Das Volk und die Sprache der Zaza - Zazaki.de

7 Abstract
The Zaza-People originate in Eastern Turkey. Usually, they are referred to as Kurds, because
just recently knowledge about them has spread. The Zaza do not form a homogenous group,
for they can be divided by their confession half and half into Alevis and Sunnis. Traditionally
the religious identity is more important than having the same language in common. Only
recently in the European Diaspora there are attempts for a claim to a Zaza identity
irrespective religious ideas.
After the fall of the Ottoman Empire the Turks had made bad experience as far as
maintaining cultural and linguistic diversity within a nation was concerned. For this reason
they started an assimilation politic which should unite all population into an identity based on
Turkishness. Hence publishing and music making in local languages became forbidden.
Besides the Jews, Armenians and Orthodox, no other ethnic minorities officially existed in
Turkey according to the Treaty to Lausanne in 1923.
Suffering discrimination from the Turkish Army many Zaza moved to West Europe and
especially West Germany. Released from fear of repression, the awareness of the Zaza about
their identity linked with their language Zazaki raised. Many Intellectuals have begun to pay
more attention to their language and are actively involved in maintenance strategies. They
have come to the point to realise the ultimate worth of their language which is about to die.
Indeed Zazaki is threatened with extinction, because many children do not learn the language
as a mother tongue language and in Turkey many people have voluntarily stopped
communicating in Zazaki for mainly economic reasons.
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