Qarapapaqlar, Karapapaklar | |
|---|---|
 Group of KarapapakhHamidiyeh Cavalry, Ottoman Empire, 1901 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| |
| Languages | |
| Originally Karapapakh, nowadays mostlyAzerbaijani,Turkish,Persian andRussian | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam (Hanafi),Shia Islam (Ja'fari),Alevism andAli-Illahism | |
| Related ethnic groups | |
| OtherTurkic peoples EspeciallyAzerbaijanis andTurks |
TheKarapapakhs (Azerbaijani:Qarapapaqlar;Turkish:Karapapaklar), orTerekeme[1] (Azerbaijani:Tərəkəmələr; Turkish:Terekemeler), are aTurkic people, who originally spoke the Karapapakh language, a westernOghuz language closely related toAzerbaijani andTurkish. Nowadays, the Karapapakh language has been largely supplanted by Azerbaijani and Turkish.
After moving intoWestern Asia in the Middle Ages together with other Turkic speakers andMongol nomads, the Karapapakhs settled along theDebed river in easternGeorgia (along the present-dayGeorgian-Armenian border). They moved toQajar Iran, and theOttoman Empire after theTreaty of Turkmenchay was concluded between Iran and Russia in 1828. The Karapapakhs who remained within the Russian Empire were counted as a separate group in Tsarist population figures. During theSoviet Union's existence, the Karapapakhs were culturally and linguistically assimilated by theAzerbaijanis, and they were counted as "Azerbaijanis" in the1959 and1970 Soviet censuses. In 1944 the Karapapakh in the Soviet Union weredeporteden masse toSoviet Central Asia.
The Karapapakhs have traditionally beenSunnis,Shias, and adherents ofAli-Illahism. According to the latest western ethnographic works that primarily dealt with the ethnography of theSoviet Union, most Karapapakhs in the 1980s lived inTurkey,Iran, Soviet Central Asia (primarily theUzbek SSR) and the Soviet republics of theCaucasus (primarily theGeorgian SSR and theArmenian SSR).
Karapapakh translates as "black hat" in Oghuz Turkic.[2] The Karapapakhs are sometimes referred to asTerekeme[3] orTarakama (fromArabic:تراكمة,romanized: Tarākameh, thebroken plural forTurkmen—a term traditionally used for anyTurkic nomadic people).
The Karapapakhs were originally aTurkoman group.[4]George Bournoutian referred to them as "Turkicized Kazakhs (Qazzaqs)."[vague][2] They had moved intoWestern Asia in the Middle Ages together with otherTurkic-speaking andMongol nomads, where some had become peasants.[2]
The Karapapakh fought on theIranian side against theRussians in theRusso-Persian War of 1804–1813.[5] Following the Russian victory in theRusso-Persian War of 1826–1828 and the resultingTreaty of Turkmenchay, the Karapapakhs migrated from the area along theDebed[a] river in eastern Georgia (along the present-dayGeorgian-Armenian border), to theOttoman Empire andQajar Iran.[6] They partly settled in the Ottoman region ofKars, where they formed 15% of the population, and partly in the Iranian region of Solduz (present-dayNaqadeh), south ofLake Urmia.[6] Iranian crown princeAbbas Mirza handed over theSolduz (present-day Naqadeh) district as a fief to 800 Karapapakh families and these new settlers, in return, had to have 400 horsemen ready for disposal for the government.[7] Just prior to their arrival, there were 4–5,000 families in Solduz district consisting of Kurds and Turkics from the Muqaddam tribe.[7] Gradually however, the land passed into the hands of the Karapapakh newcomers.[7] In 19th-century Iran, as part of the Iranian irregular army, the Karapapakh tribe was one of the twenty-two units (dastehs) of provincial militia from the province ofAzerbaijan.[8]
Several years after theRussian conquest of Kars, the Tsarist government conducted a population counting of the newly acquired province.[6] In this 1883 population counting of theKars Oblast, the Karapapakhs (inRussian,Карапапахи) numbered 21,652, of whom 11,721 wereSunnis and 9,931 wereShias.[6] The Tsarist authorities also regarded the Terekeme tribe of theDagestan Oblast as part of the Karapapakh tribe.[9] The 1886–1892 Tsarist population figures counted 8,893 Terekeme in the Dagestan Oblast and counted them as part of the total Karapapakh population within the empire.[10] According to theRussian Empire Census of 1897, there were 29,879 Karapapakhs in the entire Russian Empire.[6] According to the 1910 publication of theCaucasian Calendar, Karapapakhs reportedly numbered some 39,000 and were distributed in 99 villages in Kars Oblast.[6] 63 of these villages were located in the Kars district, 29 inArdahan, and 7 inKağızman.[6]
During the Ottoman occupation of Iran'sNaqadeh from 1908 to 1912, the Karapapakh population suffered considerably as they were seen as Iranian agents by the Ottomans.[7] In the early 20th century, the Karapapakh in Naqadeh district shared eleven villages with SunniKurds.[7]
According to the1926 Soviet census, the number of Karapapakhs had drastically declined to only 6,315, which reflected the loss of Kars Oblast to the newly established Republic ofTurkey followingWorld War I.[6] Mid-1920 figures showed that 70% of all Karapapakhs lived in Iran and 30% in the Soviet Union; the Karapapakhs in Turkey were most likely considered simply asTurks by that time, and thus no figures for Turkey were reported.[6] According toShirin Akiner'sIslamic Peoples of the Soviet Union, first published in 1983 and dealing with the situation in and around the 1926 Soviet census, the great majority of the Karapapakh lived outside of the Soviet Union at the time.[11] Those within the Soviet Union, mainly lived in the southern part of theAzerbaijan SSR along theAras River.[11] Akiner added that even in 1926, barely any Karapapakh could converse in the original Karapapakh language.[11] Most of the Soviet Karapapakhs at the time were Sunnis, with a minority being Shia.[11] The Karapapakhs were listed as a separate group in the 1926 Soviet census.[11] During the Soviet Union's existence however the Karapapakhs were culturally and linguistically assimilated by theAzerbaijanis. They were counted as "Azerbaijanis" in the1959 and1970 Soviet censuses.[6]
In 1944, the Karapapakhs in the Soviet Union weredeporteden masse toSoviet Central Asia, along withMeskhetian Turks,Kurds and others of theGeorgian SSR.[12][13]
According toOlson et al., which was published in 1994 and specifically deals with the ethnography of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union, the Karapapakhs are described as a small ethnic group and a Turkmen tribe, who primarily live in and aroundTashkent, the capital of theUzbek SSR at the time of the book's publication.[14] They add that the Karapapakhs are primarily adherents of theAli-Illahism syncretic religion.[14] They also explain that due to the religious practices of the Karapapakh, "there has traditionally been an element of secretiveness and fanaticism to Karapapakh religion".[14] Bennigsen likewise stated that "a certain number of the Karapapakhs are Ali Ilahis, which somewhat hinders their assimilation by the Azeris".[4]
Olson et al. lastly added that there were more than 10,000 Karapapakhs in the Soviet Union at the time, with most of them localized in Soviet Central Asia; small numbers of Karapapakhs had been able however to return to southern Georgia and northern Armenia in the 1980s.[15] Some 30,000 and 60,000 Karapapakhs were reportedly living inIran and Turkey respectively at the time.[15] Groups of Karapapakh still live around Ardahan,Kars andIğdır to this present day.[16]
The Karapapakhs originally mainly spoke their own westernOghuz language, which is closely related toAzerbaijani andTurkish.[6][b] In the Georgian SSR of the Soviet Union, this language was often confused with Azerbaijani.[6] Bearing similarities to the process of assimilation in the Soviet Union and Turkey, the Karapapakhs no longer speak their Turkic language and have completely switched to Turkish or Azerbaijani.[6][c] Brent Brendemoen notes inTurkic-Iranian Contact Areas: Historical and Linguistic Aspects that the migration of the Karapapakhs (and Terekeme, amongst others) in modern times from Turkey's east has been responsible for bringingArabic loanwords with Persian vocalism to isolated areas as far west asKangal inSivas.[17]
The Karapapkhs were traditionally involved in sheep-rearing and a bit of agriculture.[6]
