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Yörük
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The Yörük, also Yürük or Yuruk ( ), are a Turkish people ultimately of Oghuz descent, some of whom are still nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia and partly Balkan peninsula. Their name derives from the Turkish verb yürü- (yürümek in infinitive), which means "to walk", with the word Yörük designating "those who walk, walkers".
Yörük to this day appear as a distinct segment of the population of Macedonia and Thrace where they settled as early as the 14th century.
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The Yörük, also Yürük or Yuruk ( ), are a Turkish people ultimately of Oghuz descent, some of whom are still nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia and partly Balkan peninsula. Their name derives from the Turkish verb yürü- (yürümek in infinitive), which means "to walk", with the word Yörük designating "those who walk, walkers".
Yörüks in Europe
The Yörük to this day appear as a distinct segment of the population of Macedonia and Thrace where they settled as early as the 14th century. While today the Yörük are increasingly settled, many of them still maintain their nomadic lifestyle, breeding goats and sheep in the Pindus (Epirus, Greece and southern Albania), the Šar Mountains (Republic of Macedonia), the Pirin and Rhodope Mountains (Bulgaria) and Dobrudja. An earlier offshoot of the Yörüks, the Kailars or Kayilar Turks were amongst the first Turkish colonists in Europe, (Kailar or Kayilar being the Turkish name for the Greek town of Ptolemaida which took its current name in 1928) formerly inhabiting parts of the Greek regions of Thessaly and Macedonia. Settled Yörüks could be found until 1923, especially near and in the town of Kozani. The Yörüks are credited with the conversion to Islam in the 18th century, after a period of cohabitation, of a part of the native Meglen Vlachs of Greece who in 1923 were expelled to Turkey under the terms of the population exchange between the two countries.
Yörüks and Sarakatsani
Their nomadic way of life and the fact that they spread through the Balkans led Arnold van Gennep to try and establish a connection between the Yörüks and the Sarakatsani or Karakachans of Greece. However, the Sarakatsani when for the first time mentioned under this name were Orthodox Christians and speaking a Greek dialect. While there are no actual linguistic or religious links to the Yörük, there are nevertheless connections and similarities as to the transhumant, nomadic way of life. Gennep considers that both of these pastoral ethnic groups may ultimately share a common Turkic ancestry.
Kailar Yörüks
A particular puzzle constitute the above mentioned Kailar Turks, who formerly inhabited parts of Thessaly and Macedonia (especially near the town of Kozani and modern Ptolemaida). These Turks, associated often by scholars with the Yörüks too, whose splinter group they are generally recognised to be, were a little group of semi-settled cattle breeders -who adopted Christianity in order to avoid expulsion after Thessaly became part of Greece in 1881 respectively Southern Macedonia in 1913. These Kailar Turks are known also by the alternate name of Konariotes. The Kailar Turks, especially those of the Erdemus village of Kailar claim descent from what they describe the "noble, sober Yörükhan family" who hail in turn from the so-called Pervaneogullari 'timariot' according to the Ottoman archives.
Yörüks in Anatolia and the Middle East
The Yörüks of Anatolia are often called by historians and ethnologists by the additional appellative 'Yörük Turcoman' or 'Turkmens'. In Turkey's general parlance today, the terms "Türkmen" and "Yörük" indicate the gradual degrees of preserved attachment with the former semi-nomadic lifestyle of the populations concerned, with the "Türkmen" now leading a fully sedentary life, while keeping parts of their heritage through folklore and traditions, in arts like carpet-weaving, with the continued habit of keeping a yayla house for the summers, sometimes in relation to the Alevi community etc. and with Yörüks maintaining a yet stronger association with nomadism. These names ultimately hint to their Oghuz Turkish roots. The remaining transhumant or "true" Yörüks of today's Anatolian region traditionally use the camel as means of transportation though these are more and more replaced by trucks.
Clans, related tribes and offshoots
Clans closely related to the Yörüks are scattered throughout the Anatolian peninsula and beyond its boundaries, particularly around the chain of Taurus Mountains and further east around the shores of the Caspian sea. Of the Turcomans of Iran, the Yomuts come the closest to the definition of the Yörüks. An interesting offshoot of the Yörük mass are the Tahtadji of the mountainous regions of Western Anatolia who, as their name implies, have been occupied with forestry work and wood craftsmanship for centuries, although they share similar traditions (with markedly matriarchal tones in their society structure) with their other Yörük cousins. The Qashqai people of southern Iran (around Shiraz), and the Chepni of Turkey's Black Sea region are also worthy of mention due to their shared characteristics. A considerable number of the original Turkish population of Northern Cyprus are also of Yörük descent.
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