Karamanlides

The Karamanlides (Greek: Καραμανλήδες; Turkish: Karamanlılar), or simply Karamanlis, are a Greek Orthodox, Turkish-speaking people native to the Karaman and Cappadocia regions of Anatolia. Today, a majority of the population live within Greece, though there is a notable diaspora in Western Europe and North America. There is an ongoing debate as to the ethnicity and cultural heritage of the Karamanlides, although in the Ottoman Empire conversion from Islam to Christianity was punished by death.

Before their expulsion from Turkey, only a small portion of the Karamanlides understood their relation to the Greek people. Hundreds of years of separation from large centers of Greek civilization created a fork in the evolutionary path of cultural development. Only within modern times, through the diligent work of the Greek Kingdom, has re-Hellenization continued.^[1]

Etymology

Karamanlides is an umbrella term used to describe all Greek Orthodox Christians in Central Anatolia who had adopted Turkish as their primary language. It is derived from the 13th century Beylik of Karamanoğlu. They were the first Turkish kingdom to adopt Turkish as its official language and originally the term would only describe the inhabitants of the town of Karaman or from the region of Karaman. Christians who had undergone forced Turkification would often borrow local Turkish places for their last name. For instance, the ancestors of Constantine Karamanlis probably lived within the region of Karaman. Because there is no significant presence of established Christians in the area, the title is now most often used as a label for the local Muslim inhabitants.

Language

The Karamanlides spoke an old dialect of the Turkish language influenced by the Ottoman Empire known as Karamanlı Türkçesi. Its vocabulary drew overwhelmingly from old Turkic words with only minimal Greek loan words. The language should not be confused with Cappadocian Greek, which was spoken in the same region during the same timeframe, but is derived from the Greek language and spoken by Greeks who had not been Turkified.

During the latter part of the 20th century, the language has become extinct within Turkey, and only a small, but unknown number of older speakers in Greece remain. The younger generation has become fully integrated within Greek society and have not collectively retained their ancestral language. Additionally, the dictatorship of Ioannis Metaxas saw a further dwindling of the usage of Karamanlı Türkçesi in Greece due to the strict laws which forbade the use of the Turkish language in public. This was an instance of forced assimilation to cut the ties of Turkish cultural influence over the Greeks. The Lingua franca of the diaspora remains Turkish despite the disappearance of the language from its native homeland.^[2]

Origin and history

According to one theory, Karamanlides are the direct descendants of indigenous Anatolian peoples who had adopted the Greek language, Greek culture, and the orthodox religion. After the Battle of Manzikert, and the subsequent invasion of Anatolia by Turkish peoples, they adopted the language and customs of the aristocratic overlords, but maintained their Christian religion. This would not have been uncommon in ancient Islamic empires, as the people of the book were allowed to remain Christians. Evidence suggests that because they spoke the Turkish language, but wrote it with Greek characters, and the fact that under Ottoman Sharia law conversion from Islam was illegal and punished by death, that they were actually of Greek heritage.

According to another theory, Karamanlides descend from Turkic tribes who had fled to Anatolia from the Mongolian invasion of Central Asia and Persia during the 13th century. They were then converted to orthodoxy under the rule of the Byzantine Empire. They may have numbered in the several hundred thousands and migrated to the Karaman and Cappadocia regions of what is now central Turkey.^{[citation needed]}

In the population exchanges that took place during the summer of 1924, Turkey and Greece agreed to transfer their minority populations based on religious background, rather than on ethnicity or language. With some exceptions, the Muslims of Greece (such as the Epirus and Cretan Turks) were deported to Turkey, while the Orthodox Christians were moved to Athens and especially Greek Macedonia, including the Karamanli.^N-[3] The total number of Karamanlides who were expelled from Turkey is difficult to ascertain, but estimates are that slightly under 100,000 Orthodox Christians were driven from Central and Southern Anatolia.^[4] However, these may also have included Christians in the same geographical area who continued to speak the Greek language. ^N-[5]

Culture

The distinct culture that developed among the Karamanlides blended elements of Orthodox Christianity with an Ottoman-Turkish flavor that characterized their willingness to accept and immerse themselves in foreign customs. From the 14th to the 19th centuries, they enjoyed an explosion in literary refinement. Karamanli authors were especially productive in philosophy, religious writings, novels, and historical texts. Lyrical poetry in the late 19th century describes their indifference to both Greek and Turkish governments, and the confusion they felt as a Turkish-speaking people with a Greek ethos. This would later manifest itself in their isolation when they were forced out of their homeland and brought to Greece, only to have their language suppressed and identity shattered.

See also

• Karamanoğlu
• Karamanlis
• Antiochian Greeks

Notes

References

Wikipedia information about Karamanlides This article is licensed under the GNU Free Documentation License. It uses material from the Wikipedia article "Karamanlides". It may not have been reviewed by professional editors (see full disclaimer). Help contribute to Americola and edit this article.