The Review Express, June 2005 Issue Interview: Uğur Biryol
1.How did you mind to
write the “Encyclopedic Dictionary of Black Sea”
which is seen as a comprehensive work?
In 1998, I noticed that the terminology works on the
field of Black Sea culture and the folkloric
elements’ those constitute this culture were in a
neglect both in academic writing and literature.
They were about to be forgotten, those names of the
original plants and animals, outdated kitchen and
agriculture artifacts, the food that is cooked no
more today, the wild plants of the local flora that
were destroyed by the tea and hazelnuts production,
extinct migrating birds, fishing, transhumance,
animal husbandry which lost his authenticity by the
time, and various handicrafts such as copper-working
and spoon-making and all the folkloric knowledge
related to these counted values. As it is known,
since many original village names those had been
renamed not for a mere coincidence and lasted since
the ancient ages were changed after the Republic era
with makeup Turkish names, naturally a realist
record and analysis for these names had not been
performed and thus a deep knowledge which is related
not only with the history of region but also a wide
area from Balkan peninsula to Caucasus was out of
the use of the science of history. It is interesting
that the ancient site Zile/Zela where Julius Caeasar
quoted his famous phrase “veni, vidi, vici”, is
called with the same name today and it stands for
“wine” in the language of Thracian people which was
resident in Anatolia and the origin of Thrace region
before the Greeks and it is a name of the district
in Artvin-Yusufeli which will be covered by the
water because of the dam in a year. This information
is so meaningful for the ancient Anatolian history
and has a priceless value for it reflects the
urgency and importance of this work. There are
thousands of new details such as the word Trabzon
which stands for “Slave Market” in Greek and Erzurum
that had been deciphered as Arz-ı Rum and entered
into Encyclopedia AnaBritannica which is in fact for
Erzin-i Rum, and the matches of the central village
names of Trabzon-Rize in Crete and Mora peninsula,
that I give with the coordinates in my book.
2- It must be painful to find the words in this
dictionary. Because there are thousands of words of
various regions in this dictionary. And the
etymological origin of these words are essential for
this work. So, you ever had an assistance of a
linguist while working on such a dictionary?
Local terms those are spoken in Turkish dialects
between Ordu and Artvin were in the Word Collection
Reviews of the Turkish Language Association as well
as city almanacs and many books that had been
written on the culture and folklore of the region
before. I found the web site www.karalahana.com and
collected more than those with the help of thousands
of site members, and I, through the members, had the
possibility to reach the regions that I could not
and the knowledge of their grandmothers and
grandfathers. Sure it was not enough to only collect
words and scan for resources, but it was also vital
to find the etymological origins of the names of the
villages, quarters, mountains, plateaus and rivers.
In this period, I learned Ancient Greek and I
developed my Laz that I scarcely spoke because of my
mother, I brought many books on Linguistics and
especially etymology from various universities
abroad, I researched the works those on Anatolian
Turkish, Greek, Armenian, Old Turkish, Georgian and
Mingerilian and I met their authors and discussed
face-to-face. The reader can, maybe for first time,
find the hidden treasures of the language and
folklore of such, as Turkmen accent that created
their own cultural synthesis at the southeast of
Trabzon, Laz spoken along the east shore of Rize,
Middle Ages Greek spoken at the inner parts of
Trabzon and a local variation of Armenian which is
called Georgian and Hemşin Language and spoken at
the inner highlands of Artvin. Therefore, a work
which I even could not imagine at the beginning is
formed with interesting knowledge such as over forty
folk songs in Hemşin language which has hardly a
written record, from flower and animal names to the
nasty swears in Greek spoken in Trabzon, the living
traces of the worshipping to the trees, sun and moon
,those inherited from paganism before the monotheist
religions, in the language and folklore, and search
of these traces in ancient Greek texts and
historical resources and the reasons why a majority
of Christians of the region lived in a Muslim
character until 19th century.
3- What kind of difficulties you had while
working on this work? Did you ever say “It is
enough, I gave up!”?
The most important things as a difficulty are
economical issues. I gave my seven years , the most
productive years of my life, for a work which will
not make a good income. I did not discontinue
working though I decided to give up there three or
four times in each year. However, I did not gave up
because I had no inner peace. My grandfather was a
mariner from Rize and his brothers, uncles, father
and all known ancestors were so. Maybe folkloric
knowledge of thousands of years was remained away
because of our generation which did not choose the
ancestors’ profession even it was unknowingly.
Besides recording the stories of the people who is
not “here” “now” and the life to be extinct, this is
a work which provides Anatolian and Turkish
historians with new discussion points for I
explained those in an anticipated way. Therefore, I
believe that Black Sea life style and folklore, and
even ethnic structure in some areas did not changed
at all since the ancient ages.
4- Unfortunately such works does not get
attention in Turkey. How do you think to promote
your book?
As Nietzche says in Ecce Homo “The ears to hear me
have not been born yet”. I think that my work shall
be valued by time for our next generations, so
people of today is not my initial target of this
work.
5- Works on Black Sea may cause reactions by some
people. For instance, calling people from Trabzon
with a Greek origin and calling people of Hemşin as
Armenians can raise Cain among some people. What do
you think then?
All generalizations and exceptions as well as
hypothesises in science come with its antithesis. I
did not prepare my book to prove anything or to
support any political or ideological thesis except
the reasons that I mentioned above.
6- Tens of nations that have different styles of
life are living in Black Sea Region. However,
everyone calls people of Black Sea as Laz. This work
is so important for it points out the existence of
the people who speaks different languages. Is that
one of the aim of this book to point out this?
I have already explained with details why the word
Laz was adopted by the people of whole region in the
article Laz with 13 pages with the help of
historical texts. The basic source of this problem
is that all local people from the tribes that lived
in Black Sea region and West Georgia shore and were
mentioned as the Colchis, Tzan, Dzan in the Greek
sources as Anabasis (BC 401) described themselves
under the Laz common name since the Roman Empire
period. That is the reason why Procopius had to need
to explain this confusion about defitions in AD 6.
century. Today, the people who lives at the east of
district Pazar of the city Rize is one of these
tribes preserved its existence and language… In
addition to this, the people of Hemşin living at the
same area and Turkmens never describe themselves as
Laz but they are known as Laz.
7- How many years you gave for this work? As you
know a Japanese linguist who made researches on Laz
language had been deported before with a charge of
“Seperatism” even a person from this region as
İsmail Avcı Bucaklişi used to accompany him. Why do
such researches are being obstructed? What is your
opinion?
I have been working since 1998 but the phase of
converting it to a dictionary format and
determination of the articles were in 2001. I know
the Turkey adventure of the mentioned Japanese
linguist. I have read his associate grammar book on
Laz language with Bucaklişi but the subject of my
book is not directly Laz language, Greek language,
Hemşin language or Georgian. I took into
consideration only the local words that are used in
Turkish in the determination of the articles. To
compile other languages to be spoken in the region
is more painful and that has to be the subject of a
different work. However, I, of course, did not
neglect to make these languages as articles in my
dictionary, to analyze the village names in these
languages and to add the local elements in these
languages without a Turkish equivalent into the
dictionary.
8-Is there further book projects of you?
I am working on a similar encyclopedic work under
the name “Folklore, Religion and Mythology”. I
suppose that it will be ready to be published in
2006
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