Pan-Turkism: Difference between revisions - Wikipedia

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Pan-Turkism has been characterized by pseudoscientific theories known as '''Pseudo-Turkology'''.<ref name="Frankle"/><ref name="AKOK">{{cite book |last1=Aktar |first1=A. |last2=Kizilyürek |first2=N |last3=Ozkirimli |first3=U. |last4=K?z?lyürek |first4=Niyazi |year=2010 |title=Nationalism in the Troubled Triangle: Cyprus, Greece and Turkey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=iHWGDAAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Springer Science+Business Media|Springer]] |page=50 |isbn=978-0230297326 }}</ref> Though dismissed in serious scholarship, scholars promoting such theories, often known as Pseudo-Turkologists,<ref name="Frankle">{{cite book |last=Frankle |first=Elanor |year=1948 |title=Word formation in the Turkic languages |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=Q-JMAAAAMAAJ |publisher=[[Columbia University Press]] |page=2 }}</ref> have in recent times emerged among every Turkic nationality.<ref name="SB">{{cite book |last1=Sheiko |first1=Konstantin |last2=Brown |first2=Stephen |year=2014 |title=History as Therapy: Alternative History and Nationalist Imaginings in Russia |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=vY00DwAAQBAJ |publisher=ibidem Press |pages=61–62 |isbn=978-3838265650 |quote=According to Adzhi, Huns, Alans, Goths, Burgundians, Saxons, Alemans, Angles, Langobards and many of the Russians were ethnic Turks.161 The list of non-Turks is relatively short and seems to comprise only Jews, Chinese, Armenians, Greeks, Persians, and Scandinavians... Mirfatykh Zakiev, a Chairman of the Supreme Soviet of the Tatar ASSR and professor of philology who has published hundreds of scientific works, argues that proto-Turkish is the starting point of the Indo-European languages. Zakiev and his colleagues claim to have discovered the Tatar roots of the Sumerian, ancient Greek and Icelandic languages and deciphered Etruscan and Minoan writings. }}</ref><ref name="Khazanov">{{cite book |last1=Khazanov |first1=Anatoly M. |author-link1=Anatoly Khazanov |year=1996 |title=Post-Soviet Eurasia: Anthropological Perspectives on a World in Transition |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=UCYYAQAAMAAJ |publisher=Department of Anthropology, [[University of Michigan]] |page=84 |isbn=1889480002 |quote=Discredited hypotheses — widespread in the 1920s and 1930s — about the Turkic origin of Sumerians, Scythians, Sakhas, and many other ancient peoples are nowadays popular }}</ref> A leading light among them is [[:ru:Аджиев, Мурад Эскендерович|Murad Adzhi]], who insists that two hundred thousand years ago, "an advanced people of Turkic blood" were living in the [[Altai Mountains]]. These tall and blonde Turks are supposed to have founded the world's first state, [[Idel-Ural State|Idel-Ural]], 35,000 years ago, and to have migrated as far as the [[Americas]].<ref name="SB"/> According to theories like the [[Turkish History Thesis]], promoted by pseudo-scholars, the Turkic peoples are supposed to have migrated from [[Central Asia]] to the Middle East in the [[Neolithic]]. The [[Hittites]], [[Sumer]]ians, the [[Babylonians]] and [[ancient Egypt]]ians, are here classified as being of Turkic origin.<ref name="AKOK"/><ref name="SB"/><ref name="Khazanov"/><ref name="HTM">{{cite book |last1=Hunter |first1=Shireen |author-link1=Shireen Hunter |last2=Thomas |first2=Jeffrey L. |last3=Melikishvili |first3=Alexander |year=2004 |title=Islam in Russia: The Politics of Identity and Security |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=hVhHGJkfZDoC |publisher=[[M.E. Sharpe]] |page=159 |isbn=0765612828 |quote=M. Zakiev claims that the Scythians and Sarmatians were all Turkic. He even considers the Sumerians as Turkic }}</ref> The [[Kurgan culture]]s of the early Bronze Age up to more recent times, are also typically ascribed to Turkic peoples by pan-Turkic pseudoscholars, such as [[:ru:Мизиев, Исмаил Мусаевич|Ismail Miziev]].<ref name="KF">{{cite book |last1=Kohl |first1=Philip L. |author-link1=Philip L. Kohl |last2=Fawcett |first2=Clare |year=1995 |title=Nationalism, Politics and the Practice of Archaeology |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6ZGyuVXFvssC |publisher=[[Cambridge University Press]] |pages=143, 154 |isbn=0521558395 |quote=Apparently innocuous were other contradictory and/or incredible myths related by professional archaeologists that claimed that the Scythians were Turkic-speaking }}</ref> Non-Turkic peoples typically classified as Turkic, Turkish, Proto-Turkish or [[Turanid race|Turanian]], include [[Huns]], [[Scythians]], [[Saka]]s, [[Cimmerians]], [[Medes]], [[Parthia]]ns, [[Pannonian Avars]], [[Caucasian Albania]] and various ethnic minorities in Turkic countries, such as [[Kurds]].<ref name="KF"/><ref name="Simonian">{{cite book |last=Simonian |first=Hovann |author-link=Hovann Simonian |year=2007 |title=The Hemshin: History, Society and Identity in the Highlands of Northeast Turkey |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=cl6QAgAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Routledge]] |page=354 |isbn=978-0230297326 |quote=Thus, ethnic groups or populations of the past (Huns, Scythians, Sakas, Cimmerians, Parthians, Hittites, Avars and others) who have disappeared long ago, as well as non-Turkic ethnic groups living in present-day Turkey, have come to be labeled Turkish, Proto-Turkish or Turanian }}</ref><ref name="SD">{{cite book |last1=Lornjad |first1=Siavash |last2=Doostzadeh |first2=Ali |year=2012 |title=On The Modern Politization of the Persian Poet Nezami Ganjavi |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=LhTqtSxN4ikC |publisher=CCIS |page=85 |isbn=978-9993069744 |quote=Claims that many Iranian figures and societies starting from the Medes, Scythians and Parthians were Turks), are still prevalent in countries that adhere to Pan—Turkist nationalism such as Turkey and the republic of Azerbaijan. These falsifications, which are backed by state and state backed non—governmental organizational bodies, range from elementary school all the way to the highest level of universities in these countries. }}</ref><ref name="Khazanov"/><ref name="HTM"/> Adzhi also considers [[Alans]], [[Goths]], [[Burgundians]], [[Saxons]], [[Alemanni]], [[Angles]], [[Lombards]] and many [[Russians]] as Turks.<ref name="SB"/> Only a few prominent peoples in history, such as [[Jews]], [[Chinese people]], [[Armenians]], [[Greeks]], [[Persians]] and [[Scandinavians]] are considered non-Turkic by Adzhi.<ref name="SB"/> Philologist [[Mirfatyh Zakiev]], former Chairman of the [[Supreme Soviet]] of the [[Tatar ASSR]], has published hundreds of "scientific" works on the subject, suggesting Turkic origins of [[Sumerian language|Sumerian]], [[Greek language|Greek]], [[Icelandic language|Icelandic]], [[Etruscan language|Etruscan]] and [[Minoan language|Minoan]]. Zakiev contends that "proto-Turkish is the starting point of the [[Indo-European languages]]".<ref name="SB"/> Not only peoples and cultures, but also prominent individuals, such as [[Saint George]], [[Peter the Great]], [[Mikhail Kutuzov]] and [[Fyodor Dostoevsky]] are proclaimed to have been "of Turkic origin".<ref name="SB"/> As such the Turkic peoples are supposed to have once been the "benevolent conquerors" of the peoples of most of Eurasia, who thus owe them "a huge cultural debt".<ref name="SB"/><ref>Lynn Meskell, "Archaeology Under Fire: Nationalism, Politics and Heritage in the Eastern Mediterranean and Middle East", Routledge, 1998.</ref> The [[Pseudoscience|pseudoscientific]] [[Sun Language Theory]] states that all human languages are descendants of a [[proto-Turkic language]] and was developed by the Turkish president [[Mustafa Kemal Atatürk]] during the 1930s.<ref name="peoples.ru">{{cite web|url=http://www.peoples.ru/state/king/turkey/ataturk/history.html|title=Мустафа (Кемаль) Ататюрк Мустафа Ататюрк|access-date=2 April 2016}}</ref> Kairat Zakiryanov considers the [[Japanese people|Japanese]] and [[Kazakhs|Kazakh]] [[gene pool]]s to be identical.<ref name="zak">[http://zonakz.net/articles/25509?mode=default К.Закирьянов. Я вполне допускаю мысль, что в жилах Обамы течет тюркская кровь] (Russian)</ref>

[[Philip L. Kohl]] notes that the above-mentioned theories are nothing more than "incredible myths".<ref name="KF"/> Nevertheless, the promotion of these theories have "taken on large-scale proportions" in countries such as [[Turkey]] and [[Azerbaijan]].<ref name="Simonian"/> Often associated with [[Greek genocide|Greek]], [[Assyrian genocide|Assyrian]] and [[Armenian Genocide denial]], pan-Turkic pseudoscience has received extensive state and state-backed non-governmental support, and is taught all the way from elementary school to the highest level of universities in such countries.<ref name="SD"/> Turkish and Azerbaijani students are imbued with textbooks making "absurdly inflated" claims that all [[Eurasian nomads]], including the Scythians, and all civilizations on the territory of the [[Ottoman Empire]], such as Sumer, ancient Egypt, ancient Greece, the [[Byzantine Empire]], to even further that Native Americans, pre-Columbus civilizations like [[Aztec Empire]], [[Incan Empire]] and [[Maya civilization]], to even Sub-Saharan Africa, were of Turkic origin.<ref name="Boldt">{{cite book |last1=Boldt |first1=Andreas |year=2017 |title=Historical Mechanisms: An Experimental Approach to Applying Scientific Theories to the Study of History |url=https://booksdrive.google.com/books?id=rzslDwAAQBAJ |publisher=[[Taylor & Francis]] |page=107 |isbn=978-1351816489 |quote=Violent flirtation with PanTuranism had a lasting effect on kemalist Turkey and its historical ideology: Turkish pupils are imbued by history textbooks even today with a dogma of absurdly inflated PanTurkish history—Turkish history comprises all Eurasian nomads, Indo-European (Scythian) and Turk-Mongol, plus their conquests in Persia, India China, all civilizations on the soil of the Ottoman Empire, from Sumer and Ancient Egypt via Greeks, Alexander the Great to Byzantium. }}file/d/1WUd9yyhDB9rmmjMFZ63A7hTcd8c9KBdX/view</ref> Konstantin Sheiko and Stephen Brown explain the reemergence of such pseudo-history as a form of national therapy, helping its proponents cope with the failures of the past.<ref name="SB"/>

==Notable pan-Turkists==