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The number of Gagauz people in the world. Gagauz: origin and music. - Why is it being destroyed? Why trust is lost

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Gagauz (self-name) - a people in Moldova (135,500 people), in Ukraine (31,900 people), in Russia (10,100 people), 1,000 in Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Belarus, Latvia, Estonia, Georgia. Largely assimilated by other peoples, the Gagauz also live in Bulgaria (10,000 people), Romania (3,000 people), Greece (3,000 people), Turkey (5,000 people), Canada and Brazil. The total number is 220,000 people.

They speak the Gagauz language of the Turkic group of the Altai family. Writing based on the Latin alphabet.

Believers are Orthodox.

Hypotheses about the origin of the Gagauz are multivariate: Turkified Christians or Christianized Turks, Bulgarians who adopted the Turkic language, etc. The Seljuk theory is popular in Turkey, according to which the Gagauz are the descendants of the Malosian Turks who moved to Dobrudzha in the 13th century along with the Turkic-speaking Cumans (Cumans) of the southern Russian degrees , who founded the “Oghuz State” here. Before the resettlement of the Gagauz from the Balkans to Russia (Bessarabia), they consisted of two groups: the Khasyl Gagauz (real Gagauz) and the Bulgarian Gagauz. Most likely, the basis of the Gagauz people were Turkic-speaking nomads (Oguz, Pechenegs, Polovtsians). European researchers considered the Turkic-speaking proto-Bulgarians, who came to the Balkans from the banks of the Volga in the 670s, as the probable ancestors of the Gagauz. In the 13th century, their descendants adopted Christianity. In the Russian-Turkish wars of the late 18th - early 19th centuries, the Gagauzians acted on the side of Russia. they moved to the devastated steppes of Southern Bessarabia. Some of the Gagauz people moved to Kazakhstan in 1912-1914.

During the years of collectivization, a group of Gagauz settled in Uzbekistan, they identified with the Bulgarians. In December 1994, Gagauz autonomy was formed in Moldova. .

And although the Gagauz language is close, but by no means identical to Turkish, it is already clear from this brief definition that the historical contradictions in the development of ego-vocal Europe were especially clearly imprinted in the destinies of this people.

The main part of the Gagauz people live in the south of Moldova, in an area that received the historical name “Budzhak”. This part of the Gagauz is settled very compactly around the cities of Comrat, Ceadir-Lunga, Vulcanesti, as well as in areas adjacent to the Odessa region, and constitutes slightly less than half of the population here.

During the Second World War, some of the Gagauz were evicted to Kazakhstan, where their colonies remain. The Gagauz moved to Budjak at the beginning of the 19th century from Bulgaria.

How did such a rare combination of language and religion come about, since the Tyuk language in southern Europe was usually combined with Islam? According to most researchers, the Gagauz are direct descendants of the tribes that inhabited the “Field” - a steppe zone stretching from Altai to the Carpathians, and roamed along this steppe mainly from east to west. A significant part of the tribes spoke Turkic languages. In the first centuries of Russian history, the ancestors of modern Gagauzes turned out to be the southern neighbors of the ancient Russian state. Russian princes hired some nomads to protect them from others, which led to the adoption of Orthodoxy by non-Slavic tribes. It has not been established exactly which tribes were the ancestors of the Gagauz: Polovtsians, Pechenegs, Oguzes - Black Klobuks? The Oghuz are considered the most likely ancestors of the modern Gagauz. By the end of the 11th century, they moved further to the west and already lived on the Danube and beyond the Danube in the territory of Christian Byzantium. The current settlement of the Gagauz in the south of Moldova is associated with the collapse of the Ottoman Empire - they moved to the place of the Nogais who roamed here.

The Gagauz language - Tyuk at its core - finally took shape in the 14th - 17th centuries in close interaction with Romanian, Greek, South and East Slavic languages and absorbed a lot from them. After the loss of ancient writing, the Gagauz language remained unwritten until the middle of the 20th century. Only in 1957 was a new alphabet created based on Russian graphics. From 1958 to 1961, education was conducted in schools in the Gagauz language, but its teaching was stopped and schools were transferred to Russian. The publication of newspapers was curtailed and radio broadcasts in the Gagauz language were stopped. It was only in 1989 that language learning was resumed in a number of schools.

Materials from an article by A. Alexandrov in the magazine New Time, a free supplement for subscribers “Perestroika and National Problems”, December 1999 were used.

In the southern part of Moldova there is a small autonomous region with its own flag, coat of arms and anthem - Gagauzia. Being part of the Moldavian Republic, this territorial entity retains political independence. The map of Gagauzia is interesting because it includes 4 territorially unconnected parts, making up 3 regions of a single autonomy. It is located in the Budjak steppe - an arid, hilly part of the southern Moldavian plain. Administrative authorities are located in the municipality of Comrat.

National composition

Gagauzia is an economic, political and social ATU, the variegated national composition of which determines its originality.

The population numbers a little more than one hundred and fifty thousand people, of which almost 80% consider themselves Gagauz, a Turkic people who preach Orthodoxy. Bulgarians, Moldovans, Russians and Ukrainians are present in approximately equal shares, estimated at a few percent.

The official languages are Gagauz, Moldavian and Russian. In educational institutions they teach mainly in Russian. Business papers within the autonomy are also maintained in Russian. In the media field, Russian-language publications and channels also prevail, with equal shares of broadcasting in the Gagauz and Moldovan languages. Communication with enterprises and organizations located outside this territorial unit is conducted in Russian and Moldavian.

Sights of Gagauzia

Despite the poor geographical relief, which is an alternation of sun-scorched low hills, ravines and plains, there is something to see in Gagauzia:

This is the Christian Cathedral of St. John in Comrat, Church of St. George and the Church of St. Trinity in Dezginj, dating from the second half of the nineteenth century;
the ancient monument "Trojan's Wall", dating back to the third century AD;
historical monument dedicated to the Battle of Cahul, dating back to the eighteenth century in the city of Vulcanesti;
windmill in the village of Beshalma, dating back to the beginning of the twentieth century.

In Beshalma there is a museum of the Gagauz people, where you can get acquainted with their life and customs.

A map of Gagauzia will help you travel through this part of Moldova, which has preserved its originality, otherwise it will be difficult to understand what territory you are on.

Photos

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They speak the Gagauz language of the Turkic group of the Altai family. Writing based on the Latin alphabet.

Believers are Orthodox.

During the years of collectivization, a group of Gagauz settled in Uzbekistan, they identified with the Bulgarians. In December 1994, Gagauz autonomy was formed in Moldova. .

During the Second World War, some of the Gagauz were evicted to Kazakhstan, where their colonies remain. The Gagauz moved to Budjak at the beginning of the 19th century from Bulgaria.

Materials from an article by A. Alexandrov in the magazine New Time, a free supplement for subscribers “Perestroika and National Problems”, December 1999 were used.

I’ve been wanting to post about the Gagauz people for a long time. Who are they, where did they come from to Bessarabia? What language do they speak? Scientists are still arguing, but cannot come to a common denominator, since there are different theories on this matter. The following information is taken from the book L. S. Berg. Population of Bessarabia. Ethnographic composition and numbers. Petrograd, 1923.

The Gagauz are a people who speak Turkish but profess Orthodoxy. [The Gagauz language belongs to the Oguz subgroup of the southwestern branch of the Turkic languages. It is closest to the Turkish dialects of northeastern Bulgaria, on the basis of which foreign Turkologists (T. Kovalsky, G. Dörfer, etc.) considered the Gagauz language one of the dialects of the Turkish language. The Gagauz language has two dialects - Ceadirlung-Comrat (central) and Vulcanesti (southern) -ru. wikipedia. org].

They live mainly in the Comrat and Chadyrlung volosts of the Bendery district, in the Kubey and Ivanovo-Bulgarian volosts of the Akkerman district and in the southwestern part of Izmail.

The center of Gagauz settlements is the large village of Comrat (komur-at - “bay horse” in Tatar) in Bendery district, on the Bolshaya Yallukhe river. There are about 10 thousand inhabitants.

In addition, Gagauz people also live in the cities of Izmail district (for example, in Reni).

In total, according to the 1897 census, there were 55,790 souls in Bessarabia (2.88% of the total population), of which about 55.5 thousand were in the counties.[The total number of modern Gagauz people is about 250 thousand people. — ru. wikipedia.org].

The 1897 census calls the Gagauz Turks and may sometimes confuse them with other nationalities.

But the approximate number of Gagauz, about 55 thousand, should be correct.

In 1907, there were 76,266 Gagauz people in the counties (without cities), or 4.2% of the total non-urban population.

In Bessarabia, the Gagauz were settled in the first quarter of the 19th century, among other “Transdanubian settlers.”

It is difficult to indicate the exact years, because until recently the Gagauzes were not distinguishable from the Bulgarians.

In all likelihood, settlements were founded in 1806, when Budzhak, after being cleared of Nogais and Turks, began to be settled by Transdanubian settlers.

The oldest colony turns out to be Kurchi, at the northern end of the lake. Yalpukha, founded in 1810.

The Bessarabian Gagauzes come from the Balkan Peninsula.

They still live here along the Black Sea coast, in Varna and to the north of it, in Balchik, Kavarna, as well as in eastern Bulgaria, in the districts of New Bazaar, Provadia, Dobrich, and finally, in the Romanian Dobruja, in the village of Beydout.

In addition, the sealing wax living southeast of Adrianople, in the vicinity of Khavsa, numbering about 7,000 souls, are the same Gagauz in language and customs (they are called both sealing wax and Gagauz in Adrianople).

Finally, there is information that the Gagauz (Christian Turks) live in Macedonia, in the area of the city of Serei (Ser).

The Gagauz, according to Moshkov’s research, speak the same language as the Gadzhyals, that is, the Ottoman Turks who live in Deliorman, that is, in the quadrangle of fortresses Rushchuk, Silistria, Varna and Shumla.

Jirecek (1891) believes that the Gagauz are Cumans or Cumans.

On the contrary, Moshkov (Ethn. Review, 1900) points out that the Polovtsian language, as far as it is known from the Codex comanicus (1303), as well as from the dialect of the Lutsk and Tro Karaites, is different from Gagauz.

Moshkov suggests that the Gagauz are Torci or Uzes, a Turkish tribe very close to the Cumans and known in our chronicles as the Black Klobuks.

In the 9th century they lived east of Yaik, which separated them from the Pechenegs.

In the 11th century, the Torci moved west, and the year 1064 found them already on the Danube and beyond the Danube, within Byzantium.

Radlov believes that the name Gagauz is a spoiled gag-oguz.

Oghuz or Uze is the name of one of the Turkish tribes.

It is unknown when the Gagauzians adopted Orthodoxy, but one can think that back in the 11th or 12th century, and precisely from the Russians; the fact is that the black hoods, after their defeat by Vladimir Monomakh, were settled on the river in 1080. Rosi, in the present Kyiv province, to protect this region from the raids of nomads.

Burials of Torks were found (V.A. Gorodtsov) in southern Bessarabia, in Izyum district of Kharkov province, in Bakhmutsky of Ekaterinoslav and along the river. Rosi in Kyiv province.

http://www.bessarabia.ru/gag.htm

And now I invite you to watch a short film, which served as the reason for this posting.

Since I can’t embed the video file, you can watch the film using the link:

The Gagauz are a Turkic-speaking people who live primarily in southern Moldova and the Odessa region of Ukraine, as well as in Bulgaria, Romania, Greece, Turkey and in small numbers in Canada and Brazil. In the past they were most often called "Turkified Bulgarians". The Gagauz are baptized or Bulgarianized Turks or linguistically Turkified Christian Bulgarians. They speak a northwestern dialect of Turkish with many Slavic, especially Bulgarian and more recently Russian additions. They migrated to Bessarabia at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. There are few of them left in the original settlement area on the western coasts of the Black Sea (Romania and Bulgaria). The Gagauz occupied the southern part of the region as privileged colonists.

Today, 152,752 people of Gagauz nationality (77.5%) live in Moldova, 32,017 (16.2%) in Ukraine and 10,057 (5.1%) in Russia. There are few of them in the other former USSR republics.

Demography

In the 30 years between Soviet censuses, the number of Gagauz, including in Moldova, increased by 59.2%, which is 1.6% more than in the Soviet Union as a whole. The Gagauz population increased by 26.5% in 1960, 5% in the 1970s and 13.8% in the 1980s. Sharp decline in growth rates in the 1970s. can be explained by Soviet assimilation policies and, in particular, by the fact that after the Khrushchev Thaw from the early 1950s to the early 1960s, the development of Gagauz identity and opportunities for social and professional advancement of Gagauz people were limited in Moldova. To adapt to reality it was necessary to join the majority. Therefore, instead of the nationality “Gagauz”, many had “Moldavian” written in their passports.

According to the 1970s census, 1/3 of the Gagauz lived in cities and 2/3 in villages. The number of men and women was the same.

Gagauz: their language and who they are

The Gagauz language belongs to the southwestern (Oguz) subgroup of the Turkic group of the Altaic family. It has two spoken dialects: central (spoken in the former Ceadir-Lunga and Comrat regions of the MSSR) and southern (in Vulcanesti).

Before the revolution, folklore texts were published in Cyrillic. As part of Romania, literature, in particular religious and historical, was published in the Latin alphabet. In 1957, a writing system based on the Russian alphabet was created.

The Gagauz people maintain their native language with relative constancy. Thus, 94.3% spoke it in 1959, 93.6% in 1970, 89.3% in 1979 and 87.4% in 1989. They also speak other languages, mainly Russian It was known by 63.3% of Gagauz people in 1970, 68% in 1979 and 71.1% in 1989. Some of them are fluent in Romanian (about 6% of the population in the 1970s and 1980s).

Origin hypotheses

And the question itself “who are the Gagauzes” and their origin still remain a mystery. At the moment, neither local nor foreign experts have been able to reach a consensus, although more than 20 hypotheses have been proposed. Many of them begin with the question: “What kind of nation are the Gagauzians - Turkified Christians or Turkish Christians?” That is, were they Bulgarians who adopted the Turkish language, or Turks who converted from Islam to Orthodoxy? Did they descend from pastoralists, or were they a sedentary population that assimilated with the pastoralists?

It is difficult to answer the question about the origin of the Gagauz people as a people due to two factors. Firstly, there is a lack of information in medieval chronicles. Secondly, the Gagauz population on the Balkan Peninsula on the eve of their resettlement to the Russian Empire was heterogeneous.

Much of the early ethnic history of the Gagauz took place on the borders between what was to become a pastoral steppe country and a land inhabited by sedentary peoples. On the eve of the resettlement to Bessarabia, they consisted of two ethnic lines: Khasyl (true) and Bulgarian.

So who are the Gagauz? Both their origin and nationality have haunted scientists for many years. Most scientists are inclined to the following. The original core of the people consisted of Turkic-speaking pastoralists Oguz, Pechenegs and Cumans. One of the last migrations of the Cumans to the Balkans took place in 1241. But there is evidence that among them were Bulgarians who spoke Turkish, and part of the population who were under the protection of the Turkish Sultan Izzeddin Keykavus. In addition, European historians have often wondered whether the most likely ancestors of the Gagauz were the Turkic-speaking proto-Bulgarians, who came to the Balkans from the banks of the Volga in the 670s under the banner of the Bulgar ruler Asparukh.

Gagauz - who are they?

During the frequent Russian-Turkish wars at the end of the 18th and beginning of the 19th centuries. The Gagauz, together with the Russian army, emigrated to the steppes of southern Bessarabia, primarily within the Bendery and Izmail regions. In 1861-1862, some of them settled in the Tauride province.

A wave of Stolypin's agrarian policies between 1912 and 1914 brought some Gagauz to Kazakhstan, and then another group settled in Uzbekistan during the very difficult years of initial collectivization. To avoid losing their civil rights, in the 1930s they called themselves Bulgarians. In Mayslerg near Tashkent, where the Gagauz live, they retain this name to this day.

Traditional home

Where do the Gagauz people live? Their traditional house consists of three rooms with an additional turf wall along the main wall and a veranda supported by columns. The walls of the rooms are hung with towels and carpets (decorated with floral patterns), popular among the Gagauz, and the floors are covered with carpet runners.

Economy

The traditional economy of the Gagauz people was based on livestock farming, especially sheep breeding, and agriculture - growing grain and viticulture. Until recently, despite the cultural similarities, it was possible to easily determine who it was - a Gagauz or a Bulgarian. They always had important differences: the Bulgarians were peasants, and the Gagauz, although they were engaged in agriculture, in their worldview, in fact, were cattle breeders.

Food

Many traces of the nomadic past can be found in the cuisine of the sedentary Gagauz people. Who they are allows us to understand, for example, a special way of processing milk and preserving meat, cottage cheese and sheep's milk. Their main food product is grain in many variations. Many holidays and rituals are associated with baking bread, wheat bread (kalachi) and unleavened flatbread.

A favorite dish of the Gagauz people is a multi-layer pie stuffed with sheep's milk cheese and doused with sour cream before baking. Other delicacies include pies made from pumpkin and from the first milk of a cow that has just calved. The traditional ritual dish called Kurban, which is a porridge made from Bulgarian wheat with a slaughtered “sacrificial” ram, is further evidence of the Balkan origins of the Gagauz, a people with a steppe pastoral past. Spicy meat sauces occupy a special place in the national Gagauz cuisine. One of them combines onions and finely granulated porridge, and the other is prepared on the basis of tomatoes. House red wine is served with lunch and dinner. An indispensable component of the festive table is jellied meat.

Cloth

At the end of the 19th century, the costume of Gagauz women consisted of a canvas shirt, a sleeveless dress, a robe and a large black scarf. In winter, they wore a dress with sleeves, a jacket with fabric and a sleeveless fur coat. Obligatory features of women's clothing were earrings, bracelets, beads, and among rich Gagauz women - a necklace of gold coins. According to a pre-revolutionary researcher, women wore so much jewelry that they covered their entire chest to the waist.

The traditional appearance of a Gagauz (photo given in the article) included a shirt, trousers, a wide red belt, and in the summer - a hat. The winter hat was made of astrakhan sheep wool. The shepherd's clothing consisted of a regular shirt combined with sheepskin trousers with wool inside, a sleeveless fur coat and a short tanned jacket, sometimes decorated with red and green stitching.

Socio-political organization

Recently, with the increasing demand for minorities in various professions, there has been a need for improved mass communication. Unfortunately, efforts in this direction remain limited. For example, in 1988, 5.5 books were published in Gagauz for every 100 people of Gagauz nationality, compared to 297 books in Moldavian (i.e. Romanian) for every 100 people, 1293 per 100 in Estonia and an average of 807 in the former USSR as a whole.

The prospects for the survival of the national culture and independent existence of the Gagauz people are insignificant. They have the lowest ratio of persons with higher education in Moldova, virtually no artistic and very weak scientific intelligentsia, and an acute shortage of intellectuals in general. In 1989, half as many Gagauz people studied at public universities and polytechnics as in 1918. Accordingly, they are poorly represented in government, professional fields, and the service sector. This led to the national revival movement.

On November 12, 1989, an extraordinary session of representatives of the Supreme Council of Moldova adopted a resolution calling for the creation of the Gagauz Autonomous Soviet Socialist Republic within the Moldavian SSR. However, after 3 days, the Presidium of the Supreme Council of Moldova was unable to confirm, thereby violating the principle of national self-determination. Moreover, the Moldovan press began a campaign of anti-Gagauz propaganda. Despite a number of statements about the revival of the Gagauz, the lack of necessary conditions, including national-territorial autonomy, would make their implementation difficult, and they would be doomed to assimilation.

Religion

Gagauz - who are they religiously? Most of them are Orthodox Christians. Their ancestors were Turkic-speaking pastoral tribes who came from the southern Russian steppe, settled on the sea coast of northeastern Bulgaria and adopted Christianity in the 13th century. Despite the devotion to Christianity that had taken root among them a century and a half before the Turkish conquest, the Gagauz had only a superficial understanding of the basic dogma of the religion. Although at the beginning of the 20th century. While there were a few translated books in the local villages, there is no reliable evidence that the Turkish translation of the New Testament (distributed by the Bible Society in London and using the Greek alphabet) was widely available to them.

Historical context

After the Soviet annexation of Bessarabia in 1940, Gagauz settlements were divided between the Moldavian and Ukrainian SSRs. The areas where the Gagauz live are among the poorest in Moldova. Under Soviet rule, they were subject to Russification through the adoption of the Cyrillic alphabet, introduced in 1957, and through teaching in Russian in schools from the late 1950s. About 73% of Gagauz people consider Russian their second language, and the majority of the political elite are Russian speakers.

Within the Soviet Union, the Gagauz were the largest Turkic population that did not have its own territorial entity. Throughout the Soviet period, their ethnic self-awareness remained poorly developed. This situation quickly changed in the late 1980s as fears of Romanianization arose. Although a 1989 law allowed the use of the Gagauz language, there were strikes against raising the level of Moldovan to state status. In response to the declaration of sovereignty of Moldova, the authorities in Comrat announced the creation of the Gagauz SSR.

Such actions led to a period of dual power in the region. In 1992-1993, local paramilitary forces periodically clashed with the Moldovan authorities, but did not intervene in the Transnistrian conflict. But Comrat collaborated with Tiraspol in promoting the idea of a confederation of 3 states. Since 70% of the Gagauz live in Moldova, they do not consider themselves a national minority, but people who have the right to national territory. The Turkish embassy supported the more moderate idea of autonomy in the context of a single country.

Law on the status of Gagauzia

In February 1994, the Gagauz people abandoned the idea of confederalizing the country and agreed to participate in elections if their demands for autonomy were met. The Russian-speaking bloc of parties won in the region. In July 1994, a new Constitution of the country was approved with an article guaranteeing autonomy for Gagauz settlements.

In December, the law “On the special legal status of Gagauzia” was adopted. In the preamble, the Gagauz were recognized as a people, not an ethnic group or ethnic population, as Soviet theory indicated, with the right to self-determination in Moldova. The initiative combined two principles: it linked nationality to a specific territory and the concept of constitutional guarantees, devolution of powers, representative bodies, checks and balances. The law also allowed self-determination of Gagauzia, Moldova will change its status.

According to the law, the autonomous territorial entity (ATO) received its own legislative body, Halk Toplushu, elected for 4 years, and executive bodies headed by the Bashkan, who held the post of Deputy Prime Minister of Moldova. Both posts were endowed with significant powers. In addition, Gagauz, Moldavian and Russian were to become the three official languages. The ATO received its own court, police and security agencies in central and regional jurisdiction. The central authorities retained control of finance, defense and foreign policy.

On March 5, 1995, a referendum was held to determine the borders of Gagauzia. On May 28, 1995, elections of the Bashkan and the People's Assembly took place, and a referendum was held to determine the administrative center of the region, which became Comrat.

Although most political forces in Moldova have reached a consensus on the creation of territorial autonomy, it has also generated significant opposition. Throughout the early 2000s, allegations by opposition groups in Gagauz-Yeri about government interference in the affairs of the autonomous region, including electoral interference, also intensified, and in 2004 the centrist opposition alliance Our Moldova accused the PCRM of “totalitarianism” in Gagauz-Yeri. Yeri after the resignation of the mayor of Comrat, Konstantin Tausandzhi, accused of embezzlement.

Current issues

With backward industry and no other sources of income other than agriculture, Gagauzia is still Moldova's poorest region and relies heavily on subsidies from the central government. There is widespread concern that further integration with the EU will negatively impact already low living standards and trade with Russia. Consequently, pro-Russian and anti-EU sentiment is strong. What kind of a nation the Gagauz are is evidenced by the fact that in 2014, almost 99% of them voted in a referendum to join the Eurasian Economic Council rather than for closer ties with the EU.

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