TURKISH
Excerpts from Wikipedia.org
The Turkish people (Turkish: Türk Halkı), also known as "Turks" (Türkler) are a nation defined mainly by a sense of sharing a common Turkish culture and having Turkish as a first language, but also the overwhelming majority are citizens of Turkey, or children of citizens of Turkey.
In the Republic of Turkey, an early history text provided the definition of being a Turk as "any individual within the Republic of Turkey, whatever his faith who speaks Turkish, grows up with Turkish culture and adopts the Turkish ideal is a Turk." This ideal came from the beliefs of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk. In a historic context the word Turk or Turkish has also a wider meaning, because there are Turks in Balkans, Europe, Eurasia and Central Asia as well as America Today the word is primarily used for the inhabitants of Turkey, but may also refer to the members of sizeable Turkish-speaking populations in the Republic of Macedonia, Greece (in particular in Thrace), Kosovo (Serbia), Romania, Bulgaria, Cyprus and other lands of the former Ottoman Empire Large Turkish communities have also been established in Western Europe (particularly in Germany), North America, and Australia.
History
Anatolia the landmass that is now Turkey was a cradle for a wide variety of civilizations and kingdoms during antiquity Major civilizations and kingdoms that have settled in or invaded Anatolia include the Arabs, Assyrians, Celts, Cimmerians, Etruscans, Galatians, Goths, Hattians, Hittites, Greeks, Ionians, Lydians, Mongols, Pelasgians, Persians, Phrygians, Romans, Scythians, Thracians, Trojans, Urartians, Byzantines, Seljuk Turks, and Ottoman Turks.
The word "Turk" was first documented in the 6th century in Central Asia. The Oğuz were the main Turkic people that moved into Anatolia. Many Turks began their migration after the victory of the Seljuks against the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert. The victory, led by Alp Arslan, paved the way for Turkish hegemony in Anatolia.
In the centuries after Manzikert local populations began to assimilate to the emerging Turkish population Over time, as word spread regarding the victory of the Turks in Anatolia more Turkic ghazis arrived from the Caucasus, Persia and Central Asia Turkish migrants began to intermingle with the local inhabitants which helped to bolster the Turkish-speaking population.
The Ottoman Empire originally based in the Söğüt region of western Anatolia was also erected by the Oghuz Turks Following the Balkan Wars and the Russian conquest of the Caucasus and annexation of Crimea many Turkic speaking Muslims in the North Caucasus Balkans and Crimea emigrated to the territory of present day Turkey After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and formation of the Republic of Turkey these various cultures and languages melded into one supra identity and culture The modern Turks of Turkey thus are composed of various Turkic groups from various regions.
By the late 19th century Turks were evenly spread throughout Eastern Europe and most noticeably the Balkans however territorial losses in the Balkans sparked a large scale exodus from that region This was finalized by a population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923.
Turkish Heritage
Some 180 million people have a Turkic language as their native language; an additional 20 million people speak a Turkic language as a second language. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper, or Anatolian Turkish, the speakers of which account for about 40% of all Turkic speakers, dwelling predominantly in Turkey proper and formerly Ottoman-dominated areas of Eastern Europe and West Asia; as well as in Western Europe, Australia and the Americas as a result of immigration. The remainder of the Turkic peoples are concentrated in Central Asia, Russia, the Caucasus, China, and northern and northwestern Iran.
Demographics of Turkey
A possible list of ethnic groups living in Turkey could be as follows (based on the classification of P.A. Andrews):
- Turkic-speaking peoples: Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Kumyks, Yörüks, Uzbeks, Crimean Tatars, Azeris, Balkars, Uyghurs, Karachays.
- Kurds and Zaza
- Arabs and Assyrians
- Georgians and Laz
- Armenians and Hamshenis
- Greeks, Pontic Greeks and Greek Muslims
- Other Muslim groups originally from the Balkans (Bulgarians, Albanians, Macedonians, Serbs, Croats, Romanians and Bosniaks): These people migrated to Anatolia during the Ottoman Era and have been assumed to accept Turkish-Muslim identity.
- Circassians and Chechens
- Cossacks in Turkey (mostly left Turkey by 1962)
- Others: There are small groups and individuals from all over the world living in Turkey, either remnants of past migrations (there is for instance a village near the Bosphorus named Adampol in Polish, Polonezköy, "the Polish village", in Turkish) or witnesses of contemporary mass migrations towards the European Union and its periphery (there are also illegal migrants camps with thousands of Africans and others intercepted while trying to embark, or swimming from the wreckage of overpopulated small boats, for the Greek or Italian shores).
Possible Genetic Links
The question to what extent a gene flow from Central Asia to Anatolia has contributed to the current gene pool of the Turkish people, and what the role is in this of the 11th century invasion by Oghuz Turks, has been the subject of several studies. A factor that makes it difficult to give reliable estimates, is the problem of distinguishing between the effects of different migratory episodes, some of which may already have taken place in prehistoric times, and some of which may be of later dates.
A 2001 study by Di Benedetto et al. found estimates that "suggest roughly 30% Central Asian admixture", compatible both with "a substantial immigration accompanying the arrival of the Turkmen armies" and with "continuous gene flow from Asia into Anatolia, at a rate of 1% for 40 generations". The study found that the Anatolian gene pool contains a substantial fraction of alleles of Asian origin, and that the immigration rates inferred from female- and male-transmitted traits are similar. Therefore, according to the authors, if the 11th century invasion by Oghuz Turks is to account for the 30% Asian alleles of the current gene pool, it must have entailed "a massive movement of people, females as well as males."
According to Cengiz Cinnioğlu et al. in October of 2003, although earlier studies concluded that the Central Asian Turkic migration affected gene flow in either 10% or 30% of the population of Anatolia, the actual number is uncertain as the exact number of migrations by the Oghuz in the 11th century is not clear and the lack of viable source material impedes progress. However, with the use of the shared Y-chromosome in continuing research, more may soon be discovered regarding Turkic peoples.
Recent genetics research dated 2003 confirms the studies indicating that the Turkic peoples,originated from Central Asia and therefore are possibly related with Xiongnu. According to the study, Turkish Anatolian tribes may have some ancestors who originated in an area north of Mongolia at the end of the Xiongnu period (3rd century BC to the 2nd century AD), since modern Anatolian Turks appear to have some common genetic markers with the remains found at the Xiongnu period graves in Mongolia:
“The researchers found that interbreeding between Europeans and Asians occurred much earlier than previously thought. They also found DNA sequences similar to those in present-day Turks, supporting the idea that most of the Turks originated in Central Asia. Interestingly, this paternal lineage has been, at least in part (6 of 7 STRs), found in a present-day Turkish individual (Henke et al. 2001). Moreover, the mtDNA (female linkeage) sequence shared by four of these paternal relatives (from graves 46, 52, 54, and 57) were also found in a Turkish individuals (Comas et al. 1996), suggesting a possible Turkish origin of these ancient specimens. Two other individuals buried in the B sector (graves 61 and 90) were characterized by mtDNA sequences found in Turkish people (Calafell 1996; Richards et al. 2000).”
Turkic Peoples
Some ambiguity exists with reference to Turkic ethnicity. The Oğuz people (western branch of the wider Turkic peoples) began arriving in the region as mercenary soldiers under the Abassid caliphs over a thousand years ago. Their origins were in the Altay region (across the boundary of modern day Kazakhstan, Russia, Mongolia and China). The features of these original Turks were mainly mongoloid or a mongoloid-caucasoid mixture and there is substantial evidence that the Native American peoples share the same roots. The Oghuz became substantially mixed during their westward migrations, with Persians, Armenians and other Caucasian peoples. The Ottomans later mixed heavily with the Byzantine Greeks. Thus, the Asiatic Turkic type is only a minority in modern-day Turkey. The cultural traits they brought with them were based on a nomadic lifestyle and included archery, horsemanship, falconry, wrestling, and such foods as the kebab and yoghurt. They also of course gave Turkey its language which can be broadly understood across the Turkic lands of central Asia and beyond.
On a Turkish street or watching a Turkish movie you can see Turks of about all physical types prevalent in the world, from the blond haired and-blue-eyed to individuals with an East Asian appearance or the black-haired Mediterranean type, and even some with Black African roots, from the times when the Ottoman Empire stretched till Somalia, including Sudan. Most of these people will probably claim a Turkic cultural identity, although they may have little Turkic ancestry or none at all.
The Oğuz people, which once constituted the majority of the reigning fraction of Turkic people in Anatolia, gained political, cultural and military dominance in the region but remained for centuries only a small part of the population, demographically speaking. Anatolia, which was formerly a part of many civilizations like the Hittites and the Byzantine Empire, was (and still is) an ethnically very mixed region where the last official religion was Greek Orthodox, and where there are many adherents of other Christian churches or "deviant" Christian or syncretist movements, as well as Jews.
The Turkic migrations were not only westwards, but also south into India, China and Afghanistan, north into Siberia and east into Korea (although some sources contest this). The wider Turkic peoples therefore represent one of the most widely distributed ethnicities in the world. Other non-Ottoman Turkic tribes are present in Turkey and include the Karakalpaks, Turkmens, Kazakhs, Kumyks, Uzbeks, Tatars, Azeris, Balkars, Uyghurs, Karachays, Nogai and Kyrgiz, mostly the result of modern migrations from the former Soviet Union.
Physical Appearance: The Turkic peoples possess physical features ranging from Caucasoid to Northern Mongoloid. In western Turkic lands, such as Turkey and Azerbaijan, a great many people look "European" and "Mediterranean". In Turkey, people with light-coloured eyes such as blue, green, hazel, or gray and blond or brown hair are common. Caucasoid and Mongoloid facial structure is common among some Central Asian Turkic groups, such as Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Turkmen.
Anatolia
Because of its strategic location at the intersection of Asia and Europe, Anatolia has been the center of several civilizations since prehistoric times. Neolithic settlements such as Çatalhöyük, Çayönü, Nevali Cori, Hacilar, Göbekli Tepe, and Mersin are being explored by archaeologists. Through recorded history, Anatolians have spoken both Indo-European and Semitic languages, as well as many languages of uncertain affiliations. In fact, given the antiquity of the Indo-European Hittite and Luwian languages, some scholars have proposed Anatolia as the hypothetical center from which the Indo-European languages originated.
The earliest definitive record of rule in Anatolia is from the Akkadian Empire under Sargon in the 24th century BCE. The region was famous for exporting various raw materials. Akkad suffered problematic climate changes in Mesopotamia, as well as a reduction in available manpower that affected trade. This led to the fall of the Akkadians around 2150 BCE at the hands of the Gutians.
After the Gutians were vanquished, the Assyrian Empire claimed the resources, notably silver. One of the numerous Assyrian cuneiform records found in Anatolia at Kanesh uses an advanced system of trading computations and credit lines. More than 2500 years ago, the area was home for Armenians. In the first century BC, it was one small part of Tigran, the King of Armenia, whose kingdom was spread among Caspian, Black and Mediterranean seas.
Turkish language was introduced with the gradual conquest of Anatolia by Turkic peoples from the 11th century. Anatolia remained multi-ethnic until the early 20th century (see Rise of Nationalism under the Ottoman Empire). The last population exchange between Greece and Turkey, occurred as result of the Treaty of Lausanne, moved most of the Turks in Greece to Turkey and vice versa. Today, the inhabitants of Anatolia are mainly Turks and Kurds as well as Assyrians and Chaldeans Christain ethnic and linguistic minority who exist in the southeastern regions. While Armenians and Georgians (see Chveneburi) have a presence in the northeast
Marmara Region (video)
The Marmara Region (Turkish Marmara), with a surface area of 67.000 km², is the smallest but most densely populated of the seven geographical regions of Turkey. It represents approximately 8.6% of the Turkish national territory.
Istanbul is located in the north-west Marmara Region of Turkey.
