Zaza, Northern

The Northern Zazas are the Alevi branch of the Zaza people of eastern Türkiye, speakers of Northern Zazaki or Kırmancki (kiu), a Northwestern Iranian language related to Gorani and the Caspian languages of Iran, not a dialect of Kurdish. They call themselves Kırmanc, Dersimli or 'our people' (şarê ma) and their language Kırmancki, Zazaki, Dersimki or zonê ma, 'our language'; outsiders have called them Kızılbaş. Their homeland is Dersim (Tunceli) and the surrounding districts of Erzincan, northern Bingöl, Varto, Hınıs and Sivas; the dialect divides into a Dersim and a Varto variety. Like the Sunni Southern Zazas they are thought to descend from Daylamite tribes who reached Anatolia in the Middle Ages, but religion has long separated the two, and the Northern Zazas share faith, tribes and history with the Kurmanji-speaking Alevi Kurds of Dersim and Koçgiri. Dersim's tribes (aşiret), such as the Abbasan, Demenan, Haydaran and Kureyşan, kept the mountains semi-independent until 1937-38. Whether they are Kurds, Zazas or a people of their own is disputed among themselves. JP and Ethnologue put speakers at about 200,000-400,000, IMB at 1.5 million; all Zazas number about 2-3 million, of whom 15-17% are Alevi.

Dersim society was built on tribes and on hereditary holy lineages (ocak) whose members, the pir, rayber and dede, guided lay families (talip) bound to them for generations. Ritual brotherhood (musahiplik) ties two couples for life, and marriage to Sunnis was traditionally forbidden. Women take part in worship, work in the fields and do not veil. Village life followed the seasons: summer pastures, butter and cheese making, walnut and mulberry harvests and long winters of storytelling. Music is the soul of the culture: lament songs (kılam, deyiş) on the tembur or saz recall the 1938 massacre, and singers such as Ali Baran, Mikail Aslan and Metin and Kemal Kahraman carry Kırmancki songs to new audiences. The New Year festival Gağand in January, the spring festival Hewtemal in March and the three-day Xızır fast in February mark the year, and the Munzur Culture and Nature Festival draws summer visitors. Hospitality and the obligation to settle disputes before the community remain strong, but most young people grow up in cities speaking Turkish.

The Northern Zazas follow Alevism in its Dersim form, which they call Raa Haqi, the Path of Truth. They do not pray in mosques, keep the Ramadan fast or perform the Muslim ritual washing; instead they gather for the cem, led by a pir or rayber from a holy lineage, with confession and reconciliation, sung prayers to the saz, the semah dance and a shared sacrificial meal. They honour Ali and the Twelve Imams and fast in Muharrem. More than Turkish Alevis, they revere the sacred landscape: the springs of the Munzur, believed to be the tears or milk of the shepherd-saint Munzur Baba, the mountain shrine of Düzgün Baba near Nazımiye, visited by thousands every year, and countless sacred rocks, trees and springs (jiare) where people light candles, tie cloth and sacrifice animals for healing and vows. Xızır, the saint who appears to those in need, is honoured with a three-day fast in February; after the 1994 evacuations these rites faded and were revived in Pülümür only in 2026. Scholars note older layers of Iranian and Armenian Christian practice, such as a communion-like ritual once held at Gağand. The hereditary system has weakened with migration, and since the 1990s associations and cemevis in the cities have taken over much religious life.

Northern Zazaki has Scripture portions only: the Gospel of Luke and Psalm 23 in the Dersim-Hozat dialect, translated with Wycliffe and published in 2023 on YouVersion, Bible.is and in the free app 'Gospel of Luke (Dersim-Zazaki)' from Forum Linguistik in Eurasien. The Jesus Film is available in Dersim Zazaki, along with audio Bible teaching from Global Recordings Network, gospel videos on zazamujde.com and Create International's 'Sanakanê Pexamberan'. Most Northern Zazas read Turkish, in which the full Bible and Christian media are freely available. In the 19th century American missionaries in Harput saw the Kızılbaş of Dersim as open to the gospel, and Armenian Christians lived among them until 1915. Known believers today are very few.

In 1935 the Republic placed Dersim under a special law, renamed it Tunceli and set up military rule to end the tribes' autonomy. Resistance led by Seyid Rıza of the Abbasan was answered in 1937 and 1938 with air bombing, the burning of villages and forests, and mass killings, including of women and children who hid in caves. Official reports count 13,160 civilians killed and 11,818 deported to western Anatolia; historians' estimates run from about 30,000 to 70,000 dead. Seyid Rıza was hanged in Elazığ in November 1937 with six others. In 2011 Prime Minister Erdoğan called it one of the most tragic events of recent history. For the Northern Zazas, 'Tertele' (the catastrophe) is the defining memory, kept alive in laments, oral history projects and memorials in Germany.