It is a well-known fact that one or several races
contributed to the formation of some races in ethnical aspects. Gagauz people should not
be excluded from this generalisation. Although the historical and scientific evidences
showed that the core group of the ethnical structure of Gagauz people was composed of Oguz
people, there have been various different theories alleged in the course of history.
Regarding the aspects of language, culture, history, ethnography and anthropology, the
ethnical outcome of Gagauz people coincides with the same period of Pecenek, Oguz and
Kuman people.
The interpretations about the ethnical identities of
Gagauz people that were stated in Turkish, Bulgarian, Romanian and Russian languages
include separate and different explanations. While some called them as Greek or
Bulgarians, some named them as the pure Turks or the descendants of Seljuks. Similarly,
some called them as Kuman or Pecenek people and some of them considered these people as a
group composed of the synthesis of all these nations. Dimitrov points out that there were
19 different theories about the ethnical origin of Gagauz people.
Moskov advocates that
Gagauz people were rooted from Oguz Turks. Turker Acaroglu is also convinced that Gagauz
people are the relatives of Oguz people. In his book titled as the Bulgarians' History
written in 1878, İreçek states that the origin of Gagauz people was complicated, but he
believed that these people had organic relations with Kuman people. İreçek states that
Gagauz people cannot be the descendants of the Seljuk Turks; since they had come to
Dobruca under the leadership of İzzeddin Keykavus, the Seljuk ruler, stayed there for a
short period, and then immigrated to the Kipchak lands. İreçek underlines the reality
that Gagauz people constituted an original nation.
Radlof states that Gagauz people were among the nations that are the members of Altay
family.
Moskov has stated that
Gagauz people did not have any Kuman roots since Kuman people were assimilated with
Tatars. Moşkov opposed to İriçek from this point of view and emphasised that Gagauz
people were of the pure Oguz lineage. Manof names the Gagauz people as the Christian Oguz
people. Cakır rejects the relations of Gagauz people with Seljuks and Kuman people.With a
more dialectic approach, Kowalski is convinced that the outcome of Gagauz people as a
nation took place in three periods depending on different elements:
1. The oldest category was the
descendants of a Turkish community that came from the north.
2. The second category was composed of a southern Turkish community that
pertains to the period before the arrival of Ottomans in the region.
3. The newest category was composed of the Turkish colonies of the
Ottomans in the region.
According to Kowalski,
Gagauz people did not have a mono-ethnical identity, and they had a mixed ethnical
structure in the course of the history.
The traces of the
linguistic character from the south were totally reflected in the first and second
category. The origin of the Christianity of Gag people is rooted beyond Tuna. The adoption
of Islam by Deliorman Turks that have several common characteristics with Gagauz people
was rooted from the second and third categories from the south.
The inconsistency
between the theories about the ethnical identity and history of Gagauz people has effected
the demography of Gagauz people. In the censuses of 1817, 1835, 1851 and 1859, Gagauz
people were registered as Bulgarians in the records. However, after the year of 1897,
Gagauz people have been considered as a different nation in the censuses carried out
within the region. In the period of Soviet Union, the fact that Gagauz people was an
original nation was not neglected and this approach was reflected in all sorts of official
documents such as the statistics, state registries, reference books, identity cards, and
electoral cards. The Great Soviet Encyclopedia defines the Gagauz people as a nation that
inherited the language and traditions of Oguz people. Gagauz people were also introduced
in the book titled as "European Peoples of the USSR" published in Moscow in the
year of 1954 and the relevant information was given about their ethnical, cultural and
social lives. Similarly, the Moldavia Encyclopedia defines Gagauz people an original
nation.
"Gag people do
not have Greek roots, but they had pretended to be the Greeks that became Turks in order
to provide the appropriation of their nation among the Greeks, Romanians and Moldavians,
Byzantine Greek and Fanariyots. As a matter of fact, the Gagauz people did not even
resemble to the Byzantine Greeks in respect of their traditions, physiognomy, natures and
characters. Gag people are not the Bulgarians that became Turkish, either. On the
contrary, they do not even use the word of Bulgarian, they use the name of
"Tukan" instead. For example, if there were some Byzantine Greeks and Bulgarians
in a Gagauz village, it was so easy to point at these Bulgarians or Byzantine Greeks since
they were so different than Gagauz people were. There were some Byzantine Greeks and
Bulgarians that became Turks and Gagauz among Gagauz people. But it has never been
possible to find a Gagauz that had become a Greek or Bulgarian.
A famous Gagauz poem
exhibits significant clues about how Gagauz people considered themselves:
Ben kimsesiz kaldım
(I have become a
desolate forlorn)
İsmini bilmeer
(They
do not know my name)
Ne olduğumu bilmezler
(They do not know who I
am)
Ben Türk evladı vatansız kaldılar (I, the
Turkish child have lost my homeland)
Bana Urum Tukan derler
(I am called as Urum
Tukan)
Türklüğümü hep çekerler (gizlerler) (They
always reveal my Turkish identity)
Vatanım da vardır
(I
have my homeland)
Soyum kanım Türktür
(I am from the Turkish
lineage)
Ama bilmezler
(But
they do not know)
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