Professor Caman: Why is it so "bad" for Turks to have Greek, Armenian, Assyrian or Kurdish ancestors?

Egypt was invaded in 639 AD and converted to Islam and adopted the Arab language and culture from an Arab army of 4,000 troops.

Egyptian historiography accepts the ancient Egyptian roots of contemporary Egypt.

Anatolian indigenous people were religiously and linguistically assimilated much later.

Only a fairly marginal amount of people from Central Asia (mainly ethnic Turkic "Oghuz" jihadist warriors who became the ruling elites after the invasion) moved to Anatolia.

And Turkish historiography talks about a "mass migration" and replacement of population in Anatolia.

This manipulative and ideological historiography is the main source of Turkish racism and ethnic nationalism, as well as xenophobia towards Armenians, Greeks and Kurds (indigenous Anatolian peoples).

It is a defence mechanism in Turkey to deny Armenian, Greek and Kurdish roots.

A considerable extent of Turkey's population has Anatolian-indigenous ancestors.

Both modern DNA studies and morphologic characteristics of Turkey's population indicate this fact which is so disturbing for Turks that they completely deny it.

Today, for many Turks, it is is an insult to be called a Greek or Armenian.

This hostile and hateful sentiments derive from racist Turkish historiography based on denial of the fact that contemporary Turks are predominantly descendants of Anatolian indigenous peoples (Greek, Armenian and Kurd).

Why is it so "bad" for Turks to have Greek, Armenian, Assyrian or Kurdish ancestors?

Why do they ignore their pre-Islamic identity, history, religion, languages etc.?

The views of the author do not necessarily reflect those of Greek City Times.

Dr. Mehmet Efe Caman teaches political science at the Memorial University of Newfoundland, Canada.