Khirghiz People             

        Various allegations have been asserted about the origin and meaning of the name of Khirghiz. Within the Chinese resources, the Khirghiz people are mentioned with the names of K'i-ku, and Kien-kun. It has been known that they existed since the period of Huns (206 BC- 220 DC). In the period of the Asian Hun State, they had lived together with Ting-ling people that was a Turkish tribe within the environs of Irtish River in the west of Bai-kal in the north-west. However, Khirghiz people are indicated as a tribe of Turkish origin within the resources and they have been considered as one of the Tribes that became Turkish in the 5th-6th centuries. At the end of the 6th century, the Khirghiz people were cited as Hia-kia-sseu within the Chinese resources.

 

        It has been understood that they were submissive to the khanate in the period of the Gok-Turk ruler Mu-kan towards the year of 560. Pursuant to this period of dependence, they had an independent "kagan" (ruler) in the interregnum period of (630-680). Khirghiz people were again submissive to the Gok-Turk government in the period of the 2nd Gok-Turk Khanate. Then, Mo-yen-çur Kagan subdued them to the domination of the Uighur Khanate (758). However, they organised a severe raid in the year of 840 and abolished the Uighur State and they established their own state in Ötüken. However, they could not stay there for a long period.

 

         K'i-tan (Liao dynasty in China) people that captured the entire Turkestan in the year of 920 repulsed the Khirghiz people from the region of Ötüken and they drove back the Khirghiz people to their former homelands. It has been understood that K'i-tan people and Kara-Hitay people that constituted the continuation of them could not penetrate into the environs of Yenisey River. Since Jenghiz Khan wanted to unite the entire Mongolia under his own domination, he subdued the Khirghiz people in the course of his wars against Merkit and Nayman people (1207). Therefore, Khirghiz people were "the first Turkish tribe" that was submissive to Jenghiz Khan's Mongolians. Since they wanted to resist against the Mongolians in the year of 1217, they were repressed by Jenghiz's son, Coci who passed over the frozen Yenisey River.

 

         Henceforth, the Khirghiz people did not have any "hakan" (ruler) any longer. They survived in two branches that were annexed to the Tolui nation. The Khirghiz tribe that abolished the Uighur Khanate and captured Ötüken could not settle in his place and they caused to the capture of this region by the Mongolian K'i-tan people. Therefore, they led the "disappearance of the Orhun culture" that they could not comprehend and adopt at all. Thus, they caused the capture of the Turkish Rulers' homeland by the Mongolians and these homelands could not ever be recaptured again. All these negative roles that the Khirghiz tribe had played in the Turkish history were not neglected. As a matter of fact, the Karluk people had rejected the domination of Khirghiz people in Ötüken.