Turkic peoples

Not to be confused with Turkish people.

Turkic peoples
The distribution of the Turkic languages
Total population
Over 170 million[1]
Regions with significant populations
 Turkey60,000,000–65,000,000[2][3]
 Uzbekistan31,900,000[4][additional citation(s) needed]
 Iran15,000,000–20,000,000[5][6] (18% of population[7])
 Russia12,751,502[citation needed]
 Kazakhstan12,300,000[8][additional citation(s) needed]
 China13,500,000[9][additional citation(s) needed]
 Azerbaijan10,000,000[10][additional citation(s) needed]
European Union European Union5,876,318[citation needed] (Bulgaria 508,375[11])
 Afghanistan4,600,000–5,300,000 (2017)[12][13]
 Turkmenistan4,233,600[14][15][16][note 1]
 Kyrgyzstan4,500,000[19][additional citation(s) needed]
 Iraq3,000,000[20][21]
 Tajikistan1,200,000[22][additional citation(s) needed]
 United States1,000,000+[23]
 Syria800,000–1,000,000+[24]
 Ukraine398,600[25]
 Northern Cyprus313,626[26]
 Australia59,488[27] (Turkish)
 Mongolia135,618[28][29]
 Lebanon200,000[30][31][32][33]
 Moldova126,010[34]
 North Macedonia81,900[35][36]
Languages
Turkic languages
Religion
Various religions

The Turkic peoples are a collection of diverse ethnic groups of West, Central, East, and North Asia as well as parts of Europe, who speak Turkic languages.[37][38]

According to historians and linguists, the Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia,[39] potentially in Altai-Sayan region, Mongolia or Tuva.[40][41][42] Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later became nomadic pastoralists.[43] Early and medieval Turkic groups exhibited a wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such as Iranic, Mongolic, Tocharian, Uralic and Yeniseian peoples.[44]

Many vastly differing ethnic groups have throughout history become part of the Turkic peoples through language shift, acculturation, conquest, intermixing, adoption, and religious conversion.[1] Nevertheless, Turkic peoples share, to varying degrees, non-linguistic characteristics like cultural traits, ancestry from a common gene pool, and historical experiences.[1] Some of the most notable modern Turkic ethnic groups include the Altai people, Azerbaijanis, Chuvash people, Gagauz people, Kazakhs, Kyrgyz people, Turkmens, Turkish people, Tuvans, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, and Yakuts.

  1. ^ a b c Yunusbayev et al. 2015.
  2. ^ Garibova, Jala (2011), "A Pan-Turkic Dream: Language Unification of Turks", in Fishman, Joshua; Garcia, Ofelia (eds.), Handbook of Language and Ethnic Identity: The Success-Failure Continuum in Language and Ethnic Identity Efforts, Oxford University Press, p. 268, ISBN 978-0-19-983799-1, Approximately 200 million people,... speak nearly 40 Turkic languages and dialects. Turkey is the largest Turkic state, with about 60 million ethnic Turks living in its territories.
  3. ^ Hobbs, Joseph J. (2017), Fundamentals of World Regional Geography, Cengage, p. 223, ISBN 978-1-305-85495-6, The greatest are the 65 million Turks of Turkey, who speak Turkish, a Turkic language...
  4. ^ "Uzbekistan". Statistics Committee of the Republic of Uzbekistan. 19 August 2021. Retrieved 13 February 2022. "Population: 34,600,000 (January 2021 est.)" "Ethnic groups: Uzbek 84.6%, Russian 2.1%, Tajik 4.9%, Kazakh 2.4%, Karakalpak 2.2%, other 4.1% (2021 est.)" Assuming Uzbek, Kazakh and Karakalpak are included as Turks, 84.6% + 2.4% + 2.2% = 89.2%. 89.2% of 34.6m = 31.9m
  5. ^ "Azerbaijani (people)". Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 24 January 2012. (15 million)
  6. ^ Egbert Jahn, (2009). Nationalism in Late and Post-Communist Europe, p. 293 (20 mil)
  7. ^ Library of Congress – Federal Research Division – Country Profile: Iran, May 2008, page 5 [1]
  8. ^ "Kazakhstan". The World Factbook. Retrieved 21 December 2014. "Population: 17,948,816 (July 2014 est.)" "Ethnic groups: Kazakh (Qazaq) 63.1%, Russian 23.7%, Uzbek 2.9%, Ukrainian 2.1%, Uighur 1.4%, Tatar 1.3%, German 1.1%, other 4.4% (2009 est.)" Assuming Kazakh, Uzbek, Uighur and Tatar are included as Turks, 63.1% + 2.9% + 1.4% + 1.3% = 68.7%. 68.7% of 17.9m = 12.3m
  9. ^ "China". The World Factbook. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  10. ^ "Azerbaijan". The World Factbook. Retrieved 30 July 2016. "Population: 9,780,780 (July 2015 est.)"
  11. ^ "Census 2021: 84.6% of population define themselves as Bulgarians, 8.4% Turks, 4.4% Roma". 24 November 2022.
  12. ^ "Afghanistan". The World Factbook. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  13. ^ "Uzbeks and Turkmens – Minorities and indigenous peoples in Afghanistan". World Directory of Minorities and Indigenous Peoples. 19 June 2015.
  14. ^ Turner, B. (7 February 2017). The Statesman's Yearbook 2007: The Politics, Cultures and Economies of the World. Springer. p. 1238. ISBN 978-0-230-27135-7.
  15. ^ Leitner, Gerhard; Hashim, Azirah; Wolf, Hans-Georg (11 January 2016). Communicating with Asia: The Future of English as a Global Language. Cambridge University Press. p. 241. ISBN 978-1-107-06261-0.
  16. ^ Dresser, Norine (7 January 2011). Multicultural Manners: Essential Rules of Etiquette for the 21st Century. Wiley. p. 270. ISBN 978-1-118-04028-7.
  17. ^ "Unpublished Census Provides Rare and Unvarnished Look at Turkmenistan". Jamestown.
  18. ^ "First (actual) demographic data for Turkmenistan released". www.asianews.it.
  19. ^ "Kyrgyzstan". The World Factbook. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  20. ^ Triana, María (2017), Managing Diversity in Organizations: A Global Perspective, Taylor & Francis, p. 168, ISBN 978-1-317-42368-3
  21. ^ Bassem, Wassim (2016). "Iraq's Turkmens call for independent province". Al-Monitor. Archived from the original on 17 October 2016.
  22. ^ "Tajikistan". The World Factbook. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  23. ^ "Obama, recognize us". St. Louis American. Archived from the original on 5 September 2014. Retrieved 18 March 2015.
  24. ^ Nahost-Informationsdienst (ISSN 0949-1856): Presseausschnitte zu Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in Nordafrika und dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten. Autors: Deutsches Orient–Institut; Deutsches Übersee–Institut. Hamburg: Deutsches Orient–Institut, 1996, seite 33.
  25. ^ "All-Ukrainian population census 2001 – General results of the census – National composition of population". State Statistics Committee of Ukraine. 2003. Retrieved 2 September 2017.
  26. ^ TRNC SPO, Economic and Social Indicators 2014, pages=2–3
  27. ^ Michael, Michális (29 April 2016). Reconciling Cultural and Political Identities in a Globalized World: Perspectives on Australia-Turkey Relations. Springer. p. 29. ISBN 978-1-137-49315-6.
  28. ^ "Mongolia". The World Factbook. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  29. ^ "2020 POPULATION AND HOUSING CENSUS OF MONGOLIA /summary/". Archived from the original on 15 July 2021.
  30. ^ Al-Akhbar. "Lebanese Turks Seek Political and Social Recognition". Archived from the original on 20 June 2018. Retrieved 2 March 2012.
  31. ^ "Tension adds to existing wounds in Lebanon". Today's Zaman. Archived from the original on 11 January 2012. Retrieved 6 April 2011.
  32. ^ Ahmed, Yusra (2015), Syrian Turkmen refugees face double suffering in Lebanon, Zaman Al Wasl, archived from the original on 23 August 2017, retrieved 11 October 2016
  33. ^ "Syria's Turkmen Refugees Face Cruel Reality in Lebanon". Syrian Observer. 2015. Retrieved 10 October 2016.
  34. ^ "2017 Anuarul Statisitc al Republicii Moldova" (PDF) (in Romanian). Biroul Național de Statistică al Republicii Moldova. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  35. ^ "North Macedonia". The World Factbook. Retrieved 13 May 2014.
  36. ^ "Census of Population, Households and Dwellings in the Republic of Macedonia, 2002" (PDF). Republic of Macedonia State Statistical Office. Retrieved 23 April 2022.
  37. ^ Encyclopedia Britannica. Turkic peoples. "Turkic peoples, any of various peoples whose members speak languages belonging to the Turkic subfamily..."
  38. ^ Yunusbayev et al. 2015, p. 1. "The Turkic peoples represent a diverse collection of ethnic groups defined by the Turkic languages."
  39. ^ Uchiyama et al. 2020: "Most linguists and historians agree that Proto-Turkic, the common ancestor of all ancient and contemporary Turkic languages, must have been spoken somewhere in Central-East Asia (e.g. Róna-Tas, Reference Róna-Tas1991, p. 35; Golden, Reference Golden1992, pp. 124–127; Menges, Reference Menges1995, pp. 16–19)."
  40. ^ Golden 2011, pp. 37–38.
  41. ^ Uchiyama et al. 2020: "The ultimate Proto-Turkic homeland may have been located in a more compact area, most likely in Eastern Mongolia"
  42. ^ Lee & Kuang 2017: "The best candidate for the Turkic Urheimat would then be northern and western Mongolia and Tuva, where all these haplogroups could have intermingled, rather than eastern and southern Mongolia..."
  43. ^ Uchiyama et al. 2020:"To sum up, the palaeolinguistic reconstruction points to a mixed subsistence strategy and complex economy of the Proto-Turkic-speaking community. It is likely that the subsistence of the Early Proto-Turkic speakers was based on a combination of hunting–gathering and agriculture, with a later shift to nomadic pastoralism as an economy basis, partly owing to the interaction of the Late Proto-Turkic groups with the Iranian-speaking herders of the Eastern Steppe."
  44. ^
    • Lee 2023, p. 4: "It should also be noted that even the early Turkic peoples, including the Tiele and the Türks, were made up of heterogeneous elements. Importantly, DNA studies demonstrate that the expansion process of the Turkic peoples involved the Turkicization of various non-Turkic-speaking groups. The “Turks” intermixed with and Turkicized various indigenous groups across Eurasia: Uralic hunter-gatherers in northern Eurasia; Mongolic nomads in Mongolia; Indo-European-speaking nomads and sedentary populations in Xinjiang, Transoxiana, Iran, Kazakhstan, and South Siberia; and Indo-European elements (the Byzantine subjects, among others) in Anatolia and the Balkans.11"
    • Findley 2005, p. 18: "Moreover, Turks do not all physically look alike. They never did. The Turks of Turkey are famous for their range of physical types. Given the Turks' ancient Inner Asian origins, it is easy to imagine that they once presented a uniform Mongoloid appearance. Such traits seem to be more characteristic in the eastern Turkic world; however, uniformity of type can never have prevailed there either. Archeological evidence indicates that Indo-Europeans, or certainly Europoid physical types, inhabited the oases of the Tarim basin, Dzungaria, and even parts of Mongolia in ancient times. In the Tarim basin, persistence of these former inhabitants' genes among the modern Uyghurs is both observable and scientifically demonstrable.32 Early Chinese sources describe the Kirghiz as blue-eyed and blond or red-haired. The genesis of Turkic ethnic groups from earliest times occurred in confederations of diverse peoples. As if to prove the point, the earliest surviving texts in Turkic languages are studded with terms from other languages."
    • Golden, Peter B. (25 July 2018). "The Ethnogonic Tales of the Türks". The Medieval History Journal. 21 (2): 291–327. doi:10.1177/0971945818775373. ISSN 0971-9458. S2CID 166026934."Some DNA tests point to the Iranian connections of the Ashina and Ashide,133 highlighting further that the Turks as a whole 'were made up of heterogeneous and somatically dissimilar populations'.134 Geographically, the accounts cover the regions of Inner Mongolia, Gansu, Xinjiang, the Yenisei zone and the Altay, regions with Turkic, Indo-European (Iranian [Saka] and Tokharian), Yeniseic, Uralic and other populations. Wusun elements, like most steppe polities of an ethno-linguistic mix, may have also played a substratal role."
    • Lee & Kuang 2017: "Both Chinese histories and modern dna studies indicate that the early and medieval Turkic peoples were made up of heterogeneous populations"


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