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."
https://twitter.com/veng_deng_8/status/1409868289552097283
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?
Bende Orta Asya Geni %8.2 çıktı. Yine de Prof. Şengör'ün ve Murat Bardakçının bahsettiği rakamın üzerinde. 🙃 Şaka bir yana, Türk devleti neden Türk-üstünlükçü ve ırkçı "Orta Asya'dan Anadolu'ya kitlesel göç" mitini çocuklara 100 yıldır okullarda okuttu, anlamak mümkün değil.
— Efe Caman, PhD (@MehmetEfe_Caman) June 30, 2021
"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.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=86RLzOPOB-0
More Turkish citizens are discovering that they are in fact not Turkish.
It is for this reason that the role of the so-called Turkish DNA Project is to create doubt among those who do genetic testing from legitimate companies like Ancestry.com and discovery that they are in fact not Turkic.
A famous case of a Turkish citizen discovering they are Greek is Yannis Vasilis Yaylalı, born Ibrahim Yaylalı.
Yannis was a former Turkish ultra-nationalist that was proud of his enmity towards Kurds and other indigenous peoples of Asia Minor.
However, he soon discovered he was actually Greek, became Christian and then became an activist for minorities in Turkey despite originally joining the Turkish Army to kill them, as reported by The Armenian Weekly.
Uzay Bulut, a Turkey-born journalist, also responded to the call by the Turkish DNA Project to boycott Ancestry.com.
“Why are Turkish nationalists so terrified of the truth? Because if they face it, the lies they’ve come up with will be shattered to the ground,” she said on Twitter.
“Through these lies, hatred has grown which made them commit so many crimes against Greeks, Armenians, Assyrians, Jews and others,” Bulut said.
“Then they will realize that by destroying those peoples, they’ve actually destroyed their own ancestors and cultural heritage,” the journalist said, adding: “The truth will set us all free and bring much needed peace to the region.”
Then they will realize that by destroying those peoples, they've actually destroyed their own ancestors and cultural heritage. The truth will set us all free and bring much needed peace to the region.
— Uzay Bulut (@bulutuzay_) May 31, 2021
