KONGRE BİLDİRİLERİ
peoples speaking different languages passed and mixed”1.
The rich and expressive Turkish toponymy in Dobrogea may offer an inter-disciplinary analysis of
the social stratification and professional structure of the Turkish-Tatar population in the area, the historical events registered by the memory of the community, geographic and topographic characteristics,
but also the relation between the denominative tradition and the ethnic, social and demographic reality
in the field in different periods.
We notice that for the period of Ottoman administration in Dobrogea the most ample presentations on the Dobrogean toponymy are those from Seyahatname / Travel Notes by Evliya Celebi.
He mentions the village Ghiuiumlu, inhabited entirely by the Turks, the cities Caraharman, Babadag,
Cara-Su, Cara Murat. Going south he reaches the Turkish villages Biulbiul and Turnagi2.
Due to its geo-strategically position, starting from the second half of the 19th century, Dobrogea
becomes one of the military operations theaters within the Russian – Turkish wars. Consequently a
large number of people will leave the villages. Hence, at the end of the Russian-Turkish war from 18281829 the population of Dobrogea has been reduced to 40000 inhabitants3,”the Christians had been
decimated by the Turks, and the Moslems were destroyed and scattered by the Russian troops”4.
This war has been followed by a period of calm, without any military confrontations, and in 1834
the population of Dobrogea will be 1000005.
As a result of the above presented the population of Dobrogea grew significant after 1829; Ion Ionescu de la Brad’s statistics from 1850 specifies a number of 4800 Turkish families, 2225 Tatar families
and 4656 Romanian families6. The number of the Turkish-Tatar population is larger than the Romanian population. In 1856-1857, after the Crimean war, a numerous group of Tatars came to Dobrogea
and established the city Medgidia, named after the Sultan Adbul Medjid. This city had a population of
12000 inhabitants, as well as the villages Caraibil, Sarinasuf, Beibuceag and Murighiol7.
Several specifications pertaining to the ethnic composition of the localities with Turkish names
are necessary. In 1870 the Transylvanian Nifon Balanescu, responsible for the organization of the
Romanian schools in Dobrogea, noticed that the Romanian were in majority or even the only inhabitants in Sabangia, Calica, Sarighiol, Sarinasuf, Zebil, Meidanchioi, Topalu, Vlahchioi, Aliman, Cuzgun,
Caranlâc, Beilic, Coșlugea și Câșla8.
1 Vasile Frățilă, Lexicologie și toponimie românească, Bucharest, 1987, p. 103.
2 Evliya Celebi, Seyahtname,”Analele Dobrogei”, II, 1919, p.134-149.
3 Alexandru P. Arbore, Contribuții la studiul așezărilor tătarilor și turcilor în Dobrogea, ”Analele Dobrogei”,II.,2, 1920,p. 13.
4 Tudor Mateescu, Mențiuni despre ruinele din satele dobrogene în actele ”Comisiei de parcelare a Dobrogei”,”Revista Arhivelor”, X, .2, Bucharest, 1967,p. 241.
5 Mehmet Ali Ekrem, Din istoria turcilor dobrogeni, 1994, p.12.
6 C. Brătescu, Două statistici etnografice germane în Dobrogea, ”Arhiva Dobrogei”, vol. II, nr.2.,1919, p.65.
7 Alexandru P. Arbore, Contribuții..., p.229.
8 ”Analele Dobrogei”, II, 1928, p.337.
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Tapu ve Kadastro Genel Müdürlüğü
As consequence of the decisions of the Berlin Congress (1/13, July, 1878) the independence of Romania is recognized and Dobrogea was granted to the new state. Considering that the larges minority
was the Turkish-Tatar, their traditions and religion were protected: Mahometan tribunals for succession issues and marriages were established; in the Army were established troops and special companies
consisting exclusively on Moslems with a uniform with fez and turban. In 1889 a Moslem company was
sent to be part of the 10th of May parade in Bucharest9.
The measures undertaken by the Romanian govern regarding the emigration of the Turks that
run away because of the war lead to certain reactions: the Turkish refugees from Bulgaria asked the
permission of the Prime Minister Ion Bratianu to settle in the deserted villages of the Cerghez or other
localities in Dobrogea with Turkish population10.
Soon after the establishment of the Romanian administration statistics were made. In the autumn
of 1878 the representatives of the Ministry of Cults and Public Education made a statistic table for
the localities from the North and Center of Dobrogea. According to this table the localities: Agighiol,
Caraclia, Ienisala, Mehmetchioi, Meidanchioi, Sarighiol, Sabangia, Șaban, Zebil11 are entirely inhabited
by Romanians. The localities inhabited in majority by the Romanians are more numerous, but these
9 localities have Turkish names. The statistics from the next year, 1879, established that from a total
of 222565 inhabitants in Dobrogea, 134 662 were Moslems, hence more than half12. Alexandru P. Arbore publish in his book the names of the 10 localities inhabited exclusively by the Turks: Hoșcadân,
Acargea, Vallali, Danlinchioi, Mustafaci, Ierebiler, Carachioi, Amzaci, Hasiduluc și Lazmahale13.These
statistics belong to some private persons.The statistics made by the Romanian govern for 1890-1911
and the national census from 193014 present the following situation:
Year
1890
1900
1911
1930
Romanians
P
189 959
261 490
333 275
237 031
Romanians
72 422
120 691
186 334
147 042
Turks and Tatars
42 538
39 490
35 922
36 099
Turks & Tatars
It is noticeable the same trend as in the past decades of decrea