For Saka Rauka experts...

[Lusitani]

Hello all,

I was browsing through BBC news today and i got to this interesting article regarding Kazakhstan:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/world-asia-19508683

I have also been reading some books about the central asian peoples and their History and I always had the idea that Kazakh's were of turkic origin whereas the Saka Rauka were of Indo-Arian origin.

Can anyone enlighten me on this?

Thanks,

L.

[Tarkus]

Hmmmmm...the link takes me to an article about the recent fighting in Aleppo...?

[Lusitani]

Its corrected...

[mikepettyrtw]

The land that is Kazakstan today, used to be Saka_stan....
When the mongols invaded the region they exterminated all the Indo-Iranian peoples and founded the Chagtai (SP) Khanate of central Asia.
The Saka and the remainder of the Sythians only survived in a handfull of regions:
Most notably Russia; a good example of a Russianized Sythian is Mikhail Kutuzov:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mikhail_Illarionovich_Kutuzov
.... at least I think...
I recall reading in the book Memoirs of Napoleon Bonaparte by his personal secretary Baron C-F De Meneval, that throughout the book be refers to Kutuzov as a Sythian in Russian service or? a man of mixed Sythian decent. This I know as fact (That he said this), however, how truthful his statements were can be called into question; no mention of this is made in Wikipedia, however the factuality of that source too, can be called into question.

(Expert on Russian History)

Update:
Wikipedia claims this :

As Alexander had to choose a new general, there was only one choice: Kutuzov. He found popularity among the troops mainly because he was Russian (most of the generals commanding Russian troops at that time were foreign),
However, they may be refering to nation of birth, rather than ancestral backround.
With regards to Meneval's statement ( now I'm going a bit OT), I can so far as to site the page to which he refers to Kutuzov as a Russo-Sythian!

UPDATE 2
On a slightly related note, Wikipedia say's this about Kutuzov's mentor and one of the greatest generals of all time, the undefeated Alexander Suvorov :

Suvorov was born into a noble family originating from Novgorod at the Moscow mansion of his maternal grandfather Fedosey Manukov, landowner from Oryol gubernia and an official of Peter I. Hailing from an Armenian noble family originating from Novgorod at the Moscow mansion of his maternal grandfather Fedosey Manukov, (e.g. since "Manuk" is an Armenian name in the form of "Manukian" which when 'Russified' becomes Manukov), his family later "Russified." As part of the 'russification' process that ensued then, he and his family had to fostered Russian cognomen. Some of his ancestors had emigrated from Sweden in 1622.[2] His father, Vasiliy Suvorov, was a general-in-chief and a senator in the Governing Senate, and was credited with translating Vauban's works into Russian.[2]