Celal Şengor, a professor from Turkey, made another hit against the mythology of a majority-Turkish admixture in the genetic make up Turkish-citizens, particularly those from Anatolia.
Speaking on television, the professor said that the genes of Anatolian peoples is made up of only 7% from Central Asia, the homeland of Turkic tribes.
However, the bigger surprise is what came next.
“A relevant DNA research was done in Anatolia and it turned out that we are very much Indo-Europeans,” the professor said.
“Do not forget that we are the heirs of Byzantium,” the professor continued, adding: “And because of this there were many marriages during the Ottoman period. That is why we are Muslim Rûm.”
Rûm is a derivative of the term Rhomaioi-East Roman (Ῥωμαῖοι) and is used in many Islamic countries to refer to Greeks.
Rûm is found in the pre-Islamic Namara inscription and later in the Quran (7th century), where it is used to refer to the contemporary Byzantine (Eastern Roman) Empire under its Greek-speaking emperors of the Heraclian dynasty.
Turkey calls its Greek minority Rûm, such as those living in Constantinople, Tenedos and Imvros, and refers to Greeks within Greece as Yunani (Ionian).
In this way, they differentiate the Greeks of Greece and the Greeks of Turkey.
In response to Şengor’s television segment, Turkey-born Professor Mehmet Efe Caman, who describes himself on Twitter as an “Anatolian from Constantinople with roots in Crete and Paphlagonia [on the Black Sea],” said:
“Professor Şengör says that: ‘We are Roman’ because he cannot say that today’s Turkophone Anatolians are Islamized and linguistically assimilated Greeks. Turkish-supremacist racism will collapse.
“I had the Central Asian Gene at 8.2%. It is still above the number mentioned by Professor Şengör and Murat Bardakçı.
“Joking aside, it is impossible to understand why the Turkish state has taught children the Turkish-supremacist and racist myth of ‘mass migration from Central Asia to Anatolia’ in schools for 100 years.
“Why did the Turkish state want to hide that the Anatolian people largely had Greco-Roman roots? What was the reason for this secret? Why were they afraid?
“Why did they carefully conceal the Greek origin of the large Turkish-speaking masses who were Islamized and due to linguistic assimilation?”, the professor pondered.
It is recalled that earlier this month the Turkish DNA Project, a misinformation portal known for posting genetic graphs and charts without references or sources, expressed frustration with Ancestry.com, the largest for-profit genealogy company in the world.
The misinformation project called for “all Turks to boycott this company: Ancestry.”
“AncestryDNA prioritizes to demonize the Turkish people and delegitimaze their presence in Turkey rather than giving information about the genetic structure of the relevant population,” they said in a now deleted Twitter post.
Ancestry.com highlighted that after the Ottoman conquest of Pontos in today’s Turkey’s southeastern Black Sea coast, the “Pontian Greeks adopted Turkish language and culture, and many converted to Islam in order to have greater opportunities in Turkish society.”
Ancestry.com also highlighted that another round of Turkification of Pontian Greeks occurred after the second Russo-Turkish War (1828-29).
With the advent of genetic testing, more and more Turkish citizens and diaspora communities are discovering that they are actually Turkified peoples, mostly pointing towards Greek.
Ancestry.com highlighted that after the Ottoman conquest of Pontos in today’s Turkey’s southeastern Black Sea coast, the “Pontian Greeks adopted Turkish language and culture, and many converted to Islam in order to have greater opportunities in Turkish society.”
Ancestry.com also highlighted that another round of Turkification of Pontian Greeks occurred after the second Russo-Turkish War (1828-29).
With the advent of genetic testing, more and more Turkish citizens and diaspora communities are discovering that they are actually Turkified peoples, mostly pointing towards Greek.
Celal Şengor, a professor from Turkey, made another hit against the mythology of a majority-Turkish admixture in the genetic make up Turkish-citizens,
greekcitytimes.com
UPDATE: Since publication of this article, the Turkish DNA Project deleted their tweet.
greekcitytimes.com
