WHERE DID THE TURKS ORIGINALLY FROM?

Answer 1

Answer 1

We are originally from Central Asia, near China.

Answer 2

Turks, Arabs, Magyars (Hungarians), and numerous other ethnic groups are not actually homogenous. They are composed of two historical groups that intermarried and created a unified culture. In the Turkish case, Oghuz Turks from what is now Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan conquered the Anatolia and parts of the Balkans and brought it under their rule. During that period, those Byzantine Greeks and Jugoslavs who converted to Islam began to take on the same mannerisms as the foreign Turks who had conquered them. They began to speak the same language, dress in the same clothes, and believe in the same general ideologies. This process is well-documented by the Turks and is called Turkification or Türkleşme in Turkish. This is why the Jewish and the Christian communities of the Seljuq and Ottoman Turkish Empires did not consider themselves to be Turks. Unlike their Anatolian brothers whose conversion to Islam made them more susceptible to Turkification, they retained their Byzantine ethnic sensibility. Therefore, although most citizens of Turkey believe that they are descended from the Oghuz Turks of Central Asia, the majority do not and should not have lineages that go back to Central Asia, but to pre-Turk ancestors in Anatolia region, likely Jews, Christians, and Pagans in the Byzantine Empire.

(In the Arab case, Arabians conquered numerous populations outside of Arabia and implemented Arabization or Ta3arib (تعريب) to turn numerous non-Arabs such as Levantines, Mesopotamians, Persians, and Amazigh into Arabs. Arabization was not much different than Turkification. The Magyars made the sedentary population of the Hungarian Empire into Hungarians through conversion to the Catholic Church and the proliferation of the Hungarian Language and customs.)

Answer 2

Answer 1

We are originally from Central Asia, near China.

Answer 2

Turks, Arabs, Magyars (Hungarians), and numerous other ethnic groups are not actually homogenous. They are composed of two historical groups that intermarried and created a unified culture. In the Turkish case, Oghuz Turks from what is now Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan conquered the Anatolia and parts of the Balkans and brought it under their rule. During that period, those Byzantine Greeks and Jugoslavs who converted to Islam began to take on the same mannerisms as the foreign Turks who had conquered them. They began to speak the same language, dress in the same clothes, and believe in the same general ideologies. This process is well-documented by the Turks and is called Turkification or Türkleşme in Turkish. This is why the Jewish and the Christian communities of the Seljuq and Ottoman Turkish Empires did not consider themselves to be Turks. Unlike their Anatolian brothers whose conversion to Islam made them more susceptible to Turkification, they retained their Byzantine ethnic sensibility. Therefore, although most citizens of Turkey believe that they are descended from the Oghuz Turks of Central Asia, the majority do not and should not have lineages that go back to Central Asia, but to pre-Turk ancestors in Anatolia region, likely Jews, Christians, and Pagans in the Byzantine Empire.

(In the Arab case, Arabians conquered numerous populations outside of Arabia and implemented Arabization or Ta3arib (تعريب) to turn numerous non-Arabs such as Levantines, Mesopotamians, Persians, and Amazigh into Arabs. Arabization was not much different than Turkification. The Magyars made the sedentary population of the Hungarian Empire into Hungarians through conversion to the Catholic Church and the proliferation of the Hungarian Language and customs.)