Cappadocian Greeks

"Cappadocian" redirects here. For other uses, see Cappadocia (disambiguation) and Cappadocian (disambiguation).
Cappadocian Greeks
Έλληνες Καππαδόκες
Kapadokyalı Rumlar
Total population
~50,000
Regions with significant populations
Greece (especially northern Greece)
 Greece44,432 (More than 50,000 including descendants)[1] – around 50,000 (1920s estimate)[2]
Languages
Greek language, Cappadocian Greek, Karamanli Turkish
Religion
Greek Orthodoxy
Related ethnic groups
Pontic Greeks, Karamanlides

The Cappadocian Greeks (Greek: Έλληνες Καππαδόκες; Turkish: Kapadokyalı Rumlar),[3] or simply Cappadocians, are an ethnic Greek community native to the geographical region of Cappadocia in central-eastern Anatolia;[4][5] roughly the Nevşehir and Kayseri provinces and their surroundings in modern-day Turkey. There had been a continuous Greek presence in Cappadocia since antiquity,[6] and the indigenous populations of Cappadocia, some of whose Indo-European languages may have been closely related to Greek (e.g. Phrygian) became entirely Greek-speaking by at least the 5th century CE.[7]

In the 11th century Seljuq Turks arriving from Central Asia conquered the region, beginning its gradual shift in language and religion. In 1923, following the mass killing of Christian Ottomans across Anatolia, the surviving Cappadocian communities were forced to leave their native homeland and resettle in Greece by the terms of the Greek–Turkish population exchange. Today their descendants can be found throughout Greece and the Greek diaspora worldwide.

  1. ^ Cite error: The named reference Hirschon, Renée 2003 180-191 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  2. ^ Blanchard, Raoul. "The Exchange of Populations Between Greece and Turkey." Geographical Review, 15.3 (1925): 449–56.
  3. ^ Özkan, Akdoğan (2009). Kardeş bayramlar ve özel günler. İnkılâp. ISBN 978-975-10-2928-7. Evlerin bolluk ve bereketi şu veya bu sebeple kaçmışsa, özellikle Rumların yoğun olarak yaşadığı Orta ve Kuzey Anadolu'da bunun sebebinin karakoncolos isimli iblis olduğu düşünülürmüş. Kapadokyalı Rumlar yeni yılın başında sırf ...
  4. ^ Balta, Evangelia (2003). Ottoman studies and archives in Greece. The Isis Press. p. 48. ISBN 978-975-428-223-8. The so called "Asia Minor Folklore Studies" initially focused on Ottoman Cappadocia and its ethnic Greek inhabitants.
  5. ^ Cite error: The named reference Baum, Wilhelm 2006 162 was invoked but never defined (see the help page).
  6. ^ Bichakjian, Bernard H. (2002). Language in a Darwinian perspective. Peter Lang. p. 206. ISBN 978-0-8204-5458-0. Cappadocia is an ancient district in east central Anatolia, west of the Euphrates River, where there had been a Greek presence from the Hellenistic period to the beginning of this century, when the minority group was submitted to a "population exchange". As the Cappadocians returned to Greece, they became absorbed by the local population and their dialect died out.
  7. ^ Swain, Simon; Adams, J. Maxwell; Janse, Mark (2002). Bilingualism in Ancient Society: Language Contact and the Written Word. Oxford [Oxfordshire]: Oxford University Press. pp. 246–266. ISBN 0-19-924506-1.