Laz people
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The Laz (Lazi (ლაზი) or Lazepe (ლაზეფე) in Laz, Lazlar in Turkish, Lazi (ლაზი) or Chani (ჭანი) in Georgian) are an ethnic group who live primarily on the Black Sea coastal regions of Turkey and Georgia. They speak a language, related to Mingrelian and more remotely to Georgian (South Caucasian languages). In Georgia, they are frequently designated as a "territorial-cultural group" of the Georgian people. However, most Laz in Turkey deny even the umbrella term "Kartvelian" for being purposeful and consider themselves as a part of a greater Lazo-Mingrelian or Zan ethnos that excludes Georgians.
They were once Christians under the Byzantine empire and Georgian kingdom, but now almost all of them are Sunni Muslims. They speak the Laz language. The Laz are primarily designated as fisherfolk by the Turkish public (in fact, they are mostly farmers of tea and maize) because anchovies constitute an important part of their diet. Under the Ottoman Empire, they lived in the Lazistan sanjak. Their folk traditions resemble those of the Georgians, particularly a Mingrelian group, but with Turkish influences.
Geographical distribution
The ancient kingdom of Colchis and its successor Lazica (locally known as Egrisi) was located in the same region the Laz speakers are found in today, and its inhabitants probably spoke an ancestral version of the language. Colchis was the setting for the famous Greek legend of Jason and the Argonauts.Today most Laz speakers live in Northeast Turkey, in a strip of land along the shore of the Black Sea: in the Pazar (Atina), Ardeşen (Artaşen) and Fındıklı (Viče) districts of Rize, and in the Arhavi (Arkabi), Hopa (Xopa) and Borçka districts of Artvin. There are also communities in northwestern Anatolia (Karamürsel in Kocaeli, Akçakoca in Düzce, Sakarya, Bartın), where many immigrants settled since the Russo-Turkish War (1877-1878) and now also in Istanbul and Ankara. Only a few Laz live in Georgia, chiefly in Adjara (est. 30,000 speakers of Laz language, about 2,000 of them in Sarpi).
\"Laz\" for non-Laz people
The general Turkish public use the name "Laz" for all inhabitants of Black Sea provinces to the east of Samsun. The name Lazca (Laz language) usually indicates the Trabzon dialect of Turkish to the non-Laz, although it actually is a South Caucasian language, unrelated to Turkish. Similarly, Pontic Greeks are also sometimes called Lázoi (Λάζοι) in Greece. On the other hand, Laz are keen to differentiate themselves from other inhabitants of the region. Also non-Laz refuse the naming, preferring to call themselves as Karadenizli ("from the Black Sea").
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