are a Turkic-speaking people primarily inhabiting the mountains of the southeast European Balkan peninsula and Anatolia. Their name is generally admitted to derive from the Turkish verb yürü- (yürümek in infinitive), which means "to walk", with the word Yörük designating "those who walk, walkers".
The Yörüks of Anatolia are often called by the historians and ethnologues by the additional appelative ‘Yörük Turcoman‘ or ‘Turkmens‘. 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 "Türkmen" (aside from the word’s other meanings in the international context) 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 yet stronger association with nomadism. These names ultimately hint to their Oghuz Turkish roots. Clans closely related to the Yörüks are scattered throughout the Anatolian peninsula, particularly around the chain of Taurus Mountains and further east around the shores of the Caspian sea. Of the Turcomans of Persia, the Yomuts come the closest to the definition of the Yörüks. An interesting offshoot of the Yörük mass are the Tahtadji of the mountainous regions of Western Anatolia who, as they name implies, have been occupied with forestry work and wood craftsmanship since centuries, although they share similar traditions (with markedly matriarchal tones in their society structure) with their other Yörük cousins. The Qashqai people of southern Iran (around Shiraz), and the Chepni of Turkey’s Black Sea region are also worthy of mention due to their shared characteristics.

http://brunodam.blog.kataweb.it/2007/01