Iranian ethnic group of the Caucasus
Ethnic group
Ossetians Ирæттæ, Дигорæнттæ / Irættæ, Digorænttæ
c. 700,000 [citation needed ] Russia 558,515[ 1] ( North Ossetia–Alania ) 480,310 [ 2] South Ossetia 51,000[ 3] [ 4] Georgia (excluding South Ossetia P.A. )14,385[ 5] Syria 58,700[ 6] Turkey 20,000–50,000[ 7] [ 8] [ 9] [ 10] Tajikistan 7,861[ 11] Uzbekistan 5,823[ 12] Ukraine 4,830[ 13] Kazakhstan 4,308[ 14] Turkmenistan 2,066[ 15] Azerbaijan 1,170[ 16] Kyrgyzstan 758[ 17] Belarus 554[ 18] Moldova 403[ 19] Armenia 331[ 20] Latvia 285[ 21] Lithuania 119[ 22] Estonia 116[ 23] Ossetian Majority: Eastern Orthodoxy (70–85%)[ 24] Minority: Islam (15–30%)[ 25] Uatsdin other Iranian peoples a. ^ The total figure is merely an estimation; sum of all the referenced populations.
The Ossetians ( oss-EE -shənz or oss-ET -ee-ənz ;[ 26] Ossetic : ир, ирæттæ / дигорӕ, дигорӕнттӕ , romanized: ir, irættæ / digoræ, digorænttæ ),[ 27] also known as Ossetes ( OSS -eets ),[ 28] Ossets ( OSS -its ),[ 29] and Alans ( AL -ənz ), are an Iranian [ 30] [ 31] [ 32] [ 33] ethnic group who are indigenous to Ossetia , a region situated across the northern and southern sides of the Caucasus Mountains .[ 34] [ 35] [ 36] They natively speak Ossetic , an Eastern Iranian language of the Indo-European language family , with most also being fluent in Russian as a second language.
Currently, the Ossetian homeland of Ossetia is politically divided between North Ossetia–Alania in Russia , and the de facto country of South Ossetia (recognized by the United Nations as Russian-occupied territory that is de jure part of Georgia ). Their closest historical and linguistic relatives, the Jász people , live in the Jászság region within the northwestern part of the Jász-Nagykun-Szolnok County of Hungary . A third group descended from the medieval Alans are the Asud of Mongolia . Both the Jász and the Asud have long been assimilated; only the Ossetians have preserved a form of the Alanic language and Alanian identity.[ 37]
The majority of Ossetians are Eastern Orthodox Christians ,[ 38] with sizable minorities professing the Ossetian ethnic religion of Uatsdin as well as Islam .
^ "Russian Census 2010: Population by ethnicity" . Perepis-2010.ru (in Russian). Archived from the original (XLS) on 4 December 2013. Retrieved 21 August 2017 .
^ "Всероссийская перепись населения 2002 года" . Perepis2002.ru . Archived from the original on 2 February 2008. Retrieved 21 August 2017 .
^ South Ossetia 's status is disputed. It considers itself to be an independent state, but this is recognised by only a few other countries . The Georgian government and most of the world's other states consider South Ossetia de jure a part of Georgia's territory.
^ "PCGN Report "Georgia: a toponymic note concerning South Ossetia" " (PDF) . Pcgn.org.uk . 2007. p. 3. Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 June 2007. Retrieved 21 August 2017 .
^ "Ethnic Composition of Georgia" (PDF) . Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ "Ossetian" . Ethnologue. Retrieved 4 October 2023 .
^ "Lib.ru/Современная литература: Емельянова Надежда Михайловна. Мусульмане Осетии: На перекрестке цивилизаций. Часть 2. Ислам в Осетии. Историческая ретроспектива" . Lit.lib.ru . Archived from the original on 14 June 2006. Retrieved 21 August 2017 .
^ "Официальный сайт Постоянного представительства Республики Северная Осетия-Алания при Президенте РФ. Осетины в Москве" . Noar.ru . Archived from the original on 1 May 2009. Retrieved 21 August 2017 .
^ Refugees, United Nations High Commissioner for. "Refworld – The North Caucasian Diaspora In Turkey" . Unhcr.org . Retrieved 21 August 2017 .
^ "Göç edeli 100 yıl oldu ama Asetinceyi unutmadılar" . 17 August 2008.
^ Национальный состав, владение языками и гражданство населения республики таджикистан (PDF) . Statistics of Tajikistan (in Russian and Tajik). p. 9. Archived from the original (PDF) on 16 January 2013. Retrieved 27 January 2013 .
^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР" . Archived from the original on 6 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ "2001 Ukrainian census" . Ukrcensus.gov.ua . Retrieved 21 August 2017 .[permanent dead link ]
^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР" . Archived from the original on 3 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ "Итоги всеобщей переписи населения Туркменистана по национальному составу в 1995 году" . Archived from the original on 13 March 2013. Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР" . Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР" . Archived from the original on 7 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ Национальный статистический комитет Республики Беларусь (PDF) . Национальный статистический комитет Республики Беларусь (in Russian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 18 October 2013. Retrieved 1 August 2012 .
^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР" . Archived from the original on 25 January 2016. Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ "Всесоюзная перепись населения 1989 года. Национальный состав населения по республикам СССР" . Archived from the original on 4 January 2012. Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ "Latvijas iedzīvotāju sadalījums pēc nacionālā sastāva un valstiskās piederības (Datums=01.07.2017)" (PDF) (in Latvian). Archived from the original (PDF) on 14 September 2017. Retrieved 8 February 2017 .
^ "Lietuvos Respublikos 2011 metų visuotinio gyventojų ir būstų surašymo rezultatai" . p. 8. Retrieved 3 January 2018 .
^ "2000 Estonian census" . Pub.stat.ee . Retrieved 21 August 2017 .[permanent dead link ]
^ "Ossetians" . 19 June 2015.
^ "Ossetians" . 19 June 2015.
^ "Ossetian" . Oxford English Dictionary (Online ed.). Oxford University Press . (Subscription or participating institution membership required.)
^ Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v. "Ossete" .
^ Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v. "Ossete" .
^ Merriam-Webster (2021), s.v. "Ossete" .
^ Akiner, Shirin (2016) [1987]. Islamic Peoples of the Soviet Union . Routledge. p. 182. ISBN 978-0710301888 . The Ossetians are an Iranian people of the Caucasus.
^ Galiev, Anuar (2016). "Mythologization of History and the Invention of Tradition in Kazakhstan". Oriente Moderno . 96 (1): 61. doi :10.1163/22138617-12340094 . The Ossetians are an East Iranian people, the Kalmyks and Buryats are Mongolian, and the Bashkirs are Turkic people.
^ Rayfield, Donald (2012). Edge of Empires: A History of Georgia . Reaktion Books. p. 8. ISBN 978-1780230702 . For most of Georgian history, those Ossetians (formerly Alanians, an Iranian people, remnants of the Scythians)...
^ Saul, Norman E. (2015). "Russo-Georgian War (2008)". Historical Dictionary of Russian and Soviet Foreign Policy . Rowman & Littlefield. p. 317. ISBN 978-1442244375 . The Ossetians are a people of Iranian descent in the Caucasus that uniquely occupy territories on both sides of the Caucasus Mountain chain.
^ Bell, Imogen (2003). Eastern Europe, Russia and Central Asia . London: Taylor & Francis. p. 200.
^ Mirsky, Georgiy I. (1997). On Ruins of Empire: Ethnicity and Nationalism in the Former Soviet Union . p. 28.
^ Mastyugina, Tatiana. An Ethnic History of Russia: Pre-revolutionary Times to the Present . p. 80.
^ Foltz, Richard (2022). The Ossetes: Modern-Day Scythians of the Caucasus . London: Bloomsbury. pp. 50–52. ISBN 9780755618453 .
^ Cite error: The named reference encarta2008
was invoked but never defined (see the help page ).