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| The Grand Turk |
| Ethnolinguistic lines of Turkey, an analysis. |
| 2014-02-03 |
| [Sources and Methods] TurkeyÂ’s ethnic populations are, in a word, surprising. For example, one would expect that speakers of Azerbaijani residing in Turkey would speak Northern Azerbaijani from Azerbaijan. Yet, according to Ethnologue, the Azerbaijani spoken within TurkeyÂ’s borders is Southern Azerbaijani from Iran. This begs the question: are the ethnic Azeris in Turkey from Azerbaijan or Iran? Or both? Of course, all Azeris are ethnically Iranian, and Northern and Southern Azerbaijani are mutually intelligible as far as languages go, but the fact remains that many many Azerbaijanis living in Turkey did not originate where the name suggests. The same is the case for the Kyrgyz speakers in Turkey who did not immigrate from Kyrgyzstan but were resettled in TurkeyÂ’s Kars province from the Wakhan Corridor of Afghanistan after migrating into Pakistan through the Hindu Kush in the early 1980s. Surprised? I'll admit that I was. Equally as impressive was the imbedded My conversation with the Free Syrian Army. |
| Posted by:Besoeker |
| #3 Saved to my reading list, so I can ponder it. Good find, Besoeker -- not our usual news item, but useful background, I think. Do you have any thoughts on how this will/could impact the War on Terror? |
| Posted by: trailing wife 2014-02-03 22:46 |
| #2 Don't forget the 'Turks' were from central Asia. Conquering their way to the old Byzantine lands they occupy today. No one worried about 'right of return' back then for losers. Possession was a 100% of the law. |
| Posted by: Procopius2k 2014-02-03 15:50 |
| #1 Azeris would dispute they are ethnic Iranians. They consider themselves Turkic. |
| Posted by: phil_b 2014-02-03 15:33 |