DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.4752#0111
OF ASIA MINOR 101
recent years both by the policy of the government
(which tries to discourage and even forcibly to stop
nomadism), and by the marked growth of the Euro-
pean spirit in this Oriental land.1 The question is,
has it not been always going on? Is the original
Turk (as distinguished from the Mohammedanised
Phrygian or Galatian) anything more than a Turk-
men after two or three generations of settled life ?
I put this question to Sir Henry Howorth and
other authorities on a subject in which I am only
an inquirer.
An intermediate stage between the nomadic
habit of Turkmens and the settled habit of Turks is
found in many villages and even towns, whose in-
habitants, having in most respects the appearance
of settled living, go partially out into summer
quarters (Yaila). This custom of going to Yaila
varies from the mild form, in which it is hardly more
than a hygienic precaution (like the month or two
in the country which is an institution among our
own urban population), to the thorough-going style
in which it is barely distinguishable from the no-
madic habit; and the semi-nomadic habit exists in
practically the same form among some Turkmens
and some Turks who have long rejected the name
Turkmen. Such facts point to an old-standing
process whereby Turkmen becomes Turk in fact
and in feeling.
1 See chapter vi.
recent years both by the policy of the government
(which tries to discourage and even forcibly to stop
nomadism), and by the marked growth of the Euro-
pean spirit in this Oriental land.1 The question is,
has it not been always going on? Is the original
Turk (as distinguished from the Mohammedanised
Phrygian or Galatian) anything more than a Turk-
men after two or three generations of settled life ?
I put this question to Sir Henry Howorth and
other authorities on a subject in which I am only
an inquirer.
An intermediate stage between the nomadic
habit of Turkmens and the settled habit of Turks is
found in many villages and even towns, whose in-
habitants, having in most respects the appearance
of settled living, go partially out into summer
quarters (Yaila). This custom of going to Yaila
varies from the mild form, in which it is hardly more
than a hygienic precaution (like the month or two
in the country which is an institution among our
own urban population), to the thorough-going style
in which it is barely distinguishable from the no-
madic habit; and the semi-nomadic habit exists in
practically the same form among some Turkmens
and some Turks who have long rejected the name
Turkmen. Such facts point to an old-standing
process whereby Turkmen becomes Turk in fact
and in feeling.
1 See chapter vi.