Genetic origin The origins of the Hemshin people has remained a subject of debate among scholars. The main two purported homelands of the Hemshin have been
Eastern Armenia and
Western Armenia. A 2011 genetic survey based on the Y-chromosomal markers of the Hemshin indicated the central part of the historical
Armenian highlands as a plausible place of origin for the Hamsheni population.
History until the Ottoman conquest The region of Hemshin is located on the coast of the Black sea, in the highlands of
Rize Province. According to historical accounts,
Armenians first settled in that region at the end of the 8th century. While escaping Arab persecutions, about 12,000 Armenians led by Prince Shapuh Amatuni and his son Hamam moved to
Pontos, ruled by the
Byzantine Empire.
Robert H. Hewsen shows the region where today's
Hemşin is located to be populated by a people with different designations throughout ancient and early medieval history. He indicates thereby that some designations may have alternative forms and partially presents the names used with question marks. In summary from the 13th century to 6th century BC
Colchians, 550 to 330 BC Colchians and
Macrones, 180 BC to 14 AD
Lazoi (Chani/Tzan tribes), in the Arsacid Period (63–298 AD)
Heniochi,
Machelones, Heptakometians,
Mossynoeci as well as
Sanni,
Drilae and Macrones are mentioned. The Hemşin region is shown as part of
Colchis (299–387),
Tzanica (387–591) and
Chaldia (654–750). The specific location of Hemşin is indicated as Tambur/Hamamašen as a fort and town for the first time in the map covering the period 654–750. Those two names (Tambur and Hamamašen) are included in the
History of Taron by
John Mamikonean in a short passage about a war between the ruler of Tambur, Hamam, and his maternal uncle the Georgian Prince, which resulted in the destruction of the town to be rebuilt by Hamam and be named after him, namely Hamamshen. This event is declared by
Mamikonian to have taken place in early seventh century. Hamamashen became Hamshen over time.
Simonian who conveys this story reports also that the date given by the author may be wrong. Two other Armenian chronicles Ghewond and
Stepanos Asoghik of Taron, report in short passages in their histories about a migration from Armenia/Oshakan led by prince Shapuh
Amatuni and his son Hamam. Ghewond conveys this immigration to be to avoid heavy taxes imposed on Armenians by the Arab rulers. The
Amatuni lords are offered fertile land to settle down by the Byzantine Emperor, after they crossed the
Çoruh. This migration is dated to be after 789 by Ghewond and as 750 by Stephen Asoghik of Taron. Benninghaus specifies "Tambur" as the destination of the migration led by Hamam and his father Shapuh Amaduni and says that they have seemingly met people there who were already Christians, possibly Greeks. Redgate informs about possible symbolism used in the Ghewond's history and possible garbling in Mamikonian's history, and cautions not to take everything at face value. Hachikian states "There is no clue as to where Tambur, the legendary capital of Hamshen, was located. The only certain thing about it is that it clearly belonged to a much earlier time - if it existed at all". He also mentions in the footnote the name similarity between Tambur and a yayla known as Tahpur or Tagpur, in the heights of Kaptanpasa. Simonian states that Tambur is probably in the vicinity of Varoşkale (altitude 1800 m). , Rize, Turkey. A description of "Haynsen" in the
Kingdom of Georgia, its inhabitants and history is contained in ''La Fleur des histoires de la terre d'Orient'' by
Hayton of Corycus, written around 1307, translated into English in 1520, and later reproduced in the travellers' tales of Samuel Purchas published in 1614. Purchas uses the term "Hamsem" to designate the region and concludes that this is the place of the original Cimmerian gloom of
Homer's
Odyssey. The translation of He'tum's related passage to modern English uses the term Hamshen. Hayton describes the region to be "miraculous and strange place" unbelievable unless seen by one's own eyes, dark and without roads. Signs of human settlement are that "People in those parts say that one frequently hears the sounds of men bellowing, of cocks crowing, of horses neighing in the forest," Those people are described by Hayton, leaning upon Georgian and Armenian Histories, to be the descendants of the men of the "wicked" Iranian Emperor Shaworeos who had chased and harassed Christian people. The referenced translation suggests this Emperor could be
Shapur II (309–379 AD). Simonian considers the so described difficulty in access not to imply total isolation. On the contrary, he reports, Hamshen served sometimes as a transit route between the coastal regions and the Armenian Highlands. In his analysis of the literary and non-literary sources from the 8th through the 19th centuries, combined with excursions into Hamšēn during the 1980s to identify the surviving Armenian architecture, Dr. Robert W. Edwards has defined the geographical perimeters of that region and assessed the historical impact of its extreme isolation. Sources of the ruling powers in the region, (Byzantine, Trapezuntine, Georgian, Armenian and Turkish) are silent about Hemshin; until the conquest by the Ottomans. It is deduced that Hemşin has been governed by local lords under the umbrella of the greater regional powers changing by the time namely the
Bagratid Armenian kingdom, the
Byzantine Empire, its successor the
Empire of Trebizond, the
Kingdom of Georgia, the
Kara Koyunlu and
Ak Koyunlu Turkmen Confederations until it was annexed by the
Ottoman Empire which collapsed as a result of the World War I and gave birth to the Republic of Turkey. The Ottoman conquest of Hemshin occurred sometime in the 1480s: an Ottoman register dated around 1486 calls it
Hemshin and mentions it as being an Ottoman possession.
Turkish dominance and division Turkish influence was firmly established in the region after the
Battle of Manzikert in 1071, after which the
Seljuk Turks and other
Turkish tribes gained a strong foothold in
Central Anatolia and Western
Armenian Highlands, often referred to as
Eastern Anatolia, bringing the local population in contact with the religion of
Islam. In the 15th century, the region of Hamshen was incorporated into the
Ottoman Empire. During the Turkish rule, two most important developments are
human migrations and
conversions. Most sources agree that prior to Ottoman era majority of the residents of Hemshin were
Christian and members of the Armenian Apostolic Church. The details and the accompanying circumstances for the migrations and the
conversions during the Ottoman era are not clearly known or documented. As a result of those developments, distinctive communities with the same generic name have also appeared in the vicinity of
Hopa,
Turkey as well as in the
Caucasus. Those three communities are almost oblivious to one another's existence. • The
Hemshinli of Hemshin proper (also designated occasionally as
western Hemshinli in publications) are
Turkish-speaking
Sunni Muslims who mostly live in the counties (ilçe) of
Çamlıhemşin,
Çayeli,
İkizdere,
Pazar and
Hemşin in Turkey's
Rize Province. • The
Hopa Hemshinli (also designated occasionally as
eastern Hemshinli in publications) are Sunni Muslims and mostly live in the
Hopa and
Borçka counties of Turkey's
Artvin Province. In addition to Turkish, they also speak a dialect of
western Armenian they call "
Homshetsma" or "Hemşince" in Turkish. •
Homshentsik (also designated occasionally as
Northern Homshentsik in publications) are Christians who live in
partially recognized Abkhazia and in Russia's
Krasnodar Krai. They speak Homshetsma as well. There are also some Muslim Hamshentsi living in
Georgia and Krasnodar and some Hamshentsi elements amongst the
Meskhetian Turks. ==Demographics==