Kipchak branch
Urums
Turk-speaking Orthodox Christian communities of Greek identity, resettled from Crimea to the Azov coast in 1778–1780, with a separate Urum community in Georgia.
Urumlar
The Urums are Orthodox Christian communities who identify as Greeks and whose mother tongue is a Turk speech. Their name comes from Rum, the Turk name for the Orthodox “Romans” of the former Byzantine world. Two groups carry the name: the Urums of the northern Azov coast, whose ancestors lived in Crimea, and the Urums of Georgia’s Tsalka plateau, whose ancestors came from north-eastern Anatolia.
The Orthodox Christians of the Crimean Khanate included both Greek-speaking and Turk-speaking communities. In 1778, under a Russian imperial resettlement plan, and led by Metropolitan Ignatius of Gothia and Kaffa, they left Crimea for the northern coast of the Sea of Azov, where Mariupol and a group of villages were established in 1778–1780; the journey and the first winters were very hard, and many died. Many of the new villages, such as Staryi Krym, Yalta and Manhush, took the names of the places their founders had left. Over time the Azov Greeks came to be distinguished as Rumeis, who spoke Greek, and Urums, whose speech is close to Crimean Tatar, with Oghuz features.
During the Stalinist terror of the 1930s, Azov Greek schools and publications were closed and many community figures were repressed, and the war that began in 2022 has heavily affected Mariupol and the surrounding villages. In Georgia, Turk-speaking Orthodox families from north-eastern Anatolia settled on the Tsalka plateau in the early 19th century, chiefly after the Russo-Turkish war of 1828–1829; their Urum speech is close to Anatolian Turkish dialects. Since the end of the Soviet period many Georgian Urums have moved to Greece and Russia.
- Language
- Urum: on the Azov coast a Kipchak speech close to Crimean Tatar, with Oghuz features; in Georgia an Oghuz speech close to Anatolian Turkish dialects
- Branch
- Kipchak
- Homeland
- The northern coast of the Sea of Azov around Mariupol, settled from Crimea; and the Tsalka plateau in Georgia
- Also living in
- Greece, Russia and other parts of Ukraine
Key dates
1778
Orthodox Christians of Crimea, Urums among them, leave the peninsula for the northern Azov coast, led by Metropolitan Ignatius.
1779
An imperial charter grants the settlers land on the northern Azov coast; the town is named Mariupol.
1780
Large numbers of Greeks from Crimea settle in Mariupol and the surrounding villages.
1828–1829
After the Russo-Turkish war, Turk-speaking Orthodox families from north-eastern Anatolia settle in the Tsalka region of Georgia.
1930s
Stalinist repression closes Azov Greek schools and publications and targets community figures.
Heritage
- Village names around Mariupol — such as Staryi Krym, Yalta and Manhush — that recall the Crimean homeland
- The memory of Metropolitan Ignatius, who led the 1778 migration from Crimea
- Urum songs, tales and Orthodox church traditions carried in a Turk speech
Sources
- Encyclopaedia Britannica, “Mariupol”
- Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine (Canadian Institute of Ukrainian Studies), “Greeks”
- S. Skopeteas, “The Caucasian Urums and the Urum language”, in S. Eker and Ü. Çelik (eds.), Handbook of Endangered Turkic Languages (2016)