Gagauz

On the origin of the Gagauz there are many different hypotheses:

• The ancestors of the Gagauz are Turkic-speaking peoples: Oguzes , Pechenegs , Cumans .
• Seljuk theory: the Gagauz are descendants of the Seljuk Turks who settled in Dobruja in the XIII century and founded the Oguz state together with the Polovtsy .
• Gagauz - the descendants of the Turks Bulgar ^{[8] [9]}
• The Gagauz are the descendants of the Turkic-speaking Bulgars , who migrated in the 7th century from the banks of the Volga to the Balkans and adopted Christianity in the 9th century. Modern linguistic rationale has not.

Genetic background

The last study of the genetic component, conducted with Gagauz from different settlements, did not provide a clear clarity about their origin. Researchers have noted that genetically Gagauz are extremely heterogeneous. In one sample, the Balkan roots were found among the Gagauz and in the other, the Turkic (Seljuq) roots ^{[10] [11]} . This is noticeable in the external, physical features of the Gagauz. Gagauzes belong to the Y-DNA haplogroup I2 (23.6%), R1a (19.1%), G (13.5%), R1b (12.4%), E1b1b1a (11.1%), J2 (5.6%) and N (2.2%). Phylogenetic analysis of Y-DNA indicates the greatest affinity of the Gagauz with the Macedonians , Bulgarians , Serbs and other Balkan peoples. A detailed study of the haplotypes revealed some links between the Gagauz and Turkish branches, which gives some confirmation of the Seljuk ^[10] hypothesis.

It is logical to assume that the unifying factors of the formation of the Gagauz as a people were the Turkic language and the Christian religion, which distinguished them from the rest of the Balkans . The authors of the study also hypothesize that the Turkic language is a borrowing, and the ancestors of the Gagauz are the indigenous people of the Balkans ^[11] . This hypothesis raises many questions: if we assume that the Gagauz language was borrowed, it is not entirely clear from whom. Indeed, despite its proximity to the Turkish and southern dialects of the Crimean Tatar language, the Gagauz language differs significantly from them grammatically, lexically and semantically. Thus, he discovers in himself the unique elements of other Turkic languages, with which the Gagauz could not directly contact.

On the example of the Azerbaijani language , these are more similar forms of verbs in the present tense and the complete absence of the present for a long time, as in Turkish (-yor). Also, the Gagauzians, unlike the Turks, do not use the sound “ğ” replacing it with the sound “g” or double vowel ^[12] , which brings the Gagauz language to the Tuvan language, and the distinctive form of the Gagauz infinitive with the ending for -maa / mää is a unique phenomenon among all languages ​​of the Turkic group.

All this suggests that the ancestors of the Gagauz could be Turkic nomads who arrived in the Balkans from the northern Black Sea region around the X century and dissolved among the local population ^[13] , which explains the proximity of the Gagauz with the Balkan peoples.

Due to the fact that today there are no historical documents dating back to the XIX century, where the name of the Gagauz people would be mentioned, the history of the Gagauz is still the subject of controversy among historians. The following are the main assumptions:

XIII century (1259-1320) - the period of Christianization of the Turkic ancestors of the Gagauz in the Balkan Peninsula , which was possible mainly as a result of many years of missionary activity of the legendary Sarah Saltyk , who in various Balkan legends is identified with such Christian saints as St. George, St. Ilya, the saint , Saint Simeon, Saint Naum or Saint Spyridon.

XIV century (1320-1347) - the ancestors of the Gagauz were in the independent Bulgarian Karvun principality under the leadership of the Turkic-speaking Christian of the Kypchak origin Balik Bey. Karvun land (Karvunum Terra) was located in the north-east of today's Bulgaria with its center in the town of Karvuna.

XIV century (1347-1400) - Gagauz in the independent Bulgarian Dobrudzhansky principality under the leadership of Dobrich (son of Balyk), and after him c 1386 Ivanko (son of Dobrich). Dobrudja is now the geographic region of northeastern Bulgaria and southeastern Romania.

XIV — XIX century (1400–1812) - Gagauz inside the Ottoman Empire , in the same Dobrudja, whose territory is mentioned in the Ottoman historical documents under the name Uz Eyaleti, which means “province of the people of Uzes” in Russian.

According to population statistics within the Ottoman Empire, dated 1597, the city of Varna lived in:

• Turkic Christians - 582 houses,
• Turks Muslims - 410 houses,
• Greeks - 120 houses,
• Copts - 31 home.

Since according to these statistics there are no Bulgarians among the peoples living in Varna in 1597, it follows that the Bulgarians began to settle in Varna relatively recently. Another conclusion is that the title people of the city of Varna were the Gagauz, since in the Balkan peninsula only Gagauz are the Turkic-speaking Christians.

At the end of the 18th and the beginning of the 19th century, due to the weakening of the Ottoman Empire, the territory of the Balkan Peninsula actually fell into anarchy . This period is known in the history of the Balkans as Kyrgyz Republic , according to the gangs of Kardzhaly , who terrorized the peoples of the Balkan Peninsula. In connection with this phenomenon, and also due to the fact that the Balkans had been fighting for many years between the Russian and Ottoman empires, and Russia offered favorable living conditions in Bessarabia , some of the peasants , including some of the Gagauz population, emigrated from Balkan Peninsula to the territory of Bessarabia.

The main part of the Gagauz who did not migrate to Bessarabia was further divided within the borders of historical Dobrudja between Romania and Bulgaria and was gradually assimilated into Romanians and Bulgarians, respectively.

XIX — XX century (1812-1917) - emigrated Gagauz in the Russian Empire in the territory of Bessarabia.

XX century:

• January 1906 - the independent Comrat Republic was proclaimed in Bessarabia, which lasted 5 days.
• 1918-1940 - Gagauzians found themselves on the territory of Romania due to the unification of Bessarabia with Romania.
• 1940-1941 - The USSR, under the Ribbentrop-Molotov Pact, departs Bessarabia (entered Akkerman Oblast, renamed Izmail Oblast from 7 December 1940) with a part of the compact Gagauz population.

In August 1940, the Moldavian Soviet Socialist Republic (MSSR) was formed from the Moldavian ASSR. Most of the Gagauz were in its territory

• 1941-1944 - the period of the Second World War . The territory of Bessarabia was part of Romania.
• 1944 - 1990 - Gagauz in the MSSR .
• 08/19/1990 - 12/23/1994 - the period of the unrecognized Republic of Gagauzia .
• from 12.23.1994 - to the present, most of the Gagauz people live on the territory of the Autonomous Territorial Unit of Gagauzia within Moldova . A smaller part of the Gagauz people still live on the territory of modern Bulgaria in the region of South Dobrudja, but the younger generation speaks predominantly Bulgarian.

Gagauz in the XIX — XX centuries.

The encyclopedic dictionary of Brockhaus and Efron , published at the end of the 19th - beginning of the 20th centuries, calls the Gagauz Turks Bulgarian and notes that "they are Orthodox, but on the days of church holidays they make Kurbans - a kind of pagan sacrifice" ^[14] . Describing the ethnic composition of the population of the Bulgarian city of Varna , ESBE reports:

Varna is one of the Bulgarian seaside cities in which many Greeks live; the latter constitute more than ⅓ of the total number of residents of the city, and so-called Gagauz are considered to be themselves - descendants of ancient Kumans, believed to be Orthodox, but speaking Turkish ^[15] .

After the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in the war with Russia of 1877–78, Bulgaria gained the right of administrative autonomy within the Ottoman Empire.

Statistics of the population of the Gagauz in the city of Varna and its surroundings until 1878:

• In 1871, in the Bulgarian Fatherland newspaper (No. 85), Gradeloshiev writes that the majority of the population of Varna is Gagauz.
• In 1876 Irechek writes that throughout the region adjacent to Varna, the number of capable men paying taxes is 21,359 people, and most of them are Gagauz.

Statistics of the Gagauz population in Varna after 1878 (Gradeshliyov statistics):

• 1880 - 12,000 people
• 1905 - 10,175 people
• 1910 - 9329 people
• 1920 - 3669 people

According to the census of 1897, in the Bessarabian province, Gagauz made up 2.9% of the population ^[16] .

In 1990, the Republic of Gagauzia was proclaimed in the places of compact residence of the Gagauz in the territory of Bessarabia, which was peacefully reintegrated after four years. On December 23, 1994, autonomy was formed as part of Moldova - the Autonomous Territorial Formation of Gagauzia ^[17] .

The Gagauz language belongs to the Oguz subgroup of the southwestern branch of the Turkic languages . Gagauz language has two dialects - Chadyrlung-Comrat (central) and Volcanesh (southern).

The main differences between the central and southern dialects were identified. In the field of phonetics:

1. The degree of use of front vowels ä and e.

In the central dialect, the vowel ä appears regularly in the final open syllable of names and verb forms (for example: gecä 'night') and in affixes under the stress after the basics with front vowels (köklär 'roots', evdän evä 'from house to house', gidän "leaving", gidärdi "he left", etc.). In the southern dialect, the vowel ä in these cases corresponds to the vowel e (maale, gece, hergele / kökler, evden eve, giden, giderdi).

2. Variants of personal pronouns of the 1st and 2nd person singular. Bän [b'an] // sän [s'an] in the central dialect and ben // sen in the southern dialect.

3. The use of long vowels ää and her at the end of the word. In Comrat-Chadyr dialect, a long vowel ää is used, for example: gezmää 'walk', gülmää 'laugh', gözçääz 'peephole', köpää 'dog' (date, v. P. As a result of the loss of a consonant k between vowels), a in the Volcanesht dialect in the same position is a long vowel: gezmee, gülmee, gözçeez, köpee.

4. The degree of influence of the consonant y (iot) and affricates with (je) on previous broad vowels a and e.

In Comrat and Chadir-Lung dialects, the vowels a, e in front of the middle linguistic spirant in (iot) and the affricate with (dj) are narrowed and reduced, in the Volcanesti dialect this phenomenon is expressed very weakly (Cf .: burdêim - burdayım 'I am here', sob '') - sobayı 'stove' (vin.p.), alıcek - alacak 'he will take', gidicek (gicek) - gidecek 'he will go', etc.

5. The fallout of the final r in the affix of the plural in the southern dialect and its preservation in the central dialect: For example: Kızla (r) topladıla (r) çiçek da ördüle (r) fene. "Girls gathered flowers and woven a wreath."

6. The loss of the consonant h at the beginning of the word.

The consonant h, sounding in the Gagauz language as a slight aspiration, falls in the Volcanesht dialect and is preserved in the Comrat-Chadira. For example: (h) ava 'weather', (h) ayvan 'animal', (h) asta 'sick', and so on.

In general, when comparing data from the central and southern dialects, the southern dialect seems to be more archaic and more consistently preserving the features of the structure of the Turkic languages.

In the Soviet period, Gagauz culture also developed. The Cyrillic alphabet was created, dictionaries, school textbooks, books were published: “Legend of God” (Legends of Legends, 1974 ), “Uzun Kervan” (Long Caravan, 1985 ), “Zhanavar Yortulari” (Wolf Holidays, 1990 ) and many others .

Until the mid-20th century, the Gagauz language remained unwritten. July 30, 1957 a decree of the Presidium of the Supreme Soviet of the Moldavian SSR introduced writing for the Gagauz language based on the Russian graphic ^[18] . Currently, an alphabet based on Latin graphics is officially used.

Clothing

At the end of the 19th century, women wore a linen shirt, a sleeveless dress with an apron, and a large black scarf (than crown) over a thin white scarf (fashion). In winter, they wore a dress with sleeves, a cloth jacket and a fur sleeveless jacket. Mandatory earrings, bracelets, beads, including a necklace of gold coins (elevator). Men's clothing: shirt, wide woolen pants, wide red belt (sash), hat - in summer, astrakhan fur hat (kalpak) - in winter. In shepherds, a regular shirt was combined with sheepskin pants (bags) with fur inside; a fur sleeveless jacket and a short sheepskin jacket (kurk), sometimes decorated with red or green stitching.

National Cuisine

An important place in nutrition was occupied by bread, made from unleavened and yeast dough. Bread cakes are considered one of the ancient bread products. Sour dough was used to make pies (karmyarik), inside which there was brynza, cabbage, and curd, fried in butter. There were also popular puff pastry cakes made from unleavened dough with cheese and cottage cheese filling (pidä / pide, kivirma, plaçinta, kirdä) ^[19] .

Of the meat dishes, kaurma is distinguished - roasted lamb or pork with giblets, seasoned with dill, parsley and other herbs. Of pork or chicken heads and legs cooked aspic was paça (pacha). Under the general name manca (manja), there are known various kinds of sauces — onion sauce, sorrel sauce, cream sauce, egg sauce with cheese, and others ^[20] .

Religion

The ancestors of the Gagauz, like all nomadic Turkic peoples, were probably Tengrians . Christianization (Greek Orthodoxy) of the Balkan Turkic part was slow and painful. Up until the end of the 20th century, the Gagauz kept some pagan rituals, such as the “Pipirud” (butterfly) - the ritual of causing rain. Often these rituals were interwoven with Christian symbolism and endowed with Christian religious meaning. Before moving to Bessarabia , the Gagauz in the Balkans adhered to the Bulgarian and Greek Orthodox Church. After the resettlement at the beginning of the 19th century, part of the Gagauz population from the territory of southern Dobrudja to the territory of Bessarabia, the Gagauz in the new territory, together with the other settlers, moved into the bosom of the Russian Orthodox Church . Most of the Moldavian Gagauz are currently confessing Orthodoxy. Also widely spread are Protestant communities: Baptists and Pentecostals .

The other part of the Gagauzians, “Gadzhals”, are a special ethno-religious group and practice Sunni Islam. This part of the Gagauz did not migrate from Bulgaria and Greece to Bessarabia and, subsequently, was almost completely culturally assimilated by the Bulgarians, Greeks and Turks.

Marriages

For the Gagauz of Moldova, monoethnic marriages prevailed for a long time: of the 100 marriages concluded in 1970, 73 were mono-ethnic, and of the 100 marriages concluded in 2003, 77 were such ^[21] . In 2003, Gagauz Moldavian men were more likely to marry women of their nationality (78%), less often with Moldavians (9%), Bulgarians (5%), Russians (4%) and Ukrainians (3%) ^[22] . For Gagauz women in Moldova in 2003, these figures were respectively: 75%, 8%, 5%, 4% and 5% ^[22] . For the Gagauz of Chisinau, on the contrary, mainly national-mixed marriages are characteristic, which in 2000 accounted for 97% of all marriages of Gagauz of both sexes ^[23] . For 2018, the number of mono-ethnic marriages has decreased.

Names

Gagauz name consists of a personal name , patronymic and surname . The most recognizable form of a name usually consists of a first and last name. Such a system in Gagauz entrenched in the second half of the XX century . Modern personal Gagauz names belong to different eras. All names are Christian . Mostly names have Greek, Bulgarian, Latin origin. In recent times, Gagauz are increasingly borrowing foreign names.

The name of the child is given in two ways:

• named grandparents
• by the name of godfathers

Gagauz surnames are of Balkan origin. They are mainly from Gagauz, Bulgarian, Greek. In addition, the names come from professions, street nicknames, the name of the father. When entering into a civil marriage, women accept the name of their spouse.

The Gagauz Congress is held once every three years (starting in 2006) in the capital of the ATU “Gagauzia” , Comrat . He collects Gagauz from around the world.

• According to the 2004 census, 147.5 thousand Gagauz people lived in Moldova ^[24] . Of these, 127.8 thousand in Gagauzia , 6.4 thousand in Chisinau municipality, 3.6 thousand in Kagul district , 3.5 thousand in Taraclia, and 2.2 thousand in Bessarabia . In Transnistria ( PMR ) - 4.1 thousand people. (2004 census) ^{[25] [26]} ; 3,6 thousand people (2012 estimate) ^[27]
• According to the 2001 census, 31.9 thousand Gagauz people lived in Ukraine , of which 27.6 thousand lived in the Odessa region ^[28] .
• According to the 2010 census , 13,700 Gagauz people lived in Russia ^[29] . Of these, in the Tyumen region - 2.5 thousand (including 1.6 thousand in the Khanty-Mansi Autonomous District and 0.8 thousand in the Yamalo-Nenets Autonomous District ); in the Moscow region - 1.5 thousand people, the city of Moscow - 1.2 thousand people.
• Other countries: in Turkey - from 5 to 15 thousand. ^[30] , Greece - 3 thousand. ^[30] , in Bulgaria - 540 people. (2001 census) ^[31] or according to various sources from 1.4 thousand ^[32] to 10 thousand ^[30] , in Romania from 1.2 thousand ^[32] to 3 thousand ^[30] Approximately 1 thousand in: Kazakhstan (978 people in 1989 ^[33] ), Uzbekistan , Turkmenistan , Belarus , Latvia (108 people ^[34] ), Estonia , Georgia . ^{[30] The} Gagauz also live in the USA , Canada and Brazil . ^[thirty]

• Gagauz in Brazil
• Gagauz in Bulgaria
• Gagauz in Greece
• Gagauz in Romania
• World Gagauz Congress
• Gagauz literature
• Gagauz music
• Gagauz folklore
• List of Gagauz surnames

• Gagauz // Ethnoatlas of the Krasnoyarsk Territory / Council of the Administration of the Krasnoyarsk Territory. Public Relations Office; Ch. ed. R. G. Rafikov ; Editorial: V.P. Krivonogov , R. D. Tsokayev. - 2nd ed., Pererab. and add. - Krasnoyarsk: Platinum (PLATINA), 2008. - 224 p. - ISBN 978-5-98624-092-3 . Archived November 29, 2014. Archived copy of November 29, 2014 on Wayback Machine
• Guboglo M.N. Gagauz // Encyclopedia "Peoples and religions of the world." - 1998.

• Zanet T. Gagauzluk: Kultura, ruh, adetlär: Gagauz folkloru / Inst. de Filologie al Acad. de Ştiinţe a Moldovei, Inst. de Folclor al Acad. Naţ. de Ştiinţe a Azerbaidjanului. - Ch .: Pontos, 2010. - 554, [6] p.
• Metin Omer, “Agenda politică unui intellectual din Turcia kemalistă: Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver, turcismul şi găgăuzii”, Intelectuali Politici şi Politica Intelectualilor , Cetatea de Scaun, 2016, p. 345-362 (ISBN 978-606-537-300-6).
• Dimitris Michalopoulos, "The Metropolitan of the Gagauz: The Ambassador", Turkey & Romania. Around the World of Municipalities and Istanbul University, 2016, p. 567-572. ISBN 978-605-65863-3-0 . ( Http://www.tdbb.org.tr/tdbb/wp-content/uploads/2016/12/ibac_2016_romanya_BASKI.pdf )

• ISO 639 - 3bgx

• Why are schools of Gagauzia not studying the history of the Gagauz?
• Gagauz. Biographies of the Gagauz. History of the Gagauz. Gagauzia Gagauzia
• Calendar rites of the Gagauz (Neopr.) . - works of E. N. Quilinkova on the history and culture of the Gagauz. Archived February 5, 2012.
• Gagauz folk music (Unsolved) . - Gagauz music. Archived February 5, 2012.
• Brief history of the Gagauz people