Lazistan Sanjak

Coordinates: 40°55′54″N 40°50′52″E / 40.93167°N 40.84778°E / 40.93167; 40.84778
Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.
Lazistān Sancağı
Lazistan Sanjak
Trebizond Vilayet in 1890
CapitalBatumi (until 1878)
Rize (1878–1925)
Area
 • Coordinates40°55′54″N 40°50′52″E / 40.93167°N 40.84778°E / 40.93167; 40.84778
 
• 1873
7,000 km2 (2,700 sq mi)
Population 
• 1873
400,000
History 
• 
Republic of Turkey
1925
Preceded by		 Succeeded by
Principality of Guria
Lazia (theme)
Batum Oblast
Rize Province
Today part ofTurkey
Georgia
Laz people
Place of distribution
Religion
Culture
History
Related peoples

Lazistan (

Trebizond Vilayet, comprising the Laz or Lazuri-speaking population on the southeastern shore of the Black Sea. It covered modern day land of contemporary Rize Province and the littoral of contemporary Artvin Province
.

History

After the Ottoman

Gonia and Batum
.

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. This state of insubordination was not really broken until the assertion of Ottoman authority during the reforms of the Osman Pasha in 1850s.

In 1547, Ottomans acquired the coastal fortress of

Marmara region
.

Around 1914 Ottoman policy towards the Christian population shifted; state policy was since focused to the forceful migration of Christian Pontic Greek and Laz population living in coastal areas to the Anatolian hinterland. In the 1920s Christian population of the Pontus were expelled to Greece.

In 1917, after the

Batum Oblast - later known as Artvin
, was awarded to Turkey, which renounced its claims to Batumi.

The autonomous Lazistan sanjak existed until the end of the empire in 1923. The designation of the term of Lazistan was officially banned in 1926, by the Kemalists.[1] Lazistan was divided between Rize and Artvin provinces.

Population

The population of Lazistan was made up of Sunni Muslim

Hemshin people. The Christian population were around and made up of Pontic Greeks and Armenian Apostolic Christians[clarification needed
].

Population of Lazistan in 1914[2]
Kaza (district) Muslim Greek Armenian Jewish Others Total
Rize 122.055 1,507 5 - - 123.567
Atina 50,297 171 28 - - 50.496
Hopa 38,156 44 2 - - 38,202
Total 210,508 1,722 35 - - 212,265

Religion

The Ottomans fought for three centuries to

Islamization policy and gradually converted to Islam, while the second part of the people who remained orthodox subordinated to the Greek Church, thus gradually becoming Greeks as part of the process known as the Hellenization of Laz people. Lazs who were under the control of Constantinople soon lost their language and self-identity as they became Greeks and learned Greek, especially the Pontic dialect of Greek, although the Laz language was preserved by Lazs who had instead become Muslim.[4]

Economy

Historically, Lazistan was known for producing hazelnuts, which were exported to and from Trabzon.[5] Lazistan also produced zinc, producing over 1,700 tons in 1901.[6]

See also

Notes

  1. ^ "(neologism, since 1991)."

References

Media related to Lazistan Sanjak at Wikimedia Commons

  1. ^ Thys-Şenocak, Lucienne. Ottoman Women Builders. Aldershot, England: Ashgate, 2006. Print.
  2. ISBN 9780299091606
    .
  3. ^ Zakaria Machitadze (2006). "Lives of the Georgian Saints". St. Herman Press, P.O. Box 70, Platina
  4. ^ Arzu Barske Lazuri Language
  5. ^ Prothero, W.G. (1920). Armenia and Kurdistan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. p. 52.
  6. ^ Prothero, W.G. (1920). Armenia and Kurdistan. London: H.M. Stationery Office. p. 73.
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