The Gagauz (; ) are a Turkic peoples ethnic group
Etymology
Gagauz is the most widely accepted singular and plural form of the name,
and some references use
Gagauzy (from Ukrainian)
or
Gagauzi.
Other variations including
Gagauzes and
Gagauzians appear rarely.
Before the Russian Revolution they were commonly referred to as "Turkic-speaking old Bulgars".Mikhail N. Gouboglu081688840X, G. K. Hall. 081688840X
According to Astrid Menz:
Geographical distribution
Outside Moldova, a minority of Gagauz people live in the Ukrainian regions of
Odesa Oblast and Zaporizhzhia. They are also in
Kazakhstan,
Kyrgyzstan,
Uzbekistan,
Bulgaria,
Greece,
Romania,
Brazil,
Turkmenistan,
Belarus,
Estonia,
Latvia, Georgia,
Turkey, and the Russian region of Kabardino-Balkaria.
The Gagauz people are one of the largest ethnic minorities in Moldova. During the Russian colonization of southern Bessarabia (Budjak), in the early 19th century, the Gagauz people moved from the eastern Balkans, beginning to stabilize their presence on the future territory of the Republic of Moldova. The Gagauz are not equally distributed on the territory of Moldova, living primarily in the southern part of the country, particularly in the Gagauzia. They follow a primarily rural lifestyle.
The Gagauz are the third minority ethnic group in the Republic of Moldova, counting 126,010 people according to the 2014 census, i.e. 4.57% of the total population (without Transnistria). Their share in the ethnic composition of the country is gradually increasing.
Due to their concentration in the areas around the border between Moldova and Ukraine, modern Gagauz people marry primarily with other Gagauz; thus keeping a high degree of ethnic stability. However, in the recent past, the situation was somewhat different. In the early 20th century, the ratio of Gagauz and Bulgarians in the population of Comrat was approximately 2:1. In the late 20th century, due to assimilation and higher fertility rates within the Gagauz, the ratio was 1:14.
History
Origins
The origin of the Gagauz is obscure. In the beginning of the 20th century, a Bulgarian historian counted 19 different theories about their origin. A few decades later the Gagauz ethnologist M. N. Guboglo increased the number to 21. In some of those theories the Gagauz people are presented as descendants of the
Pechenegs, the
Cumans-
Kipchaks or a clan of Seljuk Turks or a mix of all. Others doubt altogether that the Gagauz are of Turkic origin at all and claimed that they are of
Turkified Bulgarians or
Greeks origin.
The fact that their religion is Eastern Orthodox Christianity may suggest that their ancestors already lived in the Balkans before the Ottoman conquest in the late 14th century.
[
]
Seljuk (Anatolian) hypothesis
According to the 15th-century Selçukname narrative, in 1261 Turkoman dervish Sarı Saltık accompanied a group of Turkomans into Dobruja, where they were settled by the Byzantine emperor Michael VIII Palaiologos to protect the northern frontier of the empire. However, Dobruja was occupied by Tatars in the same period. The same source places him in Crimea after 1265, among the Turkomans transferred there by Berke, khaghan of the Golden Horde, and after 1280 mentions him leading the nomads back to Dobruja.
Steppe hypothesis
The Steppe hypothesis suggests that the Gagauz may be descendants of other Turkic nomadic tribes than Seljuks: Bulgars and Cumania from the Eurasian steppes. In the 19th century, before their migration to Bessarabia, the Gagauz from the Bulgarian territories of the Ottoman Empire considered themselves Bulgarians. Ethnological research suggests "Gagauz" was a linguistic distinction and not ethnic. The Gagauz at that time called themselves "Hasli Bulgar" (True Bulgarians) or "Eski Bulgar" (Old Bulgarians) and considered the term Gagauz to be demeaning when applied to them by the Slavic-speaking Bulgarians.
The Gagauz called their language "Turkish" and claimed descent from then-Turkic-speaking Bulgars who in the 7th century established the First Bulgarian Empire on the Danube.[Boĭkova, Elena Vladimirovna; Rybakov, R. B. (2006). Kinship in the Altaic World. Otto Harrassowitz Verlag. p. 47][MacDermott, Mercia (1998). Bulgarian Folk Customs. Jessica Kingsley Publishers. p. 27.] The Russian Empire Census of 1897 did not distinguish the Gagauz as a specific group, but it reported the existence of 55,790 native speakers of a "Turkish language" (presumably the Gagauz language) in the Bessarabia Governorate.[ Russian 1897 Census data - breakdown by region and language. Besides "Turkish", the only other Turkic languages reported by the Census of 1897 as spoken in Bessarabia were the "Tatar" (777 native speakers), Turkmen (405), and Chuvash (73).] According to historian A.F. Bajora, although this theory has many convincing arguments, the main counter-argument to this theory is that the Cuman language and the Gagauz language were languages belonging to different branches of Turkic.
Greek hypothesis
According to a version of this hypothesis, the Gagauz immigrated to the Balkans from Anatolia and, while they kept their Greek Orthodox religion, they were linguistically assimilated (Turkified).
An argument that favors the Greek hypothesis is given by genetic research, which shows that the Gagauz are genetically European.
Bulgarian hypothesis
Bulgarian sources argue that the Gagauz are Turkified Bulgarians because most of the Gagauz people in Bulgaria consider themselves natives (" Erli") meaning real natives.
Modern history
Between 1820 and 1846, the Russian Empire allocated land to the Gagauz and gave them financial incentives to settle in Bessarabia in the settlements vacated by the Nogais tribes. They settled in Bessarabia along with Bassarabian Bulgarians, mainly in Avdarma, Comrat (or Komrat), Congaz ( Kongaz), Tomai, Cișmichioi and other former Nogai villages located in the central Budjak region. Originally, the Gagauz also settled in several villages belonging to throughout southern Bessarabia and the Principality of Moldavia, but soon moved to join their kin in the Bugeac. Until 1869, the Gagauz in Bessarabia were described as Bulgarians. During the rule of southernmost Bessarabia (1856–1878), they supported Bulgarian schools in their settlements and participated in the Bulgarian national movement. Therefore, some ethnologists (Karel Škorpil, Gavril Zanetov (himself a Gagauz), Benyo Tsonev) claim Bulgarian origin for the Gagauz.
In the 1860s, some Gagauz resettled to the vicinity of Berdiansk on the Sea of Azov coast, and in 1908–1914 to Central Asia.
With the exception of a six-day independence in the winter of 1906, when a peasant uprising declared the autonomous Comrat Republic, the Gagauz people have mainly been ruled by the Russian Empire, Romania, the Soviet Union, and Moldova.
The wave of Stolypin reform carried some Gagauz to Kazakhstan between 1912 and 1914, and later yet another group settled in Uzbekistan during the very troubled years of initial collectivization. So as not to lose their civil rights, they called themselves Bulgarians in the 1930s; the Gagauz of the village of Mayslerge in the Tashkent District retain that designation to this day.
In 1970 the total population of the Gagauz reached 156,600 in the USSR (26,400 of them lived in the Ukrainian SSR and 125,000 in the Moldavian SSR). In 1979, about 173,000 Gagauz lived in the USSR.
Gagauz nationalism remained an intellectual movement during the 1980s but strengthened by the end of the decade as both elites and opposition groups in the Soviet Union began to embrace nationalist ideals. In 1988, activists from the local intelligentsia aligned with other ethnic minorities to create the movement known as the "Gagauz People" (Gagauz: Gagauz halkı). A year later, the "Gagauz People" held its first assembly which accepted the resolution to create an autonomous territory in the southern Moldavian SSR, with Comrat designated as capital. The Gagauz nationalist movement increased in popularity when Moldovan was accepted as the official language of the Republic of Moldova in August 1989.[ Legea cu privire la functionarea limbilor vorbite pe teritoriul RSS Moldovenesti Nr.3465-XI din 01.09.89 Vestile nr.9/217, 1989 (Law regarding the usage of languages spoken on the territory of the Republic of Moldova): "Moldavian RSS supports the desire of the Moldovans that live across the borders of the Republic, and considering the really existing linguistical Moldo-Romanian identity - of the Romanians that live on the territory of the USSR, of doing their studies and satisfying their cultural needs in their maternal language."] In November 1989, the Gagauz ASSR within Moldova was declared.
Gagauz nationalism in independent Moldova
In August 1990, Comrat declared itself as the Gagauz Republic, an autonomous Soviet republic separate from the Moldavian SSR, but the Moldovan government annulled the declaration as unconstitutional. The Gagauz were also worried about the implications for them if Moldova reunited with Romania, as seemed increasingly likely. Support for the Soviet Union remained high, with a local referendum in March 1991 yielding an almost unanimous "yes" vote to stay in the USSR; Moldovans in Gagauzia, however, the referendum. Many Gagauz supported the Moscow coup attempt, further straining relations with Chişinău. However, when the Moldovan parliament voted on whether Moldova should become independent, six of the twelve Gagauz deputies voted in favor. Following the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Gagauzia became a de facto independent state.
In February 1994, President Mircea Snegur, opposed to Gagauz independence, promised a Gagauz Autonomous area. Snegur also opposed the suggestion that Moldova become a Federation made up of three "republics": Moldova, Gagauzia, and Transnistria. In 1994, the Moldovan parliament awarded "the people of Gagauzia" the right of "external self-determination" should the status of the country change. This means that in the event that Moldova decided to join another country (by all accounts this referred to Romania), the Gagauz would be entitled to decide whether to remain or not a part of the new state by means of a self-determination referendum.
As a result of a referendum to determine Gagauzia's borders, thirty settlements (three towns and twenty-seven villages) expressed their desire to be included in the Gagauz Autonomous Territorial Unit. In 1995, Gheorghe Tabunșcic was elected to serve as the Governor ( Bashkan) of Gagauzia for a four-year term, as were the deputies of the local parliament, "The People's Assembly" ( Halk Topluşu) and its chairman Petru Pașalî.
Genetic studies
In DNA comparisons, the Gagauz were found to be more closely related genetically to neighboring southeastern European groups than to linguistically related Anatolian populations.
The similarity to neighboring populations may be due to the lack of social barriers between the local and the Turkic-Orthodox populations of the Balkan Peninsula. Another possibility is language shift in accordance with the dominant minority model, i.e. Turkification.
Gagauz belong to Y-DNA haplogroups I2a (23.6%), R1a (19.1%), G (13.5%), R1b (12.4%), E1b1b1a1 (11.1%), J2 (5.6%) and Haplogroup N (2.2%). Finally, the phylogenetic analysis of Y-DNA situates Gagauz most proximal to Bulgarians, Macedonians, Romanians, Serbs and other Balkan populations, resulting in a high genetic distance from the Turkish people and other Turkic peoples.[Genetic history of Europe] The analyses showed that Gagauz belong to the Balkan populations, suggesting that the Gagauz language represents a case of language replacement in southeastern Europe.
After a genetic comparison between the populations of the Balkans, Anatolia, and Central Asia, the results showed that the Gagauz are part of the Balkan genetic group.
Language
The Gagauz language belongs to the Oghuz languages branch of the Turkic languages, which also includes the Azerbaijani, Turkish language, and Turkmen language languages. The Gagauz language is particularly close to the Balkan Turkish dialects spoken in Greece, northeastern Bulgaria, and in the Kumanovo and Bitola areas of North Macedonia. The Balkan Turkic languages, including Gagauz, are a typologically interesting case, because they are closely related to Turkish and at the same time contain a North-Turkic (Tatar language or Kypchak) element besides the main South-Turkic (Oghuz) element (Pokrovskaya, 1964). The modern Gagauz language has two dialects: central (or "Bulgar") and southern (or maritime).[Pokrovskaya,
1964; Gordon, 2005]
Culture
Music
In 2013, Ludmila Tukan was selected to represent Gagauzia in the territory's debut at the Turkvision Song Contest, with the song Вернись любовь ("Come back love").
Economy
The traditional economy centered on animal husbandry (particularly sheep raising) and agriculture that combined Cereal and market gardening with viticulture. Even in the recent past, despite the cultural similarity of the Gagauz to the Bulgarians of Bessarabia, there were important differences between them: the Bulgarians were peasant farmers; although the Gagauz also farmed, they were essentially Pastoral farming in outlook.
Religion
The vast majority of Gagauz are Eastern Orthodox Christians.
There have been a number of attempts from the 1930s into the 21st century to tie the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate with the ethnically Turkic, Greek Orthodox Gagauz minority in Bessarabia.[ The Political Role of the Turkish Orthodox Patriarchate (so-called) by Dr. Racho Donef]
Marriages
For Gagauz, Moldova was characterized by the predominance of mono-ethnic marriages: out of 100 marriages prisonered in 1970, mono-ethnic were 73, and out of 100 marriages concluded in 2003 were 77.
Names
The Gagauz name consists of a personal name, patronymic and surname. The most recognizable form of a name usually consists of a given name and a surname. Such a system was established among the Gagauz in the second half of the 20th century. Modern personal Gagauz names belong to different eras. A large part of them is of Greek language origin (Лія - Lia, Анатолій - Anatoly, Александр - Alexander, Ірина - Irina, Варвара - Varvara), of Hebrew language origin ( Марія - Maria, Семен - Semyon, Анна - Anna, Іванна - Ivanna, etc.), of Romance origin ( Домна - Domna, Константин - Constantine). Sometimes they can also be of Slavic languages origin ( Віра - Vira, Володимир - Vladimir) and of Bulgarian origin ( Марин - Marin).
The name of the child is given in two ways:
-
named after grandparents
-
by the name of godparents
Gagauz surnames are of Balkan origin. Mostly they are from the Gagauz, Bulgarian, Greek languages. In addition, surnames come from professions, street nicknames, and the father's name. When concluding a civil marriage, women take the surname of their spouse.
Food
The staple food of Gagauz cuisine is grain, in many varieties. A series of family holidays and rituals was connected with the baking of wheat bread, both leavened loaves (e.g., kalaches) and unleavened pancake.
The favorite dish was a layered pie stuffed with sheep's milk cheese and soaked with sour cream before baking. Other delicacies were pies with crumbled pumpkin and sweet pies made with the first milk of a cow that had just calved. The traditional ritual dish called kurban combined bulgar wheat porridge with a slaughtered (or animal sacrifice) ram and is further evidence of the origins of the Gagauz in both the Balkan world and the Eurasian Steppe-pastoral complex. Peppered meat sauces are especially important: one combines onion and finely granulated porridge, while another is tomato-based. A red wine is served with dinner and supper. Head cheese is an indispensable component of holiday meals.
Clothing
Women's
Toward the end of the 19th century, in good weather, a Gagauz woman's costume consisted of a canvas shirt, a sleeveless dress, a Smock-frock, and a large black kerchief. In winter, they donned a dress with sleeves, a cloth jacket, and a sleeveless fur coat. Required features of female dress were earrings, bracelets, beads, and, among wealthy Gagauz, a necklace of gold coins. "So many of their decorations are hung about," wrote a pre-Revolutionary researcher, "that they cover the entire breast down to the waist."
Men's
Traditional male clothing included a shirt, cloth pants, a wide red sash or belt, and a hat. The winter cap was made of Karakul sheep wool. The shepherd's costume was the usual shirt combined with sheepskin pants with the fleece turned in, a sleeveless fur coat, and a short sheepskin jacket, the latter sometimes decorated with red-on-green stitching.
Ukrainian Gagauz
Since 1991, the Gagauz nation became a trans-border nation located in Budjak and divided between Moldova and Ukraine. In Ukraine, they form a minority and mainly live near the Bessarabian Bulgarians community around the city of Bolhrad. In the 2001 Ukrainian census, the Gagauz population accounted for 31,923 people, with 27,617 (86.51%) of them living in the Budjak area of the region of Odesa Oblast, primarily in and around the cities of Izmail, Reni, and Kiliya, as well as the Bolhrad Raion (district).
In the Odesa region, the Gagauz make up 1.1% of the region's population. The number of Gagauz in the period between the 1989 and 2001 censuses increased by 0.9%, and the share of residents of the region - by 0.1%. A notable Ukrainian Gagauz was Mykola Palas (born 1980), who served as a colonel during the Russo-Ukrainian War and is a recipient of the Hero of Ukraine award.
Distribution
Regions of Ukraine by the number of Gagauz in 2001:
|
| 27617 |
| 877 |
| 494 |
| 387 |
| 365 |
| 275 |
| 268 |
| 239 |
| 205 |
| 1196 |
| 31923 |
Gagauz live in the south and southwest of Odesa region in Bolhrad (18.7%), Reni (7.9%), Bessarabske (6.0%), Kiliia (3.8%), and Artsyz (1.8%) areas. The number of Gagauz increased in Ivanivka (+100.0%), Ovidiopol (+100.0%), Bolhrad (+0.7%) districts and the city of Izmail (+14.3%), slightly decreased in Kiliia (−14.8%), Artsyz (−10.0%), Bessarabske (−6.9%), and Reni (−5.9%) districts.
The Gagauz also traditionally lived in the south of the Zaporizhzhia region, where they moved from Budjak with Bulgarians and Albanians after the Crimean War. There the Gagauz population was present in the villages of Dmytrivka, Oleksandrivka, Kotlovyna, Vynohradivka, and Stari Troyany.
Language
The majority of Gagauz (71%) consider Gagauz language their mother tongue, a significant proportion (23%) consider Russian language their mother tongue.
Native language of Gagauz of Ukraine according to population censuses:
Notable people
Chronologically by birth year.
(1859-1938), Marshal of Romania and former Prime Minister of Romania
Mihail Ciachir (1861-1938), Orthodox priest and Gagauz educator, historian and ethnographist
Gavril Zanetov (1874-1934), Bulgarian lawyer, historian, publicist and literary critic
Dumitru Topciu (1888-1958), Romanian politician and agriculturalist
Anton Novakov (?-1938), industrialist and legislator of the short-lived Moldavian Democratic Republic (1917–1918)
Vladimir Cavarnali (1910-1966), Romanian poet, journalist, editor, and political figure
Stepan Topal (1938-2018), Moldovan politician
Zinovia Dushkova (born 1953), Russian author, poet, philosopher, and historian
Alexandr Stoianoglo (born 1967), Moldovan former prosecutor and politician
Igor Radulov (born 1982), Russian former professional ice hockey player
Alexander Radulov (born 1986), Russian professional ice hockey player
Xenia Deli (born 1989), Moldovan-American model
Vladislav Baboglo (born 1998), Moldovan-Ukrainian footballer
See also
Bibliography
-
Vanya Mateeva, 2006 Sofia, "Гагаузите - още един поглед" "The
-
Dimitris Michalopoulos, "The Metropolitan of the Gagauz: Ambassador Tanrıöver and the problem of Romania's Christian Orthodox Turks", Turkey & Romania. A history of partnership and collaboration in the Balkans, Istanbul: Union of Turkish World Municipalities and Istanbul University, 2016, p. 567-572.
-
Shabashov A. V., 2002, Odesa, Astroprint, "Gagauz: terms of kinship system and origin of the people", (Шабашов А. В., "Гагаузы: система терминов родства и происхождение народа")
-
Mikhail Guboglo, 1967, "Этническая принадлежност гагаузов". Советская этнография, No 3 Ethnic
-
Nikolai Dmitriev, 1962, Moscow, Science, "Structure of Türkic languages", articles "About lexicon of Gagauz language", "Gagauz etudes", "Phonetics of Gagauz language", (Дмитриев Н.К., "Структура Тюткских Языков", статьи "К вопросу о словарном составе гагаузского языка", "Гагаузские этюды", "Фонетика гагаузского языка")
-
Mihail Çakır, 1934, Basarabyalı Gagavuzların İstoryası "History
-
Kowalski, T., 1933 Kraków, "Les Turcs et la langue turque de la Bulgarie du Nord-Est". "The
-
Škorpil, K. and H., 1933 Praha, "Материали към въпроса за съдбата на прабългарите и на северите и към въпроса за произхода на съвременните гагаузи". Byzantinoslavica, T.5
Further reading
