Turkic peoples

Turkic peoples are Northern and Central Eurasian peoples who speak languages belonging to the Turkic family of languages and which share in varying degrees, ethnic, cultural and historical traits. Even though many consider this term to be distinct from the term Turkish, growing use of term Turkish opposed to Turkic has been noted in the Turkish/Turkic world. Turkic languages belong to the Altaic language group and is one of the most geographically widespread in the world, spoken in a geography spanning from Europe to Siberia.

Turkic Roots

The term "Turk" was first officially used as a political name in the 6th century. Turkic nationalists claim that the expansion of proto-Turkic peoples across Eurasia involved the Scythians (Ishkuz), Xiongnu, Huns, Sarmatians, Khazars, Pechenegs, Alans, Cimmerians, Massagetae and other steppe populations. While some of these peoples may have represented, to some extent, a proto-Turkic or Turkic tribe or confederation, the majority are considered largely non-Turkic. Certainly in later times the Khazars and the Pechenegs were Turkic, but the Cimmerians, Massagetae, Sarmatians and Scythians are thought to have been Indo-European speakers.

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Although they have been settled and urbanized, the older tradition of nomadism has created a cultural norm which, at its best, is represented by a combative spirit, a sense of leadership, the habit of mobility, craftsmanship, gallantry, elegant equestrian skill and an unusual dexterity as archers on horseback. Turkic peoples used their own alphabets, like runiform Orkhon script and Uyghur alphabet. The traditional, national and cultural symbols of the Turkic peoples include the star and crescent -- used as a symbol of Turks since pre-Islamic times when they aspired to Shamanism -- wolves, a part of Turkic mythology and tradition; as well as the color blue, iron and fire. In the age of nationalism, Turks were among the first Islamic peoples to take up Western ideas of liberalism and secular ideologies. It first sprang up at the end of 19th century in the Russian Empire and was advanced by leading Tatar intellectuals like Ismail Gaspirali and Yusuf Akçura, as a reaction to Panslavist and Russification policies of the Russian Empire. The first fully democratic and secular republics in the Islamic world were Turkic: the ill-fated Idel-Ural State established in 1917, the Azerbaijan Democratic Republic in 1918 (both annexed and absorbed by Soviet Union) and in 1923, Republic of Turkey.

Related Topics:
Runiform - Orkhon script - Uyghur alphabet - Russian Empire - Ismail Gaspirali - Yusuf Akçura - Panslavist - Russification - Idel-Ural State - Azerbaijan Democratic Republic - Soviet Union - Republic of Turkey

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