1
Thank you so much I'm paternally have Chepni roots too and the Wikipedia page says Chepni were actually Alevi of Güvenç Abdal Association but later Sunnized, but Aegean & Marmara Chepnis are still majority Alevi. The trace history of my paternal grandfather's village also confirms that but my father is so anti-Alevi that he denies this fact.Originally Posted by Kaspias
https://tr.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%87epniler
Chepni people in Balkans & Thrace
Turkmens, who passed to Deliorman and Dobrudja regions together with Sarı Saltuk and İzzeddin Keykavus before the Ottoman state was established, are from the Chepni clan. These Chepnies in Deliorman and Dobruja mixed with the local Kipchak and Pecheneg peoples as well as other Turkmen tribes that came later and lost their Chepni consciousness. However, they continue the Bektashism, which is the Chepni belief. Many of them migrated back to Western Anatolia, forming the present-day Western Anatolian Çepnis. The Turks in Dobruja say that they are Turkmen and that their faith leader is Sarı Saltuk and they pray on his behalf in Mosques and Dervish lodges even today.
A group of Chepni supporters of Izzeddin Keykavus in Romania and Moldova converted to Christianity. It is claimed that these Chepnis are called Gagauz because of Keykavus. Interestingly, it has been determined that the Gagauz Turks speak with Trabzon dialect. For example, the word Bıldır used in the dialect of Ordu-Giresun-Trabzon is used instead of last year. There are many more example words like this one.
Bookmarks