional Laz men's costume consists of a peculiar bandanalike kerchief covering the entire head above the eyes, knotted on the side and hanging down to the shoulder and the upper back; a snug-fitting jacket of coarse brown homespun with loose sleeves; and baggy dark brown woolen trousers tucked into slim, knee-high leather boots. The women's costume was similar to the wide-skirted princess gown found throughout Georgia but worn with a similar kerchief to that of the men and with a rich scarf tied around the hips. Laz men crafted excellent homemade rifles and even while at the plow were usually seen bristling with arms: rifle, pistol, powder horn, cartridge belts across the chest, a dagger at the hip, and a coil of rope for trussing captives.

Discrimination

Percentage of geographical name changes in Turkey from 1916 onwards

Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, the leader of the early decades of the Republic, aimed to create a nation state (Turkish: Ulus) from the Turkish remnants of the Ottoman Empire. During the first three decades of the Republic, efforts to Turkify geographical names were a recurring theme. Imported maps containing references to historical regions such as Armenia, Kurdistan, or Lazistan (the official name of the province of Rize until 1921) were prohibited (as was the case with Der Grosse Weltatlas, a map published in Leipzig).

Cultural assimilation into the Turkish culture has been high, and Laz identity was oppressed during the days of Ottoman and Soviet Rule. One of the pivotal moments was in 1992, when the book Laz History (Lazların tarihi) was published. The authors had failed to have it published in 1964.[41]

Gallery

  • Amedeo Preziosi: Mustapha, moslem from Batum, painting, c. 1852
    Amedeo Preziosi: Mustapha, moslem from Batum, painting, c. 1852
  • Çürüksulu Ali Pasha with Ottoman Georgian and Laz men. Pasha was a descendant of the Georgian noble family of the Tavdgiridze, 19th century
    Çürüksulu Ali Pasha with Ottoman Georgian and Laz men. Pasha was a descendant of the Georgian noble family of the Tavdgiridze, 19th century
  • Young Laz man, engraving from Le Tour du Monde, based on a drawing by Théophile Deyrolle, who traveled in Turkey and Georgia in the 1870s, documenting, among other things, medieval Georgian monuments on the territory of the Ottoman Empire
    Young Laz man, engraving from Le Tour du Monde, based on a drawing by Théophile Deyrolle, who traveled in Turkey and Georgia in the 1870s, documenting, among other things, medieval Georgian monuments on the territory of the Ottoman Empire
  • Inhabitant of Lazistan, from a German travel book, 1897
    Inhabitant of Lazistan, from a German travel book, 1897
  • Laz men in 1900s
    Laz men in 1900s
  • Soldiers in traditional Trebizond clothing, Constantinople, 1900s
    Soldiers in traditional Trebizond clothing, Constantinople, 1900s
  • Postcard featuring Laz dancers in national costume in Trabzon
    Postcard featuring Laz dancers in national costume in Trabzon
  • Laz men from Trabzon, 1910s
    Laz men from Trabzon, 1910s
  • Lazian Militia, c. 1918
    Lazian Militia, c. 1918
  • Ğeraspor (Işıklı Spor), squad of first Laz football team, 1925
    Ğeraspor (Işıklı Spor), squad of first Laz football team, 1925
  • Circa 1900
    Circa 1900

See also

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Laz people.

Notes

  1. ^ "Article 8 of the Anti-Terror Law (Law No. 3713 amended by Law No. 4126) reads, "No one may engage in written and oral propaganda aimed at disrupting the indivisible integrity of the State of the Turkish Republic, country, and nation. [… ] Those who engage in such deeds will be sentenced to from one to three years in prison and given a heavy fine […]". This article means that those who orally or in print make use of words such as Lazistan or Kurdistan risk prosecution."

References

  1. ^ a b c d e f g "Laz". Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 July 2022.
  2. ^
    Russian Federal State Statistics Service. Archived from the original
    (PDF) on 6 September 2018. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  3. ^ Roger Rosen, Jeffrey Jay Foxx, The Georgian Republic, Passport Books (September 1991)
  4. ^ "ЛАЗЫ СССР И ГРУЗИИ: ПЕРИПЕТИИ ИСТОРИЧЕСКИХ СУДЕБ - Кавказ: новости, история,традиции". www.kavkazoved.info.
  5. ^ Pliny, NH 6.4.12.
  6. ^ Braund (1994), p. 157, fn. 24.
  7. ^ Pliny, C. (1989). Natural history: Books 3-7 (H. Rackham, Trans.). Cambridge: Harvard. p. 346-347.
  8. ^ Minorsky, V. "Laz." Encyclopaedia of Islam, Second Edition. Edited by: P. Bearman , Th. Bianquis , C.E . Bosworth , E. van Donzel and W.P. Heinrichs. Brill, 2010.,
  9. ^ Yılmaz, İsmail Güney. "Laz Kimliği Üzerine". Bianet. Retrieved 6 July 2022.
  10. ISSN 1873-9830
    .
  11. ^ Cyril Toumanoff, Studies in Christian Caucasian History, p 80
  12. ^

    "The tribes in Colchis consolidated during the 13th century BCE. This was at this period mentioned in Greek mythology as Colchis as the destination of the Argonauts and the home of Medea in her domain of sorcery. She was known to Urartians as Qulha (Kolkha or Kilkhi). »

    Morritt, R.D. (2010) Stones that Speak. EBSCO ebook academic collection. Cambridge Scholars Pub.(9781443821766) p.99
  13. ^ Nodar Asatiani, Otar Janelidże (2009) History of Georgia: From Ancient Times to the Present Day. University of Michigan. Publishing House Petite 9789941906367 page 17.
  14. ^ Children of Achilles: The Greeks in Asia Minor Since the Days of Troy, by John Freely, p. 69–70
  15. ^ The Foreign Policy of Mithridates VI Eupator, King of Pontus, by B. C. McGing, p. 11
  16. ^ Talbert 2000, p. 1226.
  17. ^ Procopius, History of the Wars, I-II [21-25]
  18. ^ Evans 2000, p. 93.
  19. ^ Procopius Bell. Pers. i. 15, Bell. Goth. iv. 2, de Aed. iii. 6.
  20. ^ Ashkharatsuyts, Long Recension, V, 19.
  21. ^ Hewsen, 47
  22. ^ A. Bryer and D. Winfield, The Byzantine Monuments and Topography of the Pontos, pp.300
  23. ^ Mikaberidze, A. (2015). Historical dictionary of Georgia. 2nd ed. Lanham, MD, United States: ROWMAN & LITTLEFIELD, p.634.
  24. ^ Thys-Şenocak, Lucienne. Ottoman Women Builders. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006.
  25. ^ Bryer 1967, 179.
  26. ^ "Laz | Encyclopedia.com". www.encyclopedia.com.
  27. ^ ROYAL GEOGRAPHICAL SOCIETY (GREAT BRITAIN). (1893). The Geographical journal. London, Royal Geographical Society.
  28. ^ Miller, Trebizond, p. 30
  29. ^ HOLY MARTYRS OF LAZETI (17TH–18TH CENTURIES) pravoslavie.ru
  30. ^ a b ქართველთა დენაციონალიზაცია XVII-XX საუკუნეებში; ლაზეთი-თრიალეთი (ქართველთა გაბერძნება) Metropolitan of Manglisi, Ananias Japaridze, nplg.gov.ge
  31. ISBN 978-5-91022-306-0
    . There are orthodox Lazs who are under the control of the Greek patriarchate in Istanbul. They speak Greek and call themselves Greeks.
  32. ^
    ISBN 9789004163089
  33. Bagrationi, Vakhushti (1976). Nakashidze, N.T. (ed.). История Царства Грузинского
    [History of the Kingdom of Georgia] (PDF) (in Russian). Tbilisi: Metsniereba. pp. 133–135.
  34. ^ Church, Kenneth (2001). From dynastic principality to imperial district: the incorporation of Guria into the Russian Empire to 1856 (Ph.D.). University of Michigan. pp. 127–129.
  35. S2CID 53584439
    .
  36. ISSN 1994-1471
    .
  37. ISBN 978-5-91022-304-6.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link
    )
  38. ^ a b Thys-Şenocak, Lucienne. Ottoman Women Builders. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006. Print.
  39. ^ Silvia Kutscher (2008). "The language of the Laz in Turkey: Contact-induced language change or gradual loss?" (PDF). Turkic Languages. 12 (1). Retrieved 31 January 2015. Due to a lack of census information on minorities (aside from a small number of exceptions such as the Greek or Armenian populations), the actual number of Laz living in Turkey can only be estimated
  40. ^ a b Prothero, W.G. (1920). Armenia and Kurdistan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. pp. 52, 73.
  41. ^ a b Ismail Güney Yılmaz (7 January 2015). "90'lar: Laz Kültür ve Kimlik Hareketinin Doğuşu" [1990s: The Birth of the Laz Culture and Identity Movement] (in Turkish). Lazebura. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  42. ^ Kâmil Aksoylu (3 July 2013). "Laz Kültürü Hareketi̇ 93 Süreci̇nden Laz Ensti̇tüsüne" (in Turkish). Lazca.org. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  43. ^ "Lazuri classes to begin in secondary schools in Turkey". Anadolou. 14 September 2013. Retrieved 31 January 2015.
  44. ^ Iksander Tsitashi (1939). Литературная энциклопедия (Encyclopedia of Literature) Лазская литература [Laz literature] (in Russian). Moscow.{{cite book}}: CS1 maint: location missing publisher (link)
  45. OCLC 193987206
    .
  46. ^ Bury(1889), p. 458-462
  47. ^ Holmes(1905), p. 728-730
  48. ^ Trebizond newadvent.org
  49. ISBN 9789652660114
    . Retrieved 26 May 2014. Formerly Christians, they converted to Sunni Islam a little over four centuries ago.
  50. ^ Özhan Öztürk. Pontus. Genesis Yayınları. İstanbul, 2009. s. 737-38, 778
  51. ISBN 978-0-84429-677-7
  52. ISBN 978-0-85745-769-1
    .

Bibliography

External links
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