View source for Georgians in Turkey

{{Short description|Ethnic group in Turkey}}
{{infobox ethnic group|
| group = Georgians in Turkey<br />''Türkiye'deki Gürcüler''
| image = Ashugh Ali-chaush Misir-Oghli (Mosidze) with his family (Marr, 1911).JPG
| caption = Georgian family from Turkey, 1911
| population =Estimates range from 100,000<ref>{{Google books |id=hvmy_skUPNYC |page=420 |title=The Other Languages of Europe: Demographic, Sociolinguistic, and Educational Perspectives}}</ref><ref>{{cite web|title=Turquie: situation générale|url=http://www.axl.cefan.ulaval.ca/asie/turquie_1general.htm|website=Axl.cefan.ulaval.ca|access-date=2 January 2025}}</ref> to 1,500,000<ref>{{cite news|access-date=7 January 2024 |archive-date=26 December 2021 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20211226173959/https://www.milliyet.com.tr/cadde/turkiyedeki-kurtlerin-sayisi-873452 |date=6 June 2008 |title=Türkiye'deki Kürtlerin sayısı! |url=https://www.milliyet.com.tr/cadde/turkiyedeki-kurtlerin-sayisi-873452}}<!-- auto-translated from Turkish by Module:CS1 translator --></ref><ref>{{Google books |id=uwi-rv3VV6cC |page=291 |title=Ethnic Groups Worldwide: A Ready Reference Handbook }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://looklex.com/e.o/turkey.peoples.htm |title=Ethnic groups in Turkey: Georgians |access-date=11 August 2013 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20141006200650/http://looklex.com/e.o/turkey.peoples.htm |archive-date=6 October 2014 }}</ref>
| popplace = [[Black Sea Region]], [[Marmara Region]], [[Eastern Anatolia Region]]
| rels = Predominantly [[Sunni Islam]] 
| langs = [[Turkish language|Turkish]], [[Georgian language|Georgian]]
| related-c = [[Laz people]]
| native_name = 
| native_name_lang = 
| related_groups = 
}}
'''Georgians in Turkey''' ({{lang-ka|ქართველები თურქეთში|tr}}) refers to citizens and denizens of [[Turkey]] who are, or descend from, ethnic [[Georgians]].

== Numbers and distribution ==
{| class="wikitable" style="text-align:center"
|+ Georgian-speaking population in Turkey<ref>Fuat Dündar, Türkiye Nüfus Sayımlarında Azınlıklar, 2000</ref>
!Year
!As first language
!As second language
!Total
!Turkey's population
!% of Total speakers
|-
|1935
|57,325
|16,255
|73,580
|16,157,450
|0.46
|-
|1945
|40,076
|9,337
|49,413
|18,790,174
|0.26
|-
|1950
|72,604
|0
|72,604
|20,947,188
|0.35
|-
|1955
|51,983
|24,720
|76,703
|24,064,763
|0.32
|-
|1960
|32,944
|54,941
|87,885
|27,754,820
|0.32
|-
|1965
|34,330
|44,934
|79,234
|31,391,421
|0.25
|}

In the census of 1965, those who spoke Georgian as first language were proportionally most numerous in [[Artvin Province|Artvin]] (3.7%), [[Ordu Province|Ordu]] (0.9%) and [[Kocaeli Province|Kocaeli]] (0.8%).

Georgians live scattered throughout Turkey, although they are primarily concentrated in two major regions:<ref name=cveneburi>{{cite web|title=Türkiye'deki Gürcü Köylerinde Alan Çalışmasının Sonuçları|url=http://www.chveneburi.net/tr/default.asp?bpgpid=168&pg=1|work=Çveneburi|access-date=28 May 2014}}</ref>

* The [[Black Sea]] coast, in the provinces of [[Giresun Province|Giresun]], [[Ordu Province|Ordu]], [[Samsun Province|Samsun]], [[Sinop Province|Sinop]], [[Amasya Province|Amasya]], and [[Tokat Province|Tokat]]. Chveneburi Georgians (particularly in [[Fatsa]], [[Ünye]], [[Ordu]], [[Terme]], and [[Çarşamba]]) largely preserve their language and traditions.
* Northwestern Turkey, in the provinces of [[Düzce Province|Düzce]], [[Sakarya Province|Sakarya]], [[Yalova Province|Yalova]], [[Kocaeli Province|Kocaeli]], [[Bursa Province|Bursa]], and [[Balıkesir Province|Balıkesir]].

Magnarella estimated the number of Georgians in Turkey to have been over 60,000 in 1979.<ref>Peter A. Andrews & Rüdiger Benninghaus (1989), ''Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Turkey, Vol. 1'', p. 174. Reichert, {{ISBN|3-88226-418-7}}.</ref>

== Imerkhevians ==
[[File:Georgian_dialects.svg|alt=|thumb|{{legend|#D5FFF6|Distribution of the [[Georgian dialects#Southwest dialects|Imerkhevian dialect]]}}]]
[[Imerkhevians|Imerkhevians (Shavshetians)]] are an ethnographic subgroup of [[Georgians]] who speak the [[Georgian dialects#Southwest dialects|Imerkhevian dialect]] (''imerkheuli'') of the [[Georgian language]], which shares many common features with the neighboring [[Adjaran dialect|Adjarian]].<ref name="tuite">[[Kevin Tuite|Tuite, Kevin]] (1998), [http://mapageweb.umontreal.ca/tuitekj/publications/TuiteThesis.pdf ''Kartvelian morphosyntax: number agreement and morphosyntactic oritntation in the South Caucasian languages''], p. 178.  Lincom Europa.</ref> Imerkhevians are the indigenous population of [[Artvin Province]].

The majority of the Imerkhevians today live in an area they call [[Imerkhevi]]. The population of Imerkhevi is largely composed of ethnic Georgians, who inhabit 14 hamlets around [[Meydancık, Şavşat|Meydancık]] (formerly known as Diobani). These settlements have both official Turkish and unofficial Georgian names. Reflecting some internal differentiation persisting in Turkey's Georgian community, the Imerkhevians claim a different origin from the Georgians in the [[Borçka]] area, who have adopted an inclusive [[Adjarians|Adjar]] identity. The Imerkhevians are [[Sunni Islam|Sunni Muslims]], closely integrated with the [[Turkish people|Turkish]] society. Almost all are bilingual in [[Georgian language|Georgian]] and [[Turkish language|Turkish]].

Georgians in Turkey experienced assimilation those people today are Lazs and Imerkartvels who mostly live in Artvin.

== Chveneburi ==
Chveneburi ({{Lang-ka|ჩვენებური}}, {{lang|ka-Latn|çveneburi}}), meaning "of us" in [[Georgian language|Georgian]], is an [[endonym]] of Georgian-descended Muslim immigrants who had settled in non-Georgian majority regions of [[Turkey]], thus, "of us" signifies a triple distinction from [[Christianity|Christian]] Georgians, Muslim [[Turkish people|Turks]], and autochthonous Muslim Georgians from [[Artvin]]. As with most Turkish citizens, most Chveneburi subscribe to the [[Hanafi]] ''[[Madhhab|madh'hab]]'' of [[Sunni Islam]].

Chveneburi Georgians had arrived in Turkey in three waves of migration due to [[pogrom]]s by the [[Russian Empire]], in what is now called the [[Circassian genocide]]. The first wave was during and after the 1828-1829 [[Russo-Turkish War (1828–1829)|Russo-Turkish War]], when the [[Sublime Porte]] consigned its sovereignty over several parts of Georgia to the Russian Empire.

Minor waves of immigration followed until the end of the 1877-1878 [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russo-Turkish War]], when the [[Ottoman Empire]] allowed Chveneburis to immigrate. This wave of immigration involved at least 500,000 people from historic Georgian regions that had considerable Muslim populations, such as [[Batumi]] and [[Kars]].<ref name="cveneburi1">{{cite web|url=http://www.chveneburi.net/tr/default.asp?bpgpid=115&pg=1|title=Muhacir Gürcüler yada Çveneburiler - მუჰაჯირი ქართველები ან ჩვენებურები|work=Çveneburi|access-date=28 May 2014}}</ref> As a result, many Muslim-majority regions of Georgia were left virtually depopulated.

The last sizable wave of immigration was in 1921, when Turkey finally gave up its claims on [[Adjara]] in the [[Treaty of Kars]] with the [[Soviet Union|Soviet republics]]. This last wave also involved [[Turkish language|Turkish]]-speaking Muslims from Upper Adjara. [[Adjarians]] were also known by their places of origin, such as ''Batumlular'' for people from [[Batumi]] or ''Çürüksulular'' for people from [[Kobuleti]].[[File:Ali Pascha Tavdgiridze umgeben von einer Gruppe Lasen - 1870er - Zeno ID 20001897306.jpg |220px|thumb|Ali Pasha of Çürüksu (front row, middle) and Ottoman Georgians during the [[Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878)|Russo-Turkish War (1877–78)]]. At the end of the war, the re-settlement of Ottoman Georgians in Fatsa was supervised by Ali Pasha.<ref name="Beratyildiz">BERAT YILDIZ, EMIGRATIONS FROM THE RUSSIAN EMPIRE TO THE OTTOMAN EMPIRE: AN ANALYSIS IN THE LIGHT OF THE NEW ARCHIVAL MATERIALS, BILKENT UNIVERSITY</ref>]]

=== Press ===
The most important Georgian cultural magazine in Turkey also bears the name ''Çveneburi''. It was founded in 1977 in Stockholm, Sweden by Shalva Tevzadze. It is distributed in Turkey by Ahmet Özkan Melashvili, who also wrote the book ''Gürcüstan'' (Georgia) in 1968. In 1980, Özkan was assassinated in [[Bursa]] by the [[Grey Wolves (organization)|Grey Wolves]].<ref>{{cite web | url=http://www.chveneburi.net/sp/bpg/publication_view.asp?InfoID=157007&iabspos=3&vjob=vsub,270 | title=Sayfa Bulunamadı - Türkiye'nin İlk Gürcü Web Sitesi Chveneburi.Net }}</ref> Since then, [[Fahrettin Çiloğlu]] has been in charge of the magazine. Between 1997 and 2006, Osman Nuri Mercan was the editor of the magazine. The magazine's content is almost completely in [[Turkish language|Turkish]], and presents articles on Chveneburi Georgians, the [[History of Georgia (country)|history of Georgia]], and Georgians worldwide. Another journal, [[Pirosmani(journal)|Pirosmani]], bilingual in Georgian and Turkish, is published in [[Istanbul]], sponsored by the Georgian Catholic Simon Zazadze.

== See also == 
{{Portal|Georgia (country)|Turkey}}
*[[Georgia–Turkey relations]]
*[[Our Lady of Lourdes Church, Istanbul]]
*[[Islam in Georgia (country)|Islam in Georgia]]
*[[Adjarians]]
*[[Pontic Greeks]]
*[[Hemshin peoples|Hamshenis]]
*[[Iranian Georgians]]

== References ==
{{Reflist|}}

== Bibliography ==

* [[Black Sea]]: Encyclopedic Dictionary ([[Özhan Öztürk]]. Karadeniz: Ansiklopedik Sözlük. 2. Cilt. Heyamola Publishing. Istanbul. 2005. {{ISBN|975-6121-00-9}}.)
* Paul J. Magnarella, The Peasant Venture: Tradition, Migration, and Change among Georgian Peasants in Turkey. (Schenkman Publishing Company: Cambridge, MA, 1979) {{ISBN|0-8161-8271-X}}
* Mikaberidze, Alexander (ed., 2007). [https://web.archive.org/web/20090214093021/http://georgianbiography.com/bios/o/ozkan.htm Özkan, Ahmet]. ''Dictionary of Georgian National Biography''.

== External links ==
*[http://www.chveneburi.net ''Chveneburi'']
*[https://web.archive.org/web/20071212154002/http://www.pirosmani.com.tr/ ''Pirosmani'' / ფიროსმანი]
*Gezgin, Ulas Basar  (2004) [http://ulas.teori.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=640&Itemid=44 Republican and Post-Republican Responses to New Georgian Nationalisms (PhD Proposal in Anthropology)] {{Webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20181001173135/http://ulas.teori.org/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=640&Itemid=44 |date=2018-10-01 }}. ''teori.org'' (includes a list of selected publications on the Georgian communities of Turkey)

{{Commons category|Georgians in Turkey}}
{{Demographics of Turkey}}
{{Georgian diaspora}}
{{European Muslims}}
{{Portal bar|Georgia (country)|Turkey}}

[[Category:Turkish people of Georgian descent| ]]
[[Category:Georgian diaspora in Turkey| ]]
[[Category:Georgian diaspora in Europe]]
[[Category:European diaspora in Turkey]]
[[Category:Ethnic groups in Turkey]]
[[Category:Georgians in Turkey]]
[[Category:Georgian diaspora in Asia]]