Impressions from the Gagauz Turkic World

The question of how the chaotic process in our southern neighbor, Syria, will develop remains an uncertainty.

If you wish, let us step away from this topic and take a look at the Gagauz Turks, one of the External Turks who may seem distant to us, whom some may not even be aware of, but whom I see as culturally close to us.

With this article I have penned, I would like to briefly reflect on what I saw and learned about the Gagauz Turkic World living in the Gagauz Autonomy, which is part of the Republic of Moldova, where I was present for the Federal Union of European Nationalities (FUEN) Turkic Minorities/Communities Working Group (TAG) meeting between November 15-18, 2018.

ARE WE KNOWLEDGEABLE ABOUT THE GAGAUZ TURKS?

It is possible to fly from Istanbul to Chisinau, the capital of the Republic of Moldova. From there, one reaches Comrat, the capital of the Gagauz Autonomous Republic, with a road journey of approximately 2 hours.

It is known that the Gagauz people, apart from a 5-day period of independence, remained under the sovereignty of Russia, Romania, Germany (during the Second World War period), and the Soviet Union.

With the initiatives toward democracy in the Soviet Union in the late 1980s, national consciousness began to spread among Gagauz intellectuals, and the cultural and economic problems of the Gagauz began to be brought to the agenda. In 1988, they founded the "Gagauz People's Movement."

The "Gagauz People's Movement" held its first congress in May 1989 and demanded an autonomous Gagauz Republic, with its capital in Comrat in southern Moldova, which would be independent in its own cultural and economic affairs but autonomous and affiliated with Moldova.

As a result, the Gagauz Autonomous Republic, known today as Gagauzia, has its own anthem and flag.

It can be said that the Gagauz people are very similar to the Yörüks in Anatolia in terms of their physical appearance, facial features, and dialect.

The Gagauz, who give the country its name, are of Oghuz Turkic origin. It is thought that the word Gagauz is derived from Gök-Oğuz (Sky-Oghuz).

Just as there were Turks who migrated to Romania and Hungary, the Gök-Oghuz also initially settled in the Romania-Dobruja region.

While many of the Turks who migrated to Europe in history were assimilated, the Gagauz preserved their language and culture. One of the main reasons for their migration from the Romania region to where they are now was the resistance they showed against assimilation.

The fact that their traditions and language are the same as those in Turkey shows that both of these values have been preserved and maintained since Central Asia.

It is stated that the most important elements that keep the Gagauz Turkic are their stubborn sense of Turkic consciousness and the Orthodox rituals performed in the Turkish language.

THE ECONOMY OF GAGAUZIA

The population of Gagauzia is 160 thousand. 33 thousand of them work abroad. 25 thousand of this number are in Russia. It is one of the poorest places in Europe. The currency of the autonomous state is the Moldovan Leu. Its economy is based on agriculture. The wine and agricultural products they produce are sold to Russia.

Among the Gagauz, who grow very high-quality grapes, wine is made in almost every house. Guests are not allowed to leave without being offered wine. In addition to grapes, sunflower, tobacco, and soy farming are also carried out. The threshing methods of the Gök-Oghuz are also like those of the Anatolian Turks. Animal husbandry is also practiced. They had taken us to a horse breeding farm.

EDUCATION AND CULTURE

There is the "Comrat University," which was established with the contributions of the Republic of Turkey, and besides these, there is the "Atatürk Cultural House" and museums.

Although their culture is fundamentally Turkic culture, they have also been quite influenced by the cultures of neighboring nations. The importance they place on cleanliness is quite remarkable in public areas. Their hospitals and schools are quite clean. The Gagauz are trying to keep Turkish hospitality alive in Europe.

Traces of the Shaman-Sky God belief, which remains from the old Turkic faith, are seen a lot among the Gagauz. Terms such as "Mother Earth" and "Mother Land," which are within the nature cult, are commonly used. They also celebrate holidays such as Nevruz, Hızır, and Hıdırellez. Although it does not exist in Christianity, a small animal is sacrificed when starting almost every job or upon achieving a success, and it is distributed to the poor and needy. A Gagauz family chooses another Gagauz family as a sibling family. They help each other in difficult times. They state that this is a continuation of the "Andalık (Brotherhood) System" in ancient Turkic culture.

They have their own folk songs. However, these folk songs are very close to those in Western Thrace. They play the kopuz.

WHAT IS THE SIMILARITY BETWEEN GAGAUZ TURKISH AND TURKEY TURKISH?

Gagauz is pure Turkish. It is one of the languages closest to Turkey Turkish. Today, there are three official languages in Gagauzia: Gagauz, Romanian, and Russian. It is possible to say that the Gagauz are increasingly attaching more importance to their native language. They encourage their children to remain loyal to their native language by saying, "Hey, what kind of Gagauz are you, you don't know how to speak like us: What kind of Gagauz are you, you can't speak like us."

In 1993, they abandoned the Russian "Cyrillic alphabet" and adopted the "Latin alphabet." The first names of the Gagauz Turks are generally not Turkish, such as Mariya, Dimitri, Ivan, Saveliy, and Alinka, but all of their surnames are of Turkish origin, such as Sari, Kuru, Demirci, Kazanci, and Tasoglu.

The words in the Gagauz Turkish spoken in rural areas are almost the same as in Turkey Turkish. However, while all other Turkic languages form sentences with the subject, object, and predicate order, in Gagauz, sentences are formed with the subject, predicate, and object order due to the influence of European languages. Although this situation is also seen in the Turkish of Western Thrace and Bulgarian Turks, it is not as established in the language as it is in Gagauz. For example, while one says "Ben elmayı yedim" (I ate the apple) in Turkey Turkish, it is said as "Ben yedim almayı" in Gagauz Turkish.

Another difference is observed in the emergence of different sound events.

For example, the word-initial /y/, /h/, word-medial /h/, /ğ/, /y/, and word-final /r/ sounds in Turkey Turkish mostly drop in Gagauz Turkish.

Such as yemek-imek, yahni-yaanı, uğra-uura, haber-aber, sabah-sabaa, büyük-büük, öğrenci-üürenici.

Despite these small differences mentioned, the similarity is at very high levels, especially in cultural elements such as folk songs, songs, sayings, and maniler (quatrains).

For example, "Ana dilim - tatlı bal/ Salkım çiçää kokusu/ Şırasını üklü dal/ Vermiş gömeç dolusu!" (My mother tongue - sweet honey/ The scent of the cluster flower/ The branch laden with its juice/ Has given a honeycomb full!) — "Dionis Tanasoglu, writer, poet, scientist"

In short, it is possible to communicate with people in the villages with a Turkish that is over 80 percent understandable. However, depending on the rate of urbanization and education, a large number of words from the Russian language have entered Gagauz Turkish, and the similarity has decreased. This situation stemmed from the fact that the language of culture and science was Russian during the Soviet Union period.

With the establishment of the Autonomous Gagauz Land, the adoption of Latin letters (1), and Turkey's recent material and moral investments, a decrease in the influence of Russian culture is expected.

RELIGIOUS BELIEFS

The Gagauz have adopted Orthodoxy as their religious belief. However, they perform their worship even in Turkish. Since they did not encounter Muslim societies on their way while coming to the Balkans from the north of the Black Sea, they became Christians where they went. Many Gagauz, despite being Christian, do not eat pork, and some also circumcise their male children.

They also have beliefs that do not exist in Christianity. The Gagauz have combined the "Sky God Religion," which is an old Turkic belief, with Christianity and created a belief structure. Although there is no ritual of animal sacrifice in Christianity, the Gagauz sacrifice an animal called "Iduk:Adak" (Vow).

HOW DID THE RELATIONSHIP BETWEEN THE GAGAUZ WORLD AND ATATÜRK'S REPUBLIC BEGIN?

It is known that Atatürk's interest in Turkic communities outside of Turkey did not recognize political and religious boundaries. An example of this can be given with the Gagauz World. Hamdullah Suphi Tanrıöver, the Ambassador to Bucharest appointed by Atatürk, took a close interest in our Gagauz Turkic kinsmen of the Orthodox sect. He chose embassy staff from the Gagauz; then, by prioritizing talented Gagauz children, he sent a student group of approximately 20 people to Turkey for education in the first stage. Later, this number exceeded 200. While some of them returned to their country and served their community with a sense of Turkic identity, those who remained in Turkey held important positions in the fields of science and culture.

Among this group, many Gök-Oghuz Turks can be counted, such as Prof. Dr. Emin Mutaf (Georgiy Mutaf) (2), who worked as a faculty member at Ege University Faculty of Agriculture, Prof. Dr. Özdemir Çobanoğlu (Vasili Çoban), Prof. Dr. Osman İkizli (Anatoliy İkizli), and Ali Kaygı (Georgiy Kaykı).

In summary, while being seen off from the Gagauz Autonomous Region, I was left with a feeling of having departed from a place that is perceived as very far from us, but which is perhaps much closer than some countries in the Turkic World in terms of culture and language.

I would like to go to Gagauzia again. Because the most important cultural element that unites us is "Ana Sözü" (Mother Word), as the name of a Gagauz newspaper suggests, in other words, our Mother Tongue, "Turkish."

(1) Examples of some books and magazines written in Gagauz Turkish after the adoption of Latin letters today: Nikolay Baboglu-Gagauz Folkloru, Gagauz Korafları, Gagauz Halk Masalları, Gagauzların IV Dünna Kongresi, Üürenmak Kiyadı. Gagauz Halkının Kulturası Hem Adetlerİ, Sabaa Yıldızı. Gagauziya-Avtonom Bölgesi. Quarterly Journal Issue: 61/2015. Gagauziya Autonomous Region, Comrat

(2) Prof. Dr. Emin Mutaf, who was also my professor, was one of the pioneers of Agricultural Mechanization Science in Turkey. His birthplace is Comrat / Gagauz Land. He received his primary, secondary, and high school education in Comrat. He received his university education at the Ankara Faculty of Agriculture between 1934-1939 and came to the Ege University Faculty of Agriculture in 1958 and established the Department of Agricultural Machinery. The name of our professor, Prof. Dr. Emin Mutaf, whom we sent to eternity in 1999, will always be remembered for his outstanding contributions to our country's Agricultural Mechanization and scientific life.