Zazas

The Zaza people (Dimli) are an ethnic group in Eastern Anatolia (Southeastern Turkey). They are related to the Iranians and Kurds.

Some linguists connect the word Dimli with the Daylamites in the Alborz Mountains near the shores of the Caspian Sea in what is now Iran, and say that the Zazaki language shows many connections to the Iranian dialects of the Caspian region. On this basis, these linguists believe that the Zaza people migrated west from Daylamestan, and they think Zaza people are a subgroup of the Persians.

Some classify Zaza language in the Northern Kurdish group of languages (Kurdish Language is also a sub-group of Iranian Languages.); they also consider Zazaki to be closely related to Hawrami, another form of Kurdish. For this reason, some people refer Zaza as a subgroup of the Kurds.

Until recently, Turkish authorities banned the public use of Dimli/Zazaki, and they have tended to use the words Zaza and Zazaki as pejoratives, leading to an increased preference for the term Dimli among the ethnic group themselves.