Ethnic make-up of Turks

Anatolia -- Anadolu -- the plateau upon such cities as Konya and Ankara lay. Scrubby and relatively dry, but quite liveable nevertheless. I'm not talking about Asia Minor as a whole, eh?

And you, knowing a whole lot about Byzantine history, probably know that the armies of the Eastern Roman empire were mainly made up of Isaurians, Cappadocians and Armenians, concerning the 'professional' part (talking post-Heraklios here). Sure, the Greeks had a pretty sizeable portion, but they were mostly the officer corps.

And consider the fact that hillmen were quite capable of holding on to their ancient ways, throughout history -- they remained essentially independent from the Achaemenids, Alexander, the Diadochi, the Parthians, and only were incorporated under the Romans and for a sizeable deal under the Sassanids.



~Wiz

Ah, right! The Anatolian plateu. Alright then, I thought you talked about Asia Minor as a whole.

Yes, it is a rather strong fact that the bulk of the Byzantine armies (from Heraclios onwards) consisted of the various Anatolians (as: the inhabitants of Asia Minor), hellenized/romanized or not. Not just the hillmen, though. And, not only the professional part, the best thematic troops came from Asia Minor as well. That's why when Byzantium lost hold of that areas, it came into a decline that could not be reversed.

Agreed. When they lost the access to the Armenians, numerous nomadic soldiers that were nearby, and the native Anatolians, they never really did recover.

Turkish history is believed to grow in Anatolia by the Malazgirt victory of Alparslan against Rome in 1071 which led to the fall of Anatolia later into Turks (Seljuks) hands.

We come from Asian ethnicity but as many others said, we are not Mongoloid. They are short, chunky people with pressed-looking noses. The Asian originated Turks are middle sized. They are also said to carry Mongolenfleck - a shadowy blackish-purplish fleck at the end of the spiral column of new-born babies that disappear in 6 -18 months. Also there is another physical distinction which is a bump of bone at the back of a Turk's skull. What's more, the racist Turks use this method secretly (e.g. when greeting each other) to identify if it is a pure Turk or not. (Oops! I have one.)

However, there is such a mix of population in Anadolu that it would be crazy to make such identifications and distinguishments.For example I have hazel eyes, moderate lips, long arms and legs. However, this is another identification of Turk - not an Asian one. Have a look at Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's photos - the founder of Turkey. His father's and mother's family were both of "Yoruk"s. "Yoruks" were pure Turks that wandered plateaus who did raising cattles, sheeps etc. for a living. I am a Yoruk as well and was born in lands that Mustafa Kemal Ataturk's father was originated from (Aydin, next to Izmir - Smyrna). His mother's descendants are of Karamans, which was the most powerful opposing Turkish force when Ottomans were a minor state in Anatolia.

Kurd Issue is a very complicated part of the story (I read some lines about Kurds, that's why i am mentioning them here..) :

Kurds are nearly the one fourth population in Turkey. They gain financial and trade power everywhere and anywhere they want - illegally if necessary, they do not hesitate to. There are Kurdish artists, singers everywhere. Many of them have been parliamenters ever since. Even one of them (Turgut Ozal) achieved to be the president who was a former prime minister (Prime ministers are the focus mans to have the political influence, not presidents). Their unemployed population flocked from East to western cities. That simply led to serious corruption in western cities. That increased so much hatred between two societies. Actually I hate Kurds as a society, that's something related with them coming here and turning my social security and peace upside-down. I really would not be mixed up with a Kurd. Most of the emigrants called Turks in Europe are actually Kurds. They may carry corruption to where they live, and as a Turk I and my descendants have never been means of corruption in some place, either we lived in or we conquered.

I tried to be open and to avoid offensive words against Kurds at the same time. But if you want to know why we are battling continuously, they should be questioned about the terror organziation they adore - PKK - who led 30000 Turks death since 1984 and the insane corruption they did as well as we are being questioned about their well-being and, so called, assimilation.

We are maniac barbarians that continuosuly assimilate and wreck down minorities. If anyone wants to believe, let him. :D

(Mustafa Kemal organized meetings before the act of Independence War in '20s. One of the major ones was held in Erzurum and half of the representatives were Kurds)

And I should add that the government in '20s needed identities to ignite the wiling of liberty of a nation. If they were somehow intended to be fascist, they had to do that.

Izmir, where I live, still has so many Turk-ish Greeks which was one of the cities that held the most non-Turkish populations in the past. We right now live in peace although the corruption is growing tremendously.

Actually, most of the modern Turks descend from Turkish immigrants which arrived in great waves after the Mongols entered the Middle East. The Turks had settled sporadically in between Manzikert (Malazgirt) and the second half of the 13th century in Anatolia and further West, which had been depopulated as the native population was constantly raided and fled to uninhabitable, harsh territory to escape from these raids, coming from the Pontic and Cappadocian highlands, where the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum was located.

Only when this great Turkish tide came, did the Byzantines finally lose power over their Asian possessions, just when Nicaea had been a powerful bastion of Byzantine strength. That, and the terrible inactiveness that was the rule of Andronicus II.



~Wiz