Genetic origins of the Turkish peopleNative Anatolians began to use Altaic languages instead of Indo-European languages after the migration of Turkic speaking groups into Anatolia.
Scientists have long debated the extent to which this shift in language was accompanied by a genetic replacement of the former population, and it has been concluded that despite the overemphasis on their Central Asian roots, the Anatolian Turks are overwhelmingly indigenous to the area and they are in no sense racially Mongoloid.
Anatolia and the medieval Turkic migration
Anatolia has been an important center of interaction, for many peoples and their cultures, throughout the known human history. This dynamic constitute a highly diverse culture and also a significant heterogeneity of peoples. The migrations of Turkic speaking groups in Anatolia is a dramatic shift in language barrier between Altaic languages and Indo-European languages. The nature of this language shift has been subject to considerable scholarly debate. Some Turkish scholars, mostly with political prejudices, claimed that this transition happened through a nearly complete replacement of the indigenous populations in Anatolia with Turkic-speaking groups. Other scholars, including Turkish, based on genetic data, claimed that the transition happened through elite dominance, a model suggesting Turkification, i.e. cultural assimilation, without significant genetic contribution. These models, however, are only tested by simplistic and general surveys of contemporary Turkish population, without historical considerations. Therefore it is difficult to understand the complex cultural and demographic dynamics of the Turkic speaking groups that have shaped the Anatolian landscape for the last millennium The region of the Anatolia represents an extremely important area with respect to ancient population migration and expansion.
During antiquity Anatolia was a cradle for a wide variety of numerous indigenous peoples such as Armenians, Assyrians, Hattians, Hittites, Hellenes, Pelasgians, Phrygians, Thracians, Medes and others. Later during the late Roman Period, prior to the Mongol invasion, the population of Anatolia had reached an estimated level of over 12 million people .[5][6][7] The Oghuz Turks were the main Turkic people[8] that moved into Anatolia.[9] Many Turks began their migration after the victory of the Seljuks against the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. In the centuries after the Battle of Malazgirt local populations began to assimilate to the emerging Turkish population.[10] Around 1,000,000 Turkic migrants settled in Anatolia in 12th and 13th centuries[11]. However this initial immigration of 1,000,000 strong Turkic group was followed by a continuous flow of Turkic immigrants from Iran, Crimea and Turkestan through the following centuries. Especially after the Ottomans' loss of Ankara War to Timur's forces in year 1402 many Turkoman tribes flowed from Iran and Khorasan into Anatolia in perhaps the second most important immigration wave of Turkomans since Malazgirt.
Testing the "Elite dominance language replacement" hypothesis (Different theories)
The data on the DNA of Turkish people suggests that a human demographic expansion occurred sequentially in the Middle East, through Anatolia, and finally to the rest of Europe. The estimated time of this expansion is roughly 50,000 years ago, which corresponds to the arrival of anatomically modern humans in Europe.[13] According to some researchers Anatolians do not significantly differ from other eastern Mediterraneans, indicating that while the ancient Asian Turks carried out an invasion with cultural significance (language), it is weakly genetically detectable.[14]
These researchers suggest that recent genetic research has suggested the local, Anatolian origins of the Turks and that genetic flow between Turks and Asiatic peoples might have been marginal.[15]
On the other hand, some researchers have found profound Central Asian contribution to the Turkish gene pool. According to one such study, the historical and cultural consequences of the Turkic invasion of Anatolia were profound, the genetic contribution of the Turkic people to the modern Turkish population seems less significant.[16] Various estimates exist of the proportion of gene flow associated with the arrival of Central Asian Turkic speaking people to Anatolia.
One study based on an analysis of Y-chromosomes from Turkey suggested that Central Asians have made a 30% genetic contribution.[17]
In this study, titled "DNA Diversity and Population Admixture in Anatolia" by Di Benedetto, it is clearly seen that is it not Elite Culturel Dominance, but a steady genetic contribution over a long period of time. It is illogical to be able to change the entire language of a sedentary population by a recent wave of nomads. Also, religious conversion also occurred, and the most successful way to achieve this was to constantly mix with the local population, supported by Di Benedetto, et al. In the conclusion of the report, Di Benedetto, et al. states that there was a constant genetic contribution over a long period of time, because the 'elite dominance' theory was too inefficient (there was a substantial Turkish gene contribution, too much for a zero-level) , so the theory of 'continuous admixture' was supported with research, "...if most Asian alleles in the current Anatolian gene pool arrived in the 11th century AD, the Oghuz invasion had a much greater demographic impact than is commonly believed by historians. The alternative is a continuous input of alleles from Central Asia". [18]
What is clear is that current Anatolian genetic pool has received at the minimum 13% and at the maximum 30% genetic inflow from Central Asian Turkic speakers. Moreover it seems that this genetic impact affected Anatolia through multiple waves of migration episodes and / or possibly through continuous flow of Turkic speakers from Central Asia, likely with 1% Central Asian genetic input per generation starting in the 11th century until at least the 16th century (There are about 20 generations that lived in this period and a 1% genetic input every generation throughout this time seems to be the source of East Asian genes in Turkey). In the 16th century Turks in Anatolia were cut off from their Turkic brethren in Central Asia due to the tense relations between the Ottomans, a Turkic family ruling over Anatolia, and Safavids, a Turkic family ruling over Iran.
From the 16th century to the 21st century there was none to little genetic/immigrant flow from Central Asia to Anatolia and the Balkans. The Turkish language and genetic makeup was therefore likely shaped by the local inhabitants with little interaction with Central Asia thereafter.The question to what extent a gene flow from Central Asia to Anatolia has contributed to the current gene pool of the Turkish people, and what the role is in this of the 11th century invasion by Oghuz Turks, has been the subject of several studies. A factor that makes it difficult to give reliable estimates, is the problem of distinguishing between the effects of different migratory episodes. Recent genetics researches indicates that the Turkic peoples originated from Central Asia and therefore are possibly related with Xiongnu.[20] A majority (89%) of the Xiongnu sequences can be classified as belonging to an Asian haplogroups and nearly 11% belong to European haplogroups. This finding indicates that the contacts between European and Asian populations were anterior to the Xiongnu culture, and it confirms results reported for two samples from an early 3rd century B.C. Scytho-Siberian population.[21]
According to the study, Turkish Anatolian tribes may have some ancestors who originated in an area north of Mongolia at the end of the Xiongnu period (3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE), since modern Anatolian Turks appear to have some common genetic markers with the remains found at the Xiongnu period graves in Mongolia.[22] Moreover, the mtDNA (female linkeage) sequence shared by four of these paternal relatives were also found in a Turkish individuals,[23] suggesting a possible Turkic origin of these ancient specimens.[20][24][25]Haplogroup distributions in Turks
According to Cinnioglu et al., (2004)[26] there are many Y-DNA haplogroups present in Turkey. The majority haplogroups are primarily shared with European and Near Eastern populations such as haplogroups E3b, G, J, R1b, I which form 75.2% from the Turkish Gene pool and contrast with a smaller share of haplogroups related to Central Asia L, N, K, C, Q, O, R1a - 21.3%, India H, R2 - 1.5% and Africa A, E3*, E3a - 1%. Some of the percentages identified were:
Y chromosome Haplogroup distribution of Turkish people[26]J1=9% - Typical amongst people from the Arabian Peninsula.
J2=24% - Typical amongst Near Eastern and Western Asian peoples.
R1a=6.9% - Typical of Eastern Europeans and Central Asians
I=5.3% - Typical of Central Europeans and Balkan populations
R1b=14.7% -Typical of Central Asia and Western Europeans
G=10.9% - Typical of people from the Caucasus
E1b1b=11.3% - Typical amongst populations of the Balkans.
N=3.8% - Typical of Siberian and Altaic populations
T=2.5% - Typical of Mediterranean and South Asian populations
K=4.5% - Typical of Asian populations.
L=4.2% - Typical of Indian Subcontinent and Khorasan populations.
Q=1.9% - Typical of Northern Altaic populations.
Further Research on Turkish Y-DNA Groups
The latest study from Turkey by Gokcumen (2008)[27] took into account oral histories and historical records. They went to villages and did not do a random selection from a group of university students like many other studies. Accordingly here are the results:
1) At an Afshar village whose oral stories tell they come from Central Asia they found that 57% come from haplogroup L, 13% from haplogroup Q, 3% from haplogroup N thus indicating that the L haplogroups in Turkey are of Central Asian heritage rather than Indian. These Asian groups add up to 73% in this village. Furthermore 10% of these Afshars were E3a and E3b. Only 13% were J2a, the most common haplogroup in Turkey.
2) An older Turkish village center that did not receive much migration was about 25% N and 25% J2a with 3% G and close to 30% of some sort of R1 but mostly R1b.
en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Genetic_origins_of_the_Turkish_people