The örüYörüks, also Yuruks or Yorouks (; , Youroúkoi; ; , Juruci), are a Turkic ethnic subgroup of Oghuz descent, some of whom are nomadic, primarily inhabiting the mountains of Anatolia, and partly in the Balkan peninsula. On the Balkans Yörüks are distributed over a wide area from the eastern parts of North Macedonia, parts of Bulgaria, north to Larissa in Thessaly and southern Thrace. Their name derives from the Turkish verb yürü- (yürümek in infinitive), which means "to walk", with the word yörük or yürük designating "those who walk on the hindlegs, walkers". The Yörüks were under the Yörük Sanjak, () which was not a territorial unit like the other sanjaks, but a separate organisational unit of the Ottoman Empire.
According to some, those tribes residing in the east of the Kızılırmak river are called Turkmen and those in the west Yörük. Both terms were used together in Ottoman sources for Dulkadirli Turkmens living in Maraş and its surroundings. The ethnohistorical terms Turcoman and Turkmen are used synonymously in literature to designate Yörük ancestry.
Anatolia
Historians and ethnologists often use the additional appellative 'Yörük Turcoman' or 'Turkmens' to describe the Yörüks of Anatolia. In Turkey's general parlance today, the terms "Türkmen" and "Yörük" indicate the gradual degrees of preserved attachment with the former semi-nomadic lifestyle of the populations concerned, with the "Turkmen" now leading a fully sedentary life, while keeping parts of their heritage through folklore and traditions, in arts like carpet-weaving, with the continued habit of keeping a yayla house for the summers, sometimes in relation to the Alevi community etc. and with Yörüks maintaining a stronger association with nomadism. These names ultimately hint to their Oghuz Turkish roots. The remaining "true" Yörüks of today's Anatolia traditionally use horses as a means of transportation, though these are steadily being replaced by trucks.
The Yörüks are divided in a large number of named endogamous patrilineal tribes (aşiret). Among recent tribes mentioned in the literature are Aksigirli, Ali Efendi, Bahsıs, Cakallar, Coşlu, Qekli, Gacar, Güzelbeyli, Horzum, Karaevli, Karahacılı, Karakoyunlu, Karakayalı, Karalar, Karakeçili, Manavlı, Melemenci, San Agalı, Sanhacılı, Sarıkeçili, Tekeli and Yeni Osmanlı. The tribes are splittered in clans or lineages, i.e. kabile, sülale or oba. Anatolian Yörüks: İçel Yörüks, Alaiye Yörüks, Tekeli Yörüks, Bursa Yörüks, Haruniye Yörüks, Maraş Yörüks, Ankara Yörüks, Eğridir Yörüks, Araç Yörüks, Taraklı Yörüks, Murtana Yörüks, Nacaklı Yörüks, Nasırlı Yörüks, Eski Yörüks, Toraman Yörük, Tacirleri Yörüks, Tor Yörüks.
Sarıkeçili Yörüks
The Sarıkeçili or "Yellow Goats" are the last Yörüks maintaining the nomadic way of life. They mainly live in Mersin Province in the central-eastern parts of the Turkish Mediterranean coast and consist of about 200 families. Their winter camps are in the coasts of Silifke, Gülnar and Anamur. In summer they live in the districts of Beyşehir and Seydişehir in Konya Province. Their nomad tents can be seen throughout the Mediterranean coastal sides of Turkey. This is a very common practice among old Turkic tribes in central Asia even nowadays. A throat singing tradition, known as “Boğaz Havası” or “Boğaz Çalma”, has an important aspect in the culture of the Sarıkeçili Yörüks, it is performed by pressing the throat with a finger while singing with a sound.
In the past centuries, many Sarıkeçili tribes also resided in these areas: İçil, Aydın, Konya, Afyonkarahisar, Akşehir, Saruhan, Doğanhisarı, Antalya, Lake Eğirdir, Isparta, Burdur, Dazkırı, Uluborlu. Most Sarıkeçili tribes living in these areas have already accepted the sedentary way of life. The Sarıkeçili around Antalya and Mersin are the last representatives of Yörük nomadism. They are considered ‘the only group representing the Turkish migration from Central Asia’.
Lifestyle
French historian and Turkologist Jean-Paul Roux visited the Anatolian Yörüks in the late 1950s and found that the majority of them were practicing Sunni Muslims. The tribes he visited were led by elected officials called muhtars, or village headmen, rather than hereditary chiefs, although he did note that village elders maintained some social authority based on their age. For the majority of the year, they lived in dark wool tents called kara çadır. During the summer, they went up to the mountains, and in the winter they came down to the coastal plains. They kept a variety of animals, including goats, sheep, camels, and sometimes cattle.