Turkic peoples

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Turkic peoples
Atatürk • İsmail Gaspıralı • Cengiz Aytmatov •

Haydar Aliyev • Nazarbayev • Rebiya Kadeer •

Total population
180 million
Regions with significant populations
Turkey, Uzbekistan, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Macedonia, Bulgaria, Greece(Western Thrace), Serbia(Sandžak), Romania, Ukraina(Crimea), Moldova(Gagauzia), Cyprus, China (Xinjiang Uyghur Autonomous Region) , Mongolia, Russia, Iran, Iraq(Turkmeneli), Syria and as immigrant communities in Australia, North America, Middle East and Western Europe(Germany, France, United Kingdom, Netherlands, Belgium, Sweden, Austria, Switzerland)
Languages

Turkic Languages, closely related to other Altaic languages.

Religion

Islam (predominantly), Christianity[1], Judaism[2], Buddhism[3], Shamanism, Tengriism, Atheism, Agnosticism and Syncretic religion.

The Turkic peoples (or simply Turks) are Eurasian peoples residing in northern, central and western Asia, Mongolia, southern Siberia and northwestern China and parts of eastern Europe. They speak languages belonging to the Turkic language family.[4] They share, to varying degrees, certain cultural traits and historical backgrounds. The term Turkic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of people including existing societies such as the Azerbaijani, Kazakhs, Tatar, Kyrgyz, Turkish, Turkmen, Uyghur, Uzbeks, and as well as past civilizations such as the Huns, Kumans, Avars, Seljuks, Khazars, Ottomans, Mamluks, Timurids, and possibly the Xiongnu.[4][5][6]

Demographics

The distribution of people of Turkic cultural background ranges from Siberia, across Central Asia, to Eastern Europe. Presently, the largest groups of Turkic people live throughout Central Asia—Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan, and Azerbaijan, in addition to Turkey. Additionally, Turkic people are found within Crimea, East Turkistan region of western China, northern Iraq, Iran, Pakistan, Israel, Russia, Afghanistan, Cyprus, and the Balkans: Moldova, Bulgaria, Romania, and former Yugoslavia. A small number of Turkic people also live in Vilnius, the capital of Lithuania. There is also a small number in eastern Poland and southeastern part of Finland.[7]. There are also considerable populations of Turkic people (originating mostly from Turkey) in Germany, United States, and Australia, largely because of migrations during the twentieth century.

Sometimes the above list is grouped into six branches: the Oghuz Turks, Kipchak, Karluk, Siberian, Chuvash, and Sakha/Yakut branches. The Oghuz have been termed Western Turks, while the remaining five, in such a classificatory scheme, are called Eastern Turks.

One of the major difficulties perceived by many who try to classify the various Turkic languages and dialects is the impact of Soviet and particularly Stalinist nationality policies—the creation of new national demarcations, suppression of languages and writing scripts, and mass deportations—had on the ethnic mix in previously multicultural regions like Khwarezm, the Fergana Valley, and Caucasia. Many of the above-mentioned classifications are therefore by no means universally accepted, either in detail or in general. Another aspect often debated is the influence of Pan-Turkism, and the emerging nationalism in the newly independent Central Asian republics, on the perception of ethnic divisions.

All the Turkic peoples native to Central Asia are of mixed Caucasoid and Mongoloid origin. Of these Central Asian Turks, Kazakhs and the Kyrgyz are closer to Mongoloids racially. Karakalpak are mixed almost evenly. Uighur in Xinjiang China, Uzbek and Turkmen are more close to Caucasoid. The genetic distances between the different populations of Uzbeks scattered across Uzbekistan is no greater than the distance between many of them and the Karakalpaks. This suggests that Karakalpaks and Uzbeks have very similar origins. The Karakalpaks have a somewhat greater bias towards the eastern markers than the Uzbeks. Reference: The Karakalpak Gene Pool (Spencer Wells, 2001) & Discussion and Conclusions at www.karakalpak.com/genetics.html

The Turkic people display a great variety of ethnic types.[8] They possess physical features ranging from Caucasoid to Northern Mongoloid. Mongoloid and Caucasoid facial structure is common among many Turkic groups, such as Chuvash people, Tatars, Kazakhs, Uzbeks, and Bashkirs. Historically, the racial classification of the Turkic peoples was sometimes given as "Turanid".

The following is an incomplete list of Turkic people with the respective groups's core areas of settlements and their estimated sizes (in million):

People region population
Turkish people

• Meskhetian Turks
• Syrian Turkmens
• Iraqi Turkmens

Turkey, Cyprus, Germany, France, England, USA, Bulgaria
Georgia
Syria
Iraq 90+ M
Azerbaijanis Azerbaijan Republic, Iran, Turkey, Russia, Georgia, Kazakhstan, Germany, Ukraine, Netherlands, UK 21 to 30 M
Uzbeks Uzbekistan, Afghanistan, Pakistan, Tajikistan, Kazakhstan, Kygyzstan, Turkmenistan 23 to 29 M
Uyghurs China, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkey, Germany, Norway, Sweden, Netherlands, Australia, Canada, United Kingdom, and United States. 11.37 M
Kazakhs Kazakhstan, Russia, China(Xinjiang), Uzbekistan, Pakistan, Turkey 14.3 M
Tatars Russia, Turkey, Ukraine, Uzbekistan, Finland, Poland, Lithuania 10 M
Turkmens Turkmenistan, Iraq, Pakistan, Iran, Afghanistan, 7 M
Kyrgyzs Kyrgyzstan, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Uzbekistan, China, Tajikistan 4 M
Chuvashes Russia 1.8 M
Bashkirs Russia 1.8 M
Qashqai Iran 1.5 M
Gagauzs Moldovia 0.2 M
Yakuts Russia 0.5 M
Karakalpaks Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Turkmenistan 0.5 M
Karachays and Balkars Russia, Turkey 0.4 M
Crimean Karaites and Krymchaks Lituania, Poland, Russia, Turkey 0.2 M

Geographical distribution

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Many of the Turkic peoples have their homelands in Central Asia, where the Turkic peoples originated. According to historian John Foster, "The Turks emerge from among the Huns in the middle of [the] fifth century. They were living in Liang territory when it began to be overrun by the greater principality of Wei. Preferring to remain under the rule of their own kind, they moved westward into what is now the province of Kansu. This was the territory of kindred Huns, who were called the Jwen-Jwen. The Turks were a small tribe of only five hundred families, and they became serfs to the Jwen-Jwen, who used them as iron-workers. It is thought that the original meaning of "Turk" is "helmet", and that they may have taken this name because of the shape of one of the hills near which they worked.... As their numbers and power grew, their chief made bold to ask for the hand of a Jwen-Jwen princess in marriage. The demand was refused, and war followed. In 546, the iron-workers defeated their overlords."[9] Since then Turkic languages have spread, through migrations and conquests, to other locations including present-day Turkey. While the term "Turk" may refer to a member of any Turkic people, the term Turkish usually refers specifically to the people and language of the modern country of Turkey.

The Turkic languages constitute a language family of some 30 languages, spoken across a vast area from Eastern Europe and the Mediterranean, to Siberia and Western China, and to northern edges of Pakistan and the Middle East.