Zeitschrift für die Welt der Türken (Aug 2017)
POPULATION AND SETTLEMENT LOCATIONS OF SETTLED TURKS LIVING IN SOUTH PROVINCES OF IRAN
Abstract
Information about Turkic people living in Iran, a mosaic country, still remains confidential. Various Turkic tribes are known to be living in Iran, but there is no detailed information available about these people. For example, dialects of Turkic they speak, dialect features, language atlas, in habited areas and their characteristics, folklore and literature can be mentioned. Although precise and detailed information may be found on the Iranian official statistics, information such as ethnic groups and their languages have always remained missing. Therefore, it is not easy to learn about the ethnicities living in Iran and the languages spoken by them. Hence, it will only be possible to obtain information from either field or indirect studies. As a result, to obtain information about the ethnicities of Iran, in particular Turks living in Iran, one has only these two options. To begin with obtaining such information about Turks of Iran, a 1949 Iranian army survey can be used. The statistics have been published in ten volumes by the Iranian army. This work is, thus far, the only official survey in Iran containing information such as ethnicities and languages that they speak, their numbers, settlements and birth rates. Information concerning Iranian Turks is published by a colonel from Tabriz named Mahmoud Panahiyan in four volumes in 1972. The basic information used in this article about Iranian Turks is based on the statistics from 1949 survey. Based on these statistics, settlements and the numbers of the Turks that live in south provinces of Iran will be summarized in tables and displayed on the maps. The south provinces of Iran are Khuzestan, Boyer Ahmad, Bushehr, Fars, Kerman, Hormozgan ve Sistan o Baluchestan. But this study is not contains Fars province. In addition, this information will be compared with the 2011 census statistics using the settlement names. In addition, an effort has been put into determining the current situation of Turks in the Fars province of Iran and some errors and lack of information present in 1949 survey is outlined. This paper attempts to resolve the discrepancies between present-day information and information from 1949. The results are discussed and analyzed. This study aimed to determine the places and numbers of Turks living in Iran. Therefore, we believe that it will be convenient for future studies especially dialect studies and in preparing language atlases.
