Yörüks

The Yörüks, also Yuruks or Yorouks (; , Youroúkoi; ; , Juruci), are a Turkish ethnic subgroup of Oghuz descent,Vakalopoulos, Apostolos Euangelou. " Origins of the Greek Nation: The Byzantine Period, 1204-1461". Rutgers University Press, 1970. web link, p. 163, p. 330Gelekçi, Cahit (2004). Türk Kültüründe Oğuz-Türkmen-Yörük Kavramları. Türkiyat Araştırmaları Dergisi, Güz 2004, Issue 1 ISSN 1305-5992 some of whom are nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia, and partly in the Balkan peninsula.A. Georgoudis, A. Rosati, C. Mosconi. Animal production and natural resources utilisation in the Mediterranean mountain areas. Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2 Aug 2005, page 621-622. On the Balkans Yörüks are distributed over a wide area from southern Serbia, North Macedonia parts of Bulgaria, north to Larissa in Thessaly and southern Thrace.Svanberg, Ingvar: The turkish-speaking ethnic groups in Europe (pp.65-128) in Europa ethnica, volume 41. W. Braumüller, 1984, p.68.A Bibliography of the Turkish-speaking Tribal Yörüks, by Ingvar Svanberg (Uppsala). Materialia Turcica, Volumes 5-8. Studienverlag Brockmeyer, 1981, page 21. Their name derives from the Old Turkish verb "yörü", meaning "to walk", and they are also called Yörük or Yürük. The contractions o > u and ö > ü in the first syllable in Rumelian dialects are typical, and while they are called Yörük in Anatolia, the Yürük form is used in Rumelia. These contractions are due to the Kipchak Turkic influence on dialects of Turkish.Turkish Language Association - TDK Online Dictionary. Yorouk , yorouk  "yuruk." Webster's Third New International Dictionary, Unabridged. Merriam-Webster. 2002. The Yörüks were under the Yörük Sanjak, () which was not a territorial unit like the other sanjaks, but a separate organisational unit of the Ottoman Empire.

Yörüks was settled in the Balkan especially in North Macedonia and the Amuca tribe in East Thrace, a subgroup of the Yörüks, at the time of Ottoman Empire, the yörük move into the Balkan mountains with their herds of sheep, Cows and goats, they live there on the alp called Yayla in Turkish, they make cheese from sheep and goat and cows Milk. Yörüks have preserved ancient turkish traditions such as Camel wrestling and Turkish Oil Wrestling of Men.
According to some, those tribes residing in the east of the Kızılırmak river are called Turkmen people and those in the west Yörük. Both terms were used together in Ottoman sources for Dulkadirli Turkmens living in Maraş and its surroundings.Solak, İbrahim. XVI. Yüzyılda Maraş ve Çevresinde Dulkadirli Türkmenleri. The ethnohistorical terms Turcoman and Turkmen are used synonymously in literature to designate Yörük ancestry. Today they live mostly in houses in the valleys and plains and have preserved fair hair and a fair complexion, and blue or greyish-blue eyes of their Oghuz ancestors.Yusuf Durul: Flat-woven rugs made by "Yürüks". Ak Yayınları, 1977, page 60 cited: "The Turcomans, on the other hand, are of medium height, with fair hair and a fair complexion, and blue or greyish-blue eyes. They generally live in houses in the valleys and plains."İbrahim Aksu, "An Onomastic Study of Turkish Family Names, Their Origins, and Related Matters." 2005 , page 50 cited: "The yörük tribes were a peaceful race with fair complexions and fine physique , known as great camel breeders."Insight Guides Turkey - Apa Publications (UK) Limited, 2015 cited: "Nomads (Yörüks) - Thought to be descendants of the Oguz Turkic tribe, many have preserved the fair complexion and green eyes of their ancestors;" They hold many of their Pre-Islamic, old Tengrism culture in Lifestyle, The Boys got a big Sünnet-celebration, and Yörük Festival is hold in Turkey at different places,http://yorkam.akdeniz.edu.tr/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/7.pdf
The majority now are settled but some live a semi-nomadic lifestyle. Yörük's Ancestry are proud of there Heritage and Background. There are several Yörük tribes.
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