Koçgiri (tribe)

Koçgiri is a collection or confederation of Kurdish Alevi tribes, of mainly from Sivas Province, in Turkey. They are speakers of a northern dialect of Kurmanji.

Etymology

The origin of the name Koçgiri is disputed, there are two main opposing points of view:Qoçgirî may originally mean «Great migration» in the Kurdish language, qoç being itself a loanword from a Turkic language,

History

Ottoman tax records in the 1360-1370's mention the name of Koçgiri, indicating that a so named region or tribe paid their taxes to the Ottomans.
They are known to have initiated the Koçgiri rebellion that occurred in March 1921, during the Turkish War of Independence. About 5,000 rebels, including Sunni tribes having joined the uprising later, fought against the Grand National Assembly. They were defeated on 17 June.