Zazas

The Zazas, (also known as Kird, Kirmanc or Dimili) are a people in eastern Anatolia who natively speak the Zaza language. Their heartland, the Dersim region, consists of parts of Bingöl, Elazığ, Erzincan, Diyarbakır, and Tunceli provinces. The majority of Zazas consider themselves ethnic Kurds, part of the Kurdish nation, and they are often described as Zaza Kurds.

Connection to Kurds

Kurds and Zazas have for centuries lived in the same areas in Anatolia. In the 1920s and 1930s, Zazas played a key role in the rise of Kurdish nationalism with their rebellions against the Ottoman Empire and later the Republic of Turkey. During the Sheikh Said rebellion in 1925, the Zaza Sheikh Said and his supporters (both Zazas and Kurds) rebelled against the newly established Turkey for their nationalist and secular ideology. In 1937 during the Dersim rebellion, Zazas once again rebelled against the Turks. This time the rebellion was led by Seyid Riza and ended with a massacre of thousands of Kurdish and Zaza civilians, while many were internally displaced due to the conflict. Zazas also participated in the Kurdish Koçgiri rebellion in 1920.