Lazistan

Lazistan Lazona
Historical region
Historical Lazistan
Coordinates: 40°55′54″N 40°50′52″E / 40.93167°N 40.84778°E / 40.93167; 40.84778Coordinates: 40°55′54″N 40°50′52″E / 40.93167°N 40.84778°E / 40.93167; 40.84778
Country	Georgia  Turkey
Largest city	Rize
Lazistan is not an official subdivision of either Georgia or Turkey; it constitutes a historical region only.

Laz people
show Place of distribution Lazistan Georgia Turkey Germany
show Religion Sunni Islam Christianity Eparchy of Batumi and Lazeti The Seven Brothers of Lazia Laz Martyrs Churches: Jibistasi, Noghedi, Pironity
show Culture Laz language Laz grammar Barchkhali Dance Cuisine Agani Murutsxi (Newspaper)
show History Colchian culture ancient Colchian tribes Colchis Satrapy of Persia Greek colonisation Pontus Roman rule Kingdom of Lazica Christianization Byzantine rule Trebizond Empire Kingdom of Imereti Ottoman rule
show Related peoples Mingrelians Svans other groups of Georgians
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Lazistan (Laz: ლაზონა, romanized: Lazona; Georgian: ლაზეთი, or ჭანეთი Ç'aneti; Ottoman Turkish: لازستان‎, romanized: Lazistān) is a historical and cultural region of the Caucasus and Anatolia, traditionally inhabited by the Laz people, located mostly in Turkey, with small parts in Georgia. Its area is about 7,000 km² (2,703 sq mi), and its population about 500,000. Geographically, Lazistan consists of a series of narrow, rugged valleys extending northward from the crest of the Pontic Alps (old name is Lazistan mountains, Lazic Alps) (Turkish: Anadolu Dağları), which separate it from the Çoruh valley, and stretches east-west along the southern shore of the Black Sea. Lazistan is a virtually a forbidden term in Turkey.^[A] The designation of the term of Lazistan was officially banned in 1926, by Kemalists, as the name was considered to be an 'unpatriotic' invention of ancien regime.^[1] However, Recep Tayyip Erdoğan reportedly said in 2013, that the Ottoman Empire used to call the Black Sea Region Lazistan.^[2]

Etymology[]

The ethnonym "Laz" is unhesitatingly linked to a Svan toponym Lazan (i.e. the territorial prefix la- + Zan, "land of the Zan").^{[citation needed]} The suffix -stan (Persian: ـستان, translit. stân) is Persian for region. The literal translation is, thus, "Region of Lazs". "Lazistan" was also formerly spelled Lazica or Lazia.

History[]

Antiquity[]

Medieval[]

The Ottoman era[]

Modern[]

See also[]

• Lazistan Sanjak

Notes[]

References[]

External links[]

• Map of distribution of Laz people