Turkic Cultures

Turkic Cultures
including Tartar, Bashkir, Chuvashes, and Uyghur
General Information

The Turkic peoples are a collection of ethnic groups that live in north, east, central and western Asia, northwestern China and parts of Eastern Europe. The term Turkic represents a broad ethno-linguistic group of peoples including existing societies such as the Turkish people, Azerbaijanis, Chuvashes, Kazakhs, Tatars, Kyrgyz, Turkmens, Uyghurs, Uzbeks, Bashkirs, Qashqai, Gagauz, Yakuts,CrimeanKaraites, Krymchaks, Karakalpaks, Karachays, Balkars, and Nogais.
The Turkic languages are a language family of at least 35 languages, spoken by Turkic peoples across Southeastern Europe, the Mediterranean to Siberia and Western China. Turkic languages are spoken as a native language by 170 million people. The Turkic language with the greatest number of speakers is Turkish proper, spoken mainly in Anatolia and the Balkans. Characteristic features of Turkish, such as vowel harmony, agglutination, and lack of grammatical gender, are universal within the Turkic family. There is also a high degree of mutual intelligibility among the various Oghuz languages, which include Turkish, Azerbaijani, Turkmen, Qashqai, Gagauz, Balkan Gagauz Turkish and Oghuz-influenced Crimean Tatar
Etymology. There are many uses of the word "turk" in ancient Persian literature, however the exact origin of the word is unknown. One theory is that it means "strength" in Turkish. Another idea is that it has its roots in Old Turkic: Turmak (durmak, to stand, to rise, to remain steadfast), and Türemek (to sprout, to multiply, to propagate, to spread). It is sometimes said that "Turk" means the tent these people used when they had a nomadic life. It is also possibly from the Persian meaning "not dark". Other theories are that it means "a beautiful youth," "a barbarian," or "a robber."
History. The first Turkic people probably lived between Central Asia and Siberia with the majority of them living in China. Turkic tribes, such as Khazars and Pechenegs, probably lived as nomads for many years before establishing the Göktürk Empire or Mongolia in the 6th century. The first mention of Turks was in a Chinese text that mentioned trade with Turk tribes along the Silk Road.
Turkic People of the Steppe. The steppes have been inhabited since the bronze age by organized societies whose history is not well known. These nomads did not leave physical traces (cities, forts, castles, temples, monuments, etc.) like the peoples who led a more sedentary life did. The history of the steppe tribes is very complex, turkic and mongol people united to form new tribes. The turkic tribes included the Tatars, Yakuts, Khazars, Uyghurs, Göktürks, and Nogay, to name a few.
T atar. The Tatars are found in every former republic of the former Soviet Union. Most of them live around the Volga region. Others inhabit Azerbaijan, Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Belarus, Ukraine, and other Central Asian regions. Most of the Tatar are Hanafite Muslim. Many Tatar still honor pre-Islamic saints and holy places, celebrate the agricultural cycles, believe in supernatural powers (such as the "evil eye"), and sabantuy, or "rites of spring." These celebrations have their origins in Shamanism. This led to formation of a distinctive Muslim culture, in which the elements of Muslim orthodoxy mixed with religious tolerance formed a relatively liberal society.
The Turks in Bulgaria are descendants of Turkic settlers as well as Bulgarian converts to Islam who became Turkified during the centuries of Ottoman rule. It has also been suggested that some Turks living today in Bulgaria may be direct ethnic descendants of earlier medieval Pecheneg, Oğuz, and Cuman Turkic tribes. This community differs from the majority Bulgarian ethnicity and the rest of the Bulgarian nation by its own language, religion, culture, customs, and traditions.

Statistics for the Turkic People

Population
Uzbekistan 26,000,000 (92% of population)

Russia 12,009,969 (8.41% of population)
Kazakstan 12,000,000 (75% of population)

Azerbaijan   9,047,000 (96.7% of population)

Turkmenistan  4,500,000 (90% of population)

Kyrgyzstan 4,500,000 (90% of population)

Tajikistan 1,200,000 (20% of population)

Bulgaria   600,000-800,000

Ukraine 275,300
Moldova   158,300
Macedonia 77,959
Tatars In Russia: 5,375,000
Tatar Population all Countries: 6,607,000
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Adoption Facts About Turkic Children in Eastern Europe and Central Asia

Up until recently legal adoption of children has been a foreign concept to many Turkic cultures. Traditionally orphaned children were fostered, sent to the military, or given into servitude.
Many Turkic cultures feel that it is important that a Turkic child be raised in Turkic culture. Therefore many Turkic cultures encourage adoption by families with traditional Muslim values.
Tatars do not usually allow their children with special needs to be raised by the state.
Many of the children in the "Social Homes" of Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan are of Turkic heritage. Others are of Asian or Tungusic heritage (see Asian and Tungusic Siberian Cultures)
Among the children who were adopted and brought to the USA from various regions of Russia, there are Tatar, Bashkir and Chuvash children. The children's homes in Mordovia, however, do not appear to have any children of Tartar heritage.

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