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  • George S.
    Senior Member
    • Aug 2009
    • 10116

    Are Macedonians Bulgarian or are Bulgarians Macedonian?

    by Risto Stefov

    April 2005

    [email protected]

    The notion of superiority only breeds ignorance and a lack of compassion. During the early 19th century the word Bulgar was synonymous with the uneducated peasant. Ironically, today some Bulgarians call educated people from Macedonia, Bulgarian and those who are uneducated they call Macedonian.

    It seems that the Bulgarian State, like the Greek State, is abusing history to score political points to the detriment of the Macedonian people.

    While the rest of the world is moving forward loosening its grip on minority rights, Greece and Bulgaria are tightening theirs. Like the Greeks, the Bulgarians claim that "there are no Macedonians and that those claiming to be Macedonian are actually Bulgarian".

    Not only is this false but according to history the opposite is true.

    According to history the first Bulgars, a Turkish Tartar tribe driven out of its homeland in Asia, arrived and settled in the region north of the Danube River.

    The Bulgars were a pagan people whom the Khazars, another barbarian tribe, had forced down toward the Danube delta in the latter part of the 7th century AD.

    Organized under the leadership of Khan Asparuch, the Bulgars for the first time successfully crossed the Danube River in 670 AD and invaded Pravoslav (Byzantine) territory.

    The Bulgar tribe, consisting of no more than 250,000 oriental nomads, conquered the lands immediately south of the Danube River and settled there among the indigenous Slavic population.

    In the following year, Constantine IV, the Pravoslav Emperor, agreed to a Bulgar treaty. By virtue of this treaty the Bulgars were recognized as an independent kingdom, occupying lands south of the Danube into the Thracian plain. Soon afterwards the Bulgars established their capital at Pliska.

    Initially the Bulgars spoke an Asiatic language but as a consequence of living among a Slav majority they were obliged to learn the Slav language.

    Today's Bulgarians speak a Slavic language as a consequence of being assimilated by the indigenous Slavic speaking population that lived south of the Danube. "The Bulgarians had adopted Slavic language and culture. It is paradoxical that the Bulgarians, a Turkic people who adopted Slavic language and customs, took a significant role in standardizing Slavic writing." (Page 197, John Shea, Macedonia and Greece The Struggle to Define a New Balkan Nation, Jefferson, North Carolina: McFarland, 1997)

    The reason the Bulgars adopted the Slavic language was due to the overwhelming numerical superiority of the Slavs, most of them being Macedonians from ancient and Roman times. The true Bulgars and their Turko-Tartar rulers were only a small minority in comparison.

    By the late 8th century AD, the great majority of the Turko-Tartar invaders were assimilated amongst the vast indigenous Slav population. The Khans had disappeared and were replaced by Slav speaking rulers with Slavic names.

    There are no historical accounts of the Bulgars ever conquering and occupying the entire territory of Macedonia or having killed off or displaced the indigenous Macedonian population.

    There are two historical arguments which modern Bulgarians make to lay claims on Macedonian territory and on the Macedonian people;

    1. The Bulgarians had a kingdom of which Macedonia was part, and
    2. Macedonians speak a dialect of the Bulgarian language.

    It is true, as mentioned earlier, there was a Bulgar kingdom but it never at any time extended far south to occupy all of Macedonia.

    It is also true that there was a period of time during which the Romans and the Pravoslavs occupied and held geographical Macedonia, as did the Ottomans for over five hundred years. Does that make Macedonia Roman, Pravoslav, Ottoman and Bulgarian?

    Additionally, the Goths, Huns, Avars, etc. also overran and held parts of Macedonia for a number of years. Should their ancestors too be making claims on Macedonia?

    There are, however, stronger historical arguments which would allow Macedonians to make claims on Bulgarian territory, language and people;

    1. The region called Pirin Macedonia which Bulgaria occupied in 1912 and is holding to this day belongs to Macedonia.

    2. The region south of the Danube River where Bulgaria is today once belonged to Macedonia and was ruled by Macedonian kings including Philip II and Alexander III.

    3. During the Roman conquests many Macedonians fled Macedonia with their families and settled in the region of present day Bulgaria.

    4. As mentioned earlier, Macedonians spoke the Slavic language before the Bulgars. The Bulgars learned their oral language from the Slavs.

    5. Also as mentioned earlier, the Bulgarians received the written form of their language from the Macedonians.

    [Was it not the Macedonians brothers Kiril and Metodi from Solun, (whom the Greeks claim to be Greek and the Bulgarians claim to be Bulgarian), who gave the Bulgars the Macedonian alphabet and taught them how to read and write?]

    On the question of territory;

    Only the Macedonians have a legitimate claim on Pirin Macedonia since that region was always part of geographical Macedonia and historically Macedonians occupied it and still occupy it to this day.

    On the question of language;

    Macedonians spoke the Slavic language centuries before the arrival of the Bulgars and if anything, it is the Bulgarians who speak a dialect of the Macedonian language.

    On the question of nationality;

    If the modern Bulgarians were the true ancestors of the Khans, then they would bear Asiatic features like slanted eyes and wide cheekbones. Undoubtedly they would also speak an Asiatic language and would exhibit Asiatic customs and mannerisms.

    Unfortunately very little or none of those features are present in modern Bulgarians. In fact, modern Bulgarians share more characteristics with the Macedonians than they do with the original Asiatic Turko-Tartar predecessors from whom they claim their ancestry.
    This should not be a surprise since the vast majority of the Bulgarian population is not at all related to the original Bulgars.

    How then can the Macedonians be Bulgarians since the vast majority of Bulgarians themselves are not true descendants of the original Bulgars?

    Could it be that modern Bulgarians are more Macedonian than they care to admit? (more on this later)

    The real Bulgarian issues with Macedonia and the Macedonian people unfortunately have little to do with race relations and more to do with politics and the Bulgarian obsession with possessing Macedonia.

    There are many Bulgarians who to this day are obsessed with the San Stefano myth of a Greater Bulgaria.

    "The Bulgarians want 'greatness' and that comes with a large country as opposed to having a complex or feeling 'less worth', which is typical of a small country. They are obsessed with history and delusions. Their national ideology is projected to the maximum when all of Macedonia as a territory, culture and history is included. The acknowledgment of the Macedonian identity will without a doubt bring psychological cataclysms to Bulgaria. Look at the fanatic fight they wage against us based on ideological and psychological factors, none of which are practical today. Today the politics for taking over Macedonia and creating a 'Greater Bulgaria' are invalid. The unification of Europe has made such aspirations an absurdity. However, emotion in Bulgaria is still stronger than reason.
    Acknowledging that a Macedonian nation, language and such exist is the same as Bulgaria acknowledging that a large part of their own ideology is a lie. We have Macedonians living here who, as Bulgarians, have earned great privileges and high status in the government and private sector. Their influence is huge and our existence threatens them and alleges that they are our expatriates, Macedonians, not true Bulgarians. That affects not only their peace of mind but also to some degree their attained status. Even if we don't have any intentions or allegations with respect to the rights of every man, they still can not come to grips with our national divide. This is a problem not only for ordinary people but also for politicians of Macedonian decent.

    The belief that Macedonians are Bulgarians has become dogmatic and anything else would be interpreted as slanderous. Without any doubt politicians do know that Macedonians exist in Bulgaria. However if they admit to it publicly they will be labeled traitors and will bid their political or social status goodbye, so they choose to be silent and take the easy way out. As a result, all political entities have become slaves to the lies of their predecessors. Others, with a bit more conscience, earn easy points by acting patriotic towards the Macedonians. In any event the Bulgarian political hierarchy is unable to free itself from the jaws of their own delusion. They need help from the outside. In that respect we find ourselves to be the only realists and true patriots in this country because we are not only fighting for ourselves but also to free them from their terrible tyranny and political catastrophes.

    When one can't look the truth in the eye, the only option left is to negate it. Bulgarians negate the existence of Macedonians because they fear the truth will bring them unexpected results. Bulgaria needs to face the truth and acknowledge that we exist. Bulgaria will have to change its laws and live up to its obligations with regard to international documents it has signed in upholding human rights." (Page 8 and 9 interview with Stojko Stojkov, OMO Pirin Political Party, Canadian Macedonian News, December 2004) Stojko Stojkov is a Bulgarian citizen of Macedonian descent, born and raised in Bulgaria. He is currently co-president of the five member executive OMO Pirin Political party inside Bulgaria.

    Ever since 1878 and the San Stefano myth of a Greater Bulgaria, the Bulgarian State has been obsessed with possessing Macedonia at any cost.

    Over the last century Bulgaria has done everything in its power to possess Macedonia.

    During the late 19th and early 20th century it established the Exarchist Church inside Macedonia in an attempt to turn Macedonians into Bulgarians.

    During the 1903 Macedonian uprising against the Ottomans it interfered in Macedonia's internal affairs in an attempt to turn the tide in its favour.

    During the first Balkan war in 1912 it invaded Macedonia under the guise of liberation and along with its allies, occupied it. In 1913 it started the second Balkan war in an attempt to gain more of Macedonia's territory.

    During the Great War (WWI) it joined the Central powers (Austria-Hungary and Germany) because they offered Bulgaria a larger portion of Macedonia than the Central powers (France, Britain and Russia).

    During the Second World War (WWII) it joined the Axis powers (Germany, Italy and Japan) again because they offered Bulgaria a larger piece of the Macedonian pie than did the Allies (USA, Britain, China, the Soviet Union, etc.).

    To quote the Bulgarian War Minister General Nikolaev, "We care little about the British, Germans, French, Russians, Italians, Austrians or Hungarians; our only thought is Macedonia. Whichever of the two groups of Powers will enable us to conquer it will have our alliance!" (Page 154, Radin, IMRO and the Macedonian Question)

    To this day the Bulgarian State refuses to recognize the Macedonian language and nationality and punishes those who feel Macedonian. Bulgaria refuses to accept the reality that Macedonia is not Bulgarian.

    Since the cold war Bulgaria has implemented a number of policies to entice Macedonians to declare themselves Bulgarian. Among the enticements included are free or inexpensive university education for students of Macedonian origin and Bulgarian citizenships for Macedonians. These perks, however, are not without strings attached. To qualify, Macedonians are required to sign papers declaring themselves Bulgarian.

    Those Macedonian students who accept the Bulgarian offer do not do it because they want to be Bulgarians, they do it because they want to get an education. Students who want a university education and can't afford it or do not have the qualifications to attend university at home will jump at the chance to better themselves. What most don't realize, however, is that Bulgaria does not do this for nothing and eventually they will have to pay back, sometimes in undesirable ways.

    More recently Bulgaria is offering Macedonians from the Republic of Macedonia, Bulgarian citizenship. Those too come with a price. To qualify Macedonians must declare themselves Bulgarians. Again, Macedonians do this NOT because they want to be Bulgarians but as a means of obtaining a European Union passport so that they can shop and vacation in European Union countries

    I don't blame the innocent people for desiring to better themselves but I do blame the Bulgarian State for its deviousness and underhandedness.

    Here is an instance where a devout Macedonian turned into a Bulgarian agent (with Bulgarian help no doubt);

    "At the end of January of this year, on the weekly show "Every Sunday", "Vcjaka Nedelja" - which airs every Sunday at 5:30pm on Bulgarian National Television - the topic of debate was whether or not the Macedonian language should be used in schools and on TV within the Republic of Bulgaria.

    Though it was obvious that the underlying arguments put forth by the show's host, Kevork Kevorkian, promoted the usual Bulgarian nationalist hard-line: that Macedonians do not exist and that their language is a dialect of Bulgarian, the show was particularly bad in this instance because of its inability to present the other side of the argument, namely to allow members of the sizable Macedonian minority in Bulgaria as well as Macedonian activists in Bulgaria to voice their opinion.

    Instead, the program showcased a fervent, anti-Macedonian, Greek nationalist named Christopher Tzavela, who ranted about how Macedonians do not exist and how their language should never be allowed on television and in schools."

    (Taken from the March 13th, 2005 Macedonian Human Rights Movement of Canada Press Release entitled "MHRMC Condemns Defamation of Ethnic Macedonians on Bulgarian National Television").

    Who is Christopher Tzavela and why is he taking a hard stand against the Macedonian people?

    Christopher Tzavela is a Macedonian from Rula, Lerinsko (Lerin Region). I know of Mr. Tzavela from his work as a volunteer in the United Macedonian Organization of Canada. For several years during the late 1950's and early 1960's he was part of the United Macedonian Executive Committee in charge of public relations. I also know that he was involved in publishing the United Macedonian "Macedonian Life" magazine.

    Mr. Tzavela was also involved in the planning stages of building St. Clement of Ohrid, the first Macedonian Orthodox Church in Canada.

    In fact, as I recall, Mr. Tzavela was such a devout Macedonian activist that he was invited to be a special guest in the 1963 Canadian delegation to Skopje.

    When the delegation completed its tour, Mr. Tzavela remained behind to further his education at the University of Skopje.

    After the earthquake he returned to Canada and then left for Bulgaria permanently.

    Since then, I am told, he became an historian, writer, ethnographer and TV producer.

    Now I have learned that Mr. Tzavela has become an "anti-Macedonian Greek nationalist".

    It is unclear, at least to me, why Mr. Tzavela left the Republic of Macedonia. Some say he became disgruntled with the authorities when they did not offer him a ministerial position in the Macedonian Government, but only he knows the truth.

    Why did a devoted Macedonian activist turn into a Bulgarian propagandist? Was it the lure of Bulgarian enticement? We will never know for sure.

    The Macedonian minority in Bulgaria

    In my estimation, Bulgaria has the largest Macedonian minority in the world. It is estimated that approximately two million Macedonians live in Bulgaria today.

    Many Macedonians have made Bulgaria their home since the Ottoman days.

    Macedonians left by the thousands during and after the 1903 Ilinden uprising and made Bulgaria their home.

    Thousands left during the Ottoman occupation as pechalbari (migrant workers) and made Bulgaria their home.

    Those thousands of Macedonians who were forced out of their homes in 1912, because they refused to become Greek (after Greece occupied Aegean Macedonian), went to Bulgaria and made Bulgaria their home.

    Many prominent people, including high ranking politicians, living in Sofia today are Macedonians. Most of them are from Aegean Macedonia.

    Approximately four times more Macedonians immigrated to Bulgaria in the last century than Turkish Tartars did in the last millennium. Clearly shouldn't that make Bulgaria more Macedonian than Bulgarian?

    It is time for Bulgaria to give up its aspirations for Macedonia and join the democratic world by granting its citizens (of Macedonian descent) minority status with full rights and privileges.
    "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
    GOTSE DELCEV

    Comment

    • Razer
      Banned
      • May 2012
      • 395

      This is your evidence???!!! Wow mate, tell me you're kidding...Yes, I would believe this youtibe video and ignore the academia...

      Bulgarians and Tatars - YouTube
      Last edited by Razer; 05-22-2012, 02:54 PM.

      Comment

      • George S.
        Senior Member
        • Aug 2009
        • 10116

        Bulgarians

        Bulgarians have been recognized as a separate ethnic group on the Balkan Peninsula since the time of Tsar Boris I (852-89), under whom the Bulgars were converted to Christianity. Early historians began mentioning them as a group then descended from Tartars; however, it is not clear whether such references were to the earliest Bulgarians, who were Asiatic and migrated to the Balkan Peninsula from the Ural Mountains of present-day Russia, or to the Slavs that preceded them in what is now Bulgaria. By the end of the ninth century, the Slavs and the Bulgarians shared a common language and a common religion, and the two cultures essentially merged under the name "Bulgarian".

        Acceptance of the Eastern Orthodox church as the state religion of the First Bulgarian Empire in A.D. 864 shaped the Bulgarian national identity for many centuries thereafter. The Bulgarian language, which was the first written Slavic language, replaced Greek as the official language of both church and state once the Cyrillic alphabet came into existence in the ninth century. National literature flourished under the First Bulgarian Empire, and the church remained the repository of language and national feeling during subsequent centuries of occupation by the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.

        Ottoman rule was the most formidable test of Bulgarian ethnic identity. The Ottoman Turks forced many of their Christian subjects to convert to Islam, and the Turks differentiated their subjects only by religion, not by nationality. The latter policy meant that the empire usually considered the Bulgarians as Greeks because of their common Orthodox religion. Turkish recognition of the Greek Orthodox Church gave the Greeks the power to replace Bulgarian clergy and liturgy with Greek, further threatening Bulgarian national identity. Under the Ottomans, some Bulgarians who had converted to Islam lost their national consciousness and language entirely. Others (the Pomaks) converted but managed to retain their old language and customs.

        During the Ottoman occupation, the monasteries played an important role in preserving national consciousness among educated Bulgarians. Later, during the National Revival period of the nineteenth century, primary schools and reading rooms (chitalishta) were established to foster Bulgarian culture and literacy in cities throughout Bulgaria. The vast majority of uneducated peasants, however, preserved their customs in the less accessible regions in the mountains. Traditional folk songs and legends flourished there and became richer and more widely known than the literature created by educated Bulgarians.

        Bulgarian is classified as a South Slavic language, together with Serbo-Croatian, Slovenian, and Macedonian. One of the oldest written languages in Europe, Bulgarian influenced all the other Slavic languages, especially Russian, in early medieval times. In turn the Bulgarian language was enriched by borrowings from other civilizations with which it came into contact. Besides 2,000 words from the pre-Cyrillic Old Slavonic language, Bulgarians borrowed religious terms and words used in daily life from the Greeks; vocabulary relating to political, economic, and day-to-day life from Turkish; and many Russian words to replace their Turkish equivalents as Ottoman influence waned during the National Revival period. In the postwar era, many West European words began to appear in Bulgarian, especially in technological fields.
        "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
        GOTSE DELCEV

        Comment

        • Razer
          Banned
          • May 2012
          • 395

          None of your evidence is academic so they have zero weight, sorry. I mean, this is on the borderland of comedy. No offence.

          Comment

          • George S.
            Senior Member
            • Aug 2009
            • 10116

            Tatars
            From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
            Jump to: navigation, search
            "Tatar" redirects here. For other uses, see Tatar (disambiguation).
            Tatars
            (Tatarlar / Татарлар / Volga Tatar)
            RuslanChagaev.jpg Safina signing autographs.jpg
            Shihabetdin Marcani.jpg Gawrilowbrest.jpg
            Professor G. Akhatov.jpg Timati.jpg
            Bilya.JPG Tuqay.jpg
            Ruslan Chagaev • Dinara Safina
            Şihabetdin Märcani • Pyotr Gavrilov
            Gabdulkhay Akhatov • Timati •
            Diniyar Bilyaletdinov • Ğabdulla Tuqay
            Total population
            ca. 6.8 million
            Regions with significant populations
            Russia 5,554,601 [1]
            Uzbekistan 324,080 [2]
            Kazakhstan 261,000
            Ukraine 254,400
            Tajikistan 97,000 [3]
            Turkmenistan 60,000
            Kyrgyzstan 52,000
            Languages

            Tatar, Russian
            Religion

            Islam majority, Russian Orthodox minority

            Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar / Татарлар, sometimes spelled Tartars) are a Turkic people, numbering around 7 million. The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of 5.5 million, 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan, 1 million in the republic of Bashkortostan and other 2.5 million in different regions of Russia. Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

            The Tatars originated with the Tatar confederation in the north-eastern Gobi desert in the 5th century. After subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, they migrated southward. In the 13th century Mongol Empire, they were subjugated under Genghis Khan and reassigned once again particularly by his son Jochi. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, forming part of the Golden Horde which dominated the Eurasian steppe during the 14th and 15th centuries. In Europe, they were assimilated by the local populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Uralic-speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.

            Siberian Tatars are survivors of the Turkic population of the Ural-Altaic region, mixed to some extent with the speakers of Uralic languages, as well as with Mongols.

            The three ethnic descendants of the 13th-century westward migration are Volga Tatars, Lipka Tatars and Crimean Tatars, most of whom adopted Islam in the medieval period.
            Name

            The name Tatar likely originated amongst the nomadic Tatar confederation of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century.[4] The Chinese term is Dadan (韃靼) and is a comparatively specific term for nomads to the north, emerging in the late Tang. Other names include Dadan and Tatan. The name "Tatars" was used an alternative term for the Shiwei, a nomadic confederation to which these Tatar people belonged.

            As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khan's army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the invaders of Rus and the Pannonian Basin became known to Europeans as Tatars or Tartars (see Tatar yoke).[4] After the breakup of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, known as the Golden Horde.[4]

            The form Tartar has its origins in either Latin or French, coming to Western European languages from Turkish and Persian Tātār ("mounted courier, mounted messenger; postrider"). From the beginning the extra r was present in the Western forms, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary this was most likely due to an association with Tartarus (Hell in Greek mythology), though some claim that the name Tartar was in fact used amongst the Tatars themselves. Nowadays Tatar is usually used to refer to the people, but Tartar is still almost always used for derived terms such as tartar sauce or steak tartare.[5]

            Many Kazan/Volga Tatars prefer to be called Bulgars and reject the Tatar name, a position known as Bulgarism. Bulgarism pertains to the notion that the Volga/Kazan Tatars are actual Bulgars who did not mix with any other group (additionally, Tatarstan was called Bolgaristan until 1919).
            History
            Main articles: Tartary, Little Tartary, History of Tatarstan, Mongol invasion of Rus', and Golden Horde
            Map of Tartaria (1705)
            Cossacks fighting Tatars of Crimea.

            During the 11th to 16th centuries, Tatar tribes lived in what is now Russia and Kazakhstan. The present territory of Tatarstan was inhabited by the Volga Bulgars who settled on the Volga river in the 7th century and converted to Islam in 922 during the missionary work of Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Exact origin of Volga Bulgars is still unknown, possibly descendants of Sarmatian, Scythian and other Uralic tribes inhabiting Eurasian Steppe of modern day Russia. After the Mongol invasion, Bulgaria was defeated, ruined and incorporated in the Golden Horde. Much of the population survived, and there was a certain degree of mixing between it and the Kipchak Tatars of the Horde during the ensuing period. The group as a whole accepted the ethnonym "Tatars" (finally in the end of 19th century; although the name Bulgars persisted in some places; the majority identified themselves simply as the Muslims) and the language of the Kipchaks; on the other hand, the invaders eventually converted to Islam. As the Horde disintegrated in the 15th century, the area became the territory of the Kazan khanate, which was ultimately conquered by Russia in the 16th century.
            Subgroups
            The Qolsharif Mosque in Kazan.

            The bulk of the Tatar population are Volga Tatars, centered on Tatarstan. There are scattered minority groups distinct from the Volga Tatars, notably the Crimean Tatars, Lipka Tatars and Astrakhan Tatars in Europe and the Siberian Tatars in Asia.
            Volga Tatars
            Main article: Volga Tatars

            The main group of the Volga Tatars are further subdivided into dialect groups. The majority of Volga Tatars are Kazan Tatars. The major group are the Kazan Tatars in Tatarstan proper. They are distinct from the Mişär group and the Qasim group. A minority of Christianized Volga Tatars are known as Keräşens.

            The Volga Tatars used the Turkic Old Tatar language for their literature between the 15th and 19th centuries. It was written in the İske imlâ variant of the Arabic script, but actual spelling varied regionally. The older literary language included a large number of of Arabic and Persian loanwords. The modern literary language, however, often uses Russian and other European-derived words instead.

            Volga Tatars number nearly 8 million, mostly in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union. While the bulk of the population is to be found in Tatarstan (nearly 2 million) and neighbouring regions, significant numbers of Kazan Tatars live in Central Asia, Siberia and the Caucasus. Outside of Tatarstan, urban Tatars usually speak Russian as their first language (in cities such as Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Tashkent, Almaty, and cities of the Ural and western Siberia) and other languages in a worldwide diaspora.
            Kazan Tatars
            Qolsharif and his students defend their mosque during the Siege of Kazan.

            In the 1910s the Kazan Tatars numbered about half a million in the Kazan Governorate in Tatarstan, their historical homeland, about 400,000 in each of the governments of Ufa, 100,000 in Samara and Simbirsk, and about 30,000 in Vyatka, Saratov, Tambov, Penza, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm and Orenburg. An additional 15,000 had migrated to Ryazan or were settled as prisoners in the 16th and 17th centuries in Lithuania (Vilnius, Grodno and Podolia). An additional 2000 resided in St. Petersburg. The Kazan Tatars speak the Tatar language, a Turkic language with substantial amount of Russian and Arabic loanwords. Most Kazan Tatars practice Sunni Islam.

            Before 1917, polygamy was practised only by the wealthier classes and was a waning institution.

            There is an ethnic nationalist movement among Kazan Tatars which stresses descent from the Bulgars and is known as Bulgarism - there have been graffiti on the walls in the streets of Kazan with phrases such as "Bulgaria is alive".[citation needed]
            Mishars

            Mişär-Tatars (or Mishars) are a group of Tatars speaking a dialect of the Tatar language. They are descendants of Burtas in the Middle Oka River area and Meschiora where they mixed with the Cuman-Kipchaks tribes. Nowadays they live in Chelyabinsk, Tambov, Penza, Ryazan, Nizhegorodskaya oblasts of Russia and in Bashkortostan and Mordovia. They lived near and along the Volga River, in Tatarstan.
            Qasím Tatars
            Main article: Qasim Khanate

            The Western Tatars have their capital in the town of Qasím (Kasimov in Russian transcription) in Ryazan Oblast, with a Tatar population of 1100.[citation needed]
            Noqrat Tatars

            Tatars live in Russia's Kirov Oblast and Tatarstan.
            Keräşens
            Main article: Keräşens
            A Tatar warrior in battle.

            Some Tatars were forcibly Christianized by Ivan the Terrible during the 16th century and later in the 18th century.

            Some scientists suppose that Suars were ancestors of the Keräşen Tatars, and they had been converted to Christianity by Armenians in the 6th century, while they lived in the Caucasus. Suars, like other tribes (which later converted to Islam) became Volga Bulgars and later the modern Chuvash (mostly Christians) and Tatars (mostly Muslims).

            Keräşen Tatars live all over Tatarstan and in Udmurtia, Bashkiria and Chelyabinsk Oblast. Some of them did assimilate among Chuvash and Tatars with Sunni Muslim self-identification. Eighty years of Atheistic Soviet rule made Tatars of both confessions not as religious as they were. As such, differences between Tatars and Keräşen Tatars now is only that Keräşens have Russian names.

            Some Turkic (Kuman) tribes in Golden Horde converted to Christianity in the 13th and 14th centuries (Catholicism and Nestorianism). Some prayers, written in that time in the Codex Cumanicus, sound like modern Keräşen prayers, but there is no information about the connection between Christian Kumans and modern Keräşens.
            Chinese Tatars
            Main article: Chinese Tatars

            A significant number of Volga Tatars emigrated during the Russian Civil War, mostly to Turkey and Harbin, China. According to the Chinese government, there are still 5,100 Tatars living in Xinjiang province.
            Volga Tatars around the world

            Places where Volga Tatars live include:

            Ural and Upper Kama (since 15th century) 15th century - colonization, 16th - 17th century - re-settled by Russians, 17th - 19th century - exploring of Ural, working in the plants
            West Siberia (since 16th century): 16th - from Russian repressions after conquering of Khanate of Kazan by Russians, 17th - 19th century - exploring of West Siberia, end of 19th - first half of 20th - industrialization, railways constructing, 1930s - Joseph Stalin's repressions, 1970s - 1990s oil workers
            Moscow (since 17th century): Tatar feudals in the service of Russia, tradesmen, since 18th - Saint-Petersburg
            Kazakhstan (since 18th century): 18th – 19th centuries - Russian army officers and soldiers, 1930s – industrialization, since 1950s - settlers on virgin lands - re-emigration in 1990s
            Finland (since 1804): (mostly Mişärs) - 19th - from a group of some 20 villages in the Sergach region on the Volga River. See Finnish Tatars.
            Central Asia (since 19th century) (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang ) - 19th Russian officers and soldiers, tradesmen, religious emigrants, 1920-1930s - industrialization, Soviet education program for Central Asia peoples, 1948, 1960 - help for Ashgabat and Tashkent ruined by earthquakes - re-emigration in 1980s
            Caucasus, especially Azerbaijan (since 19th century) - oil workers (1890s), bread tradesmen
            Northern China (since 1910s) - railway builders (1910s) - re-emigrated in 1950s
            East Siberia (since 19th century) - resettled farmers (19th), railroad builders (1910s, 1980s), exiled by the Soviet government in 1930s
            Germany and Austria - 1914, 1941 - prisoners of war, 1990s - emigration
            Turkey, Japan, Iran, China, Egypt (since 1918) - emigration
            UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Mexico - (1920s) re-emigration from Germany, Turkey, Japan, China and others. 1950s - prisoners of war from Germany, which did not go back to the USSR, 1990s - emigration after the breakup of USSR
            Sakhalin, Kaliningrad, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Karelia - after 1944-45 builders, Soviet military personnel
            Murmansk Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Northern Poland and Northern Germany (1945–1990) - Soviet military personnel
            Israel - wives or husbands of Jews (1990s)

            Astrakhan Tatars
            Main article: Astrakhan Tatars

            The Astrakhan Tatars (around 80,000) are a group of Tatars, descendants of the Astrakhan Khanate's agricultural population, who live mostly in Astrakhan Oblast. For the 2000 Russian census 2000, most Astrakhan Tatars declared themselves simply as Tatars and few declared themselves as Astrakhan Tatars. A large number of Volga Tatars live in Astrakhan Oblast and differences between them have been disappearing.

            The Astrakhan Tatars are further divided into the Kundrov Tatars and the Karagash Tatars. The latter are also at times called the Karashi Tatars.[6]

            Text from Britannica 1911:

            The Astrakhan Tatars number about 10,000 and are, with the Kalmyks, all that now remains of the once so powerful Astrakhan empire. They also are agriculturists and gardeners; while some 12,000 Kundrovsk Tatars still continue the nomadic life of their ancestors.

            While Astrakhan (Ästerxan) Tatar is a mixed dialect, around 43,000 have assimilated to the Middle (i.e., Kazan) dialect. Their ancestors are Khazars, Kipchaks and some Volga Bulgars. (Volga Bulgars had trade colonies in modern Astrakhan and Volgograd oblasts of Russia.)

            The Astrakhan Tatars also assimilated the Agrzhan.[7]
            Siberian Tatars
            Main article: Siberian Tatars

            The Siberian Tatars occupy three distinct regions—a strip running west to east from Tobolsk to Tomsk—the Altay and its spurs—and South Yeniseisk. They originated in the agglomerations of various Uralo-Altaic stems that, in the region north of the Altay, reached some degree of culture between the 4th and the 5th centuries, but were subdued and enslaved by the Mongols. According to the 2002 census there are 400550 Tatars in Siberia, but 300,000 of them are Volga Tatars who settled in Siberia during periods of colonization.[8]
            Baraba Tatars
            Main article: Baraba Tatars

            The Baraba Tatars take their name from one of their stems (Barama). After a strenuous resistance to Russian conquest, and much suffering at a later period from Kyrgyz and Kalmyk raids, they now live by agriculture—either in separate villages or along with Russians.

            They numbered at least 9000 in 1990.
            Tatars of East Europe
            Crimean Tatars
            The Ottoman campaign in Hungary in 1566, Crimean Tatars as vanguard
            At the Battle of Warsaw in 1656 Tatars fought with the Poles against the Swedes
            The famous Tatar commander Tugai Bey.
            Main article: Crimean Tatars

            The Crimean Tatars emerged as a nation at the time of the Crimean Khanate. The Crimean Khanate was a Turkic-speaking Muslim state which was among the strongest powers in Eastern Europe until the beginning of the 18th century.[9] The rulers of the Crimean Tatars were the progeny of Hacı I Giray a Jochid descendant of Genghis Khan.
            Lithuanian Tatars
            Main article: Lipka Tatars

            After Tokhtamysh the Khan of the Golden Horde and a direct Jochid descendant of Genghis Khan was defeated by Timur, some of his tribesmen and loyalists sought refuge in Grand Duchy of Lithuania. These Muslim Tatar's were given land and nobility in return for military service and were known as Lipka Tatars. They are known to have taken part in the Battle of Grunwald.

            Another group appeared in Jagoldai Duchy (Lithuania's vassal) near modern Kursk in 1437 and disappeared later.

            The Lipka Tatars were among the first founders of Muslim communities in the United States.
            Belarusian Tatars
            Further information: Islam in Belarus

            Islam spread in Belarus from the 14th to the 16th century. The process was encouraged by the Lithuanian princes, who invited Tatar Muslims from the Crimea and the Golden Horde as guards of state borders. Already in the 14th century the Tatars had been offered a settled way of life, state posts and service positions. By the end of the 16th century over 100,000 Tatars settled in Belarus and Lithuania, including those hired to government service, those who moved there voluntarily, prisoners of war, etc.

            Tatars in Belarus generally follow Sunni Hanafi Islam. Some groups have accepted Christianity and been assimilated, but most adhere to Muslim religious traditions, which ensures their definite endogamy and preservation of ethnic features. Interethnic marriages with representatives of Belarusian, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian nationalities are not rare, but do not result in total assimilation.

            Originating from different ethnic associations, Belarusian (and also Polish and Lithuanian) Tatars back in ancient days lost their native language and adopted Belarusian, Polish and Russian. However, the liturgy is conducted in the Arabic language, which is known by the clergymen. There are an estimated 5,000-10,000 Tatars in Belarus.
            Polish Tatars

            Main articles: Lipka Tatars and Islam in Poland

            Tatar cavalry training in their Sarai.

            From the 13th to 17th centuries various groups of Tatars settled and/or found refuge within the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. This was promoted especially by the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, because of their reputation as skilled warriors. The Tatar settlers were all granted with szlachta (nobility) status, a tradition that was preserved until the end of the Commonwealth in the 18th century. They included the Lipka Tatars (13-14 centuries) as well as Crimean and Nogay Tatars (15th-16th centuries), all of which were noticeable in Polish military history, as well as Volga Tatars (16th-17th centuries). They all mostly settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, lands that are now in Lithuania and Belarus.

            Various estimates of the number of Tatars in the Commonwealth in the 17th century are about 15,000 persons and 60 villages with mosques. Numerous royal privileges, as well as internal autonomy granted by the monarchs allowed the Tatars to preserve their religion, traditions and culture over the centuries. The Tatars were allowed to intermarry with Christians, a thing uncommon in Europe at the time. The May Constitution of 1791 gave the Tatars representation in the Polish Sejm.

            Although by the 18th century the Tatars adopted the local language, the Islamic religion and many Tatar traditions (e.g. the sacrifice of bulls in their mosques during the main religious festivals) were preserved. This led to formation of a distinctive Muslim culture, in which the elements of Muslim orthodoxy mixed with religious tolerance formed a relatively liberal society. For instance, the women in Lipka Tatar society traditionally had the same rights and status as men, and could attend non-segregated schools.
            King Charles X Gustav in skirmish with Tatars near Warsaw during the Second Northern War.

            About 5,500 Tatars lived within the inter-war boundaries of Poland (1920–1939), and a Tatar cavalry unit had fought for the country's independence. The Tatars had preserved their cultural identity and sustained a number of Tatar organisations, including a Tatar archives, and a museum in Wilno (Vilnius).

            The Tatars suffered serious losses during World War II and furthermore, after the border change in 1945 a large part of them found themselves in the Soviet Union. It is estimated that about 3000 Tatars live in present-day Poland, of which about 500 declared Tatar (rather than Polish) nationality in the 2002 census. There are two Tatar villages (Bohoniki and Kruszyniany) in the north-east of present-day Poland, as well as urban Tatar communities in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Białystok, and Gorzów Wielkopolski. Tatars in Poland sometimes have a Muslim surname with a Polish ending: Ryzwanowicz; another surname sometimes adopted by more assimilated Tatars is Taterczyński, literally "son of a Tatar".

            The Tatars were relatively very noticeable in the Commonwealth military as well as in Polish and Lithuanian political and intellectual life for such a small community.[citation needed] In modern-day Poland, their presence is also widely known, due in part to their noticeable role in the historical novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz, which are universally recognized in Poland. A number of Polish intellectual figures have also been Tatars, e.g. the prominent historian Jerzy Łojek.

            A small community of Polish speaking Tatars settled in Brooklyn, New York City in the early 1900s. They established a mosque that is still in use today.
            Dobruja Tatars

            Main articles: Tatars of Romania, Crimean Tatars in Romania and Crimean Tatars in Bulgaria

            Tatars were present on the territory of today's Romania and Bulgaria since the 13th century. In Romania, according to the 2002 census, 24,000 people declared their ethnicity as Tatar, most of them being Crimean Tatars living in Constanţa County in the region of Dobruja. The Crimean Tatars were colonized there by the Ottoman Empire beginning with the 17th Century.
            Tatar language
            Main article: Tatar language

            The Tatar language together with the Bashkir language forms the Kypchak-Bolgar (also "Uralo-Caspian") group within the Kypchak languages (Northwestern Turkic).

            There are three Tatar dialects: Eastern, Central, Western.[10] The Western dialect (Misher) is spoken mostly by Mishärs, the Central dialect is spoken by Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars, and the Eastern (Sibir) dialect is spoken by Siberian Tatars in western Siberia. All three dialects have subdialects. Central Tatar is the base of literary Tatar.

            Tatar was written with the Arabic alphabet prior to 1928, in the so-called İske imlâ alphabet and from 1920 to 1928 in the Yaña imlâ alphabet. In 1928 the Soviet Union introduced a Latin orthography, known as Jaŋalif. Jaŋalif was replaced by a Cyrillic orthography in 1940. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, use of Jaŋalif was revived, but the Cyrillic script was again enforced in 2002, when the Russian Federation passed a controversial law enforcing the use of Cyrillic for all official languages.[11]
            Famous Russian Tatars

            Marat Kabaev, association football coach
            Galima Shugurova, former gymnast
            Rudolf Nureyev, dancer & choreographer
            Aliya Garayeva, gymnast
            Dinara Gimatova, former gymnast
            Sultan Galiev, Bolshevik
            Timati, rapper and actor
            Marat Safin, tennis player and politician

            References

            ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
            ^ "Uzbekistan - Ethnic minorities". Retrieved 2011-06-03.
            ^ Про кількість та склад населення України за підсумками Всеукраїнського перепису населення 2001 року (Ukrainian)
            ^ a b c Tatar. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 28, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9071375
            ^ "Tartar, Tatar, n.2 (a.)". (1989). In Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 11 September 2008, from Oxford English Dictionary Online.
            ^ Olson, James S., An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994) p. 55
            ^ Wixman, Ronald. The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook. (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1984) p. 15
            ^ Siberian Tatars
            ^ Halil İnalcik, 1942[page needed]
            ^ Akhatov G. "Tatar dialectology". Kazan, 1984.(Tatar language)
            ^ Russia reconsiders Cyrillic law BBC News, 5 October 2004.
            "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
            GOTSE DELCEV

            Comment

            • George S.
              Senior Member
              • Aug 2009
              • 10116

              Tatars
              From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
              Jump to: navigation, search
              "Tatar" redirects here. For other uses, see Tatar (disambiguation).
              Tatars
              (Tatarlar / Татарлар / Volga Tatar)
              RuslanChagaev.jpg Safina signing autographs.jpg
              Shihabetdin Marcani.jpg Gawrilowbrest.jpg
              Professor G. Akhatov.jpg Timati.jpg
              Bilya.JPG Tuqay.jpg
              Ruslan Chagaev • Dinara Safina
              Şihabetdin Märcani • Pyotr Gavrilov
              Gabdulkhay Akhatov • Timati •
              Diniyar Bilyaletdinov • Ğabdulla Tuqay
              Total population
              ca. 6.8 million
              Regions with significant populations
              Russia 5,554,601 [1]
              Uzbekistan 324,080 [2]
              Kazakhstan 261,000
              Ukraine 254,400
              Tajikistan 97,000 [3]
              Turkmenistan 60,000
              Kyrgyzstan 52,000
              Languages

              Tatar, Russian
              Religion

              Islam majority, Russian Orthodox minority

              Tatars (Tatar: Tatarlar / Татарлар, sometimes spelled Tartars) are a Turkic people, numbering around 7 million. The majority of Tatars live in the Russian Federation, with a population of 5.5 million, 2 million of which in the republic of Tatarstan, 1 million in the republic of Bashkortostan and other 2.5 million in different regions of Russia. Significant minority populations are found in Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan and Ukraine.

              The Tatars originated with the Tatar confederation in the north-eastern Gobi desert in the 5th century. After subjugation in the 9th century by the Khitans, they migrated southward. In the 13th century Mongol Empire, they were subjugated under Genghis Khan and reassigned once again particularly by his son Jochi. Under the leadership of his grandson Batu Khan, they moved westwards, forming part of the Golden Horde which dominated the Eurasian steppe during the 14th and 15th centuries. In Europe, they were assimilated by the local populations or their name spread to the conquered peoples: Kipchaks, Kimaks and others; and elsewhere with Uralic-speaking peoples, as well as with remnants of the ancient Greek colonies in the Crimea and Caucasians in the Caucasus.

              Siberian Tatars are survivors of the Turkic population of the Ural-Altaic region, mixed to some extent with the speakers of Uralic languages, as well as with Mongols.

              The three ethnic descendants of the 13th-century westward migration are Volga Tatars, Lipka Tatars and Crimean Tatars, most of whom adopted Islam in the medieval period.
              Name

              The name Tatar likely originated amongst the nomadic Tatar confederation of northeastern Mongolia in the region around Lake Baikal in the beginning of the 5th century.[4] The Chinese term is Dadan (韃靼) and is a comparatively specific term for nomads to the north, emerging in the late Tang. Other names include Dadan and Tatan. The name "Tatars" was used an alternative term for the Shiwei, a nomadic confederation to which these Tatar people belonged.

              As various of these nomadic groups became part of Genghis Khan's army in the early 13th century, a fusion of Mongol and Turkic elements took place, and the invaders of Rus and the Pannonian Basin became known to Europeans as Tatars or Tartars (see Tatar yoke).[4] After the breakup of the Mongol Empire, the Tatars became especially identified with the western part of the empire, known as the Golden Horde.[4]

              The form Tartar has its origins in either Latin or French, coming to Western European languages from Turkish and Persian Tātār ("mounted courier, mounted messenger; postrider"). From the beginning the extra r was present in the Western forms, and according to the Oxford English Dictionary this was most likely due to an association with Tartarus (Hell in Greek mythology), though some claim that the name Tartar was in fact used amongst the Tatars themselves. Nowadays Tatar is usually used to refer to the people, but Tartar is still almost always used for derived terms such as tartar sauce or steak tartare.[5]

              Many Kazan/Volga Tatars prefer to be called Bulgars and reject the Tatar name, a position known as Bulgarism. Bulgarism pertains to the notion that the Volga/Kazan Tatars are actual Bulgars who did not mix with any other group (additionally, Tatarstan was called Bolgaristan until 1919).
              History
              Main articles: Tartary, Little Tartary, History of Tatarstan, Mongol invasion of Rus', and Golden Horde
              Map of Tartaria (1705)
              Cossacks fighting Tatars of Crimea.

              During the 11th to 16th centuries, Tatar tribes lived in what is now Russia and Kazakhstan. The present territory of Tatarstan was inhabited by the Volga Bulgars who settled on the Volga river in the 7th century and converted to Islam in 922 during the missionary work of Ahmad ibn Fadlan. Exact origin of Volga Bulgars is still unknown, possibly descendants of Sarmatian, Scythian and other Uralic tribes inhabiting Eurasian Steppe of modern day Russia. After the Mongol invasion, Bulgaria was defeated, ruined and incorporated in the Golden Horde. Much of the population survived, and there was a certain degree of mixing between it and the Kipchak Tatars of the Horde during the ensuing period. The group as a whole accepted the ethnonym "Tatars" (finally in the end of 19th century; although the name Bulgars persisted in some places; the majority identified themselves simply as the Muslims) and the language of the Kipchaks; on the other hand, the invaders eventually converted to Islam. As the Horde disintegrated in the 15th century, the area became the territory of the Kazan khanate, which was ultimately conquered by Russia in the 16th century.
              Subgroups
              The Qolsharif Mosque in Kazan.

              The bulk of the Tatar population are Volga Tatars, centered on Tatarstan. There are scattered minority groups distinct from the Volga Tatars, notably the Crimean Tatars, Lipka Tatars and Astrakhan Tatars in Europe and the Siberian Tatars in Asia.
              Volga Tatars
              Main article: Volga Tatars

              The main group of the Volga Tatars are further subdivided into dialect groups. The majority of Volga Tatars are Kazan Tatars. The major group are the Kazan Tatars in Tatarstan proper. They are distinct from the Mişär group and the Qasim group. A minority of Christianized Volga Tatars are known as Keräşens.

              The Volga Tatars used the Turkic Old Tatar language for their literature between the 15th and 19th centuries. It was written in the İske imlâ variant of the Arabic script, but actual spelling varied regionally. The older literary language included a large number of of Arabic and Persian loanwords. The modern literary language, however, often uses Russian and other European-derived words instead.

              Volga Tatars number nearly 8 million, mostly in Russia and the republics of the former Soviet Union. While the bulk of the population is to be found in Tatarstan (nearly 2 million) and neighbouring regions, significant numbers of Kazan Tatars live in Central Asia, Siberia and the Caucasus. Outside of Tatarstan, urban Tatars usually speak Russian as their first language (in cities such as Moscow, Saint-Petersburg, Nizhniy Novgorod, Tashkent, Almaty, and cities of the Ural and western Siberia) and other languages in a worldwide diaspora.
              Kazan Tatars
              Qolsharif and his students defend their mosque during the Siege of Kazan.

              In the 1910s the Kazan Tatars numbered about half a million in the Kazan Governorate in Tatarstan, their historical homeland, about 400,000 in each of the governments of Ufa, 100,000 in Samara and Simbirsk, and about 30,000 in Vyatka, Saratov, Tambov, Penza, Nizhny Novgorod, Perm and Orenburg. An additional 15,000 had migrated to Ryazan or were settled as prisoners in the 16th and 17th centuries in Lithuania (Vilnius, Grodno and Podolia). An additional 2000 resided in St. Petersburg. The Kazan Tatars speak the Tatar language, a Turkic language with substantial amount of Russian and Arabic loanwords. Most Kazan Tatars practice Sunni Islam.

              Before 1917, polygamy was practised only by the wealthier classes and was a waning institution.

              There is an ethnic nationalist movement among Kazan Tatars which stresses descent from the Bulgars and is known as Bulgarism - there have been graffiti on the walls in the streets of Kazan with phrases such as "Bulgaria is alive".[citation needed]
              Mishars

              Mişär-Tatars (or Mishars) are a group of Tatars speaking a dialect of the Tatar language. They are descendants of Burtas in the Middle Oka River area and Meschiora where they mixed with the Cuman-Kipchaks tribes. Nowadays they live in Chelyabinsk, Tambov, Penza, Ryazan, Nizhegorodskaya oblasts of Russia and in Bashkortostan and Mordovia. They lived near and along the Volga River, in Tatarstan.
              Qasím Tatars
              Main article: Qasim Khanate

              The Western Tatars have their capital in the town of Qasím (Kasimov in Russian transcription) in Ryazan Oblast, with a Tatar population of 1100.[citation needed]
              Noqrat Tatars

              Tatars live in Russia's Kirov Oblast and Tatarstan.
              Keräşens
              Main article: Keräşens
              A Tatar warrior in battle.

              Some Tatars were forcibly Christianized by Ivan the Terrible during the 16th century and later in the 18th century.

              Some scientists suppose that Suars were ancestors of the Keräşen Tatars, and they had been converted to Christianity by Armenians in the 6th century, while they lived in the Caucasus. Suars, like other tribes (which later converted to Islam) became Volga Bulgars and later the modern Chuvash (mostly Christians) and Tatars (mostly Muslims).

              Keräşen Tatars live all over Tatarstan and in Udmurtia, Bashkiria and Chelyabinsk Oblast. Some of them did assimilate among Chuvash and Tatars with Sunni Muslim self-identification. Eighty years of Atheistic Soviet rule made Tatars of both confessions not as religious as they were. As such, differences between Tatars and Keräşen Tatars now is only that Keräşens have Russian names.

              Some Turkic (Kuman) tribes in Golden Horde converted to Christianity in the 13th and 14th centuries (Catholicism and Nestorianism). Some prayers, written in that time in the Codex Cumanicus, sound like modern Keräşen prayers, but there is no information about the connection between Christian Kumans and modern Keräşens.
              Chinese Tatars
              Main article: Chinese Tatars

              A significant number of Volga Tatars emigrated during the Russian Civil War, mostly to Turkey and Harbin, China. According to the Chinese government, there are still 5,100 Tatars living in Xinjiang province.
              Volga Tatars around the world

              Places where Volga Tatars live include:

              Ural and Upper Kama (since 15th century) 15th century - colonization, 16th - 17th century - re-settled by Russians, 17th - 19th century - exploring of Ural, working in the plants
              West Siberia (since 16th century): 16th - from Russian repressions after conquering of Khanate of Kazan by Russians, 17th - 19th century - exploring of West Siberia, end of 19th - first half of 20th - industrialization, railways constructing, 1930s - Joseph Stalin's repressions, 1970s - 1990s oil workers
              Moscow (since 17th century): Tatar feudals in the service of Russia, tradesmen, since 18th - Saint-Petersburg
              Kazakhstan (since 18th century): 18th – 19th centuries - Russian army officers and soldiers, 1930s – industrialization, since 1950s - settlers on virgin lands - re-emigration in 1990s
              Finland (since 1804): (mostly Mişärs) - 19th - from a group of some 20 villages in the Sergach region on the Volga River. See Finnish Tatars.
              Central Asia (since 19th century) (Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Tajikistan, Kyrgyzstan, Xinjiang ) - 19th Russian officers and soldiers, tradesmen, religious emigrants, 1920-1930s - industrialization, Soviet education program for Central Asia peoples, 1948, 1960 - help for Ashgabat and Tashkent ruined by earthquakes - re-emigration in 1980s
              Caucasus, especially Azerbaijan (since 19th century) - oil workers (1890s), bread tradesmen
              Northern China (since 1910s) - railway builders (1910s) - re-emigrated in 1950s
              East Siberia (since 19th century) - resettled farmers (19th), railroad builders (1910s, 1980s), exiled by the Soviet government in 1930s
              Germany and Austria - 1914, 1941 - prisoners of war, 1990s - emigration
              Turkey, Japan, Iran, China, Egypt (since 1918) - emigration
              UK, USA, Australia, Canada, Argentina, Mexico - (1920s) re-emigration from Germany, Turkey, Japan, China and others. 1950s - prisoners of war from Germany, which did not go back to the USSR, 1990s - emigration after the breakup of USSR
              Sakhalin, Kaliningrad, Belarus, Ukraine, Latvia, Estonia, Lithuania, Karelia - after 1944-45 builders, Soviet military personnel
              Murmansk Oblast, Khabarovsk Krai, Northern Poland and Northern Germany (1945–1990) - Soviet military personnel
              Israel - wives or husbands of Jews (1990s)

              Astrakhan Tatars
              Main article: Astrakhan Tatars

              The Astrakhan Tatars (around 80,000) are a group of Tatars, descendants of the Astrakhan Khanate's agricultural population, who live mostly in Astrakhan Oblast. For the 2000 Russian census 2000, most Astrakhan Tatars declared themselves simply as Tatars and few declared themselves as Astrakhan Tatars. A large number of Volga Tatars live in Astrakhan Oblast and differences between them have been disappearing.

              The Astrakhan Tatars are further divided into the Kundrov Tatars and the Karagash Tatars. The latter are also at times called the Karashi Tatars.[6]

              Text from Britannica 1911:

              The Astrakhan Tatars number about 10,000 and are, with the Kalmyks, all that now remains of the once so powerful Astrakhan empire. They also are agriculturists and gardeners; while some 12,000 Kundrovsk Tatars still continue the nomadic life of their ancestors.

              While Astrakhan (Ästerxan) Tatar is a mixed dialect, around 43,000 have assimilated to the Middle (i.e., Kazan) dialect. Their ancestors are Khazars, Kipchaks and some Volga Bulgars. (Volga Bulgars had trade colonies in modern Astrakhan and Volgograd oblasts of Russia.)

              The Astrakhan Tatars also assimilated the Agrzhan.[7]
              Siberian Tatars
              Main article: Siberian Tatars

              The Siberian Tatars occupy three distinct regions—a strip running west to east from Tobolsk to Tomsk—the Altay and its spurs—and South Yeniseisk. They originated in the agglomerations of various Uralo-Altaic stems that, in the region north of the Altay, reached some degree of culture between the 4th and the 5th centuries, but were subdued and enslaved by the Mongols. According to the 2002 census there are 400550 Tatars in Siberia, but 300,000 of them are Volga Tatars who settled in Siberia during periods of colonization.[8]
              Baraba Tatars
              Main article: Baraba Tatars

              The Baraba Tatars take their name from one of their stems (Barama). After a strenuous resistance to Russian conquest, and much suffering at a later period from Kyrgyz and Kalmyk raids, they now live by agriculture—either in separate villages or along with Russians.

              They numbered at least 9000 in 1990.
              Tatars of East Europe
              Crimean Tatars
              The Ottoman campaign in Hungary in 1566, Crimean Tatars as vanguard
              At the Battle of Warsaw in 1656 Tatars fought with the Poles against the Swedes
              The famous Tatar commander Tugai Bey.
              Main article: Crimean Tatars

              The Crimean Tatars emerged as a nation at the time of the Crimean Khanate. The Crimean Khanate was a Turkic-speaking Muslim state which was among the strongest powers in Eastern Europe until the beginning of the 18th century.[9] The rulers of the Crimean Tatars were the progeny of Hacı I Giray a Jochid descendant of Genghis Khan.
              Lithuanian Tatars
              Main article: Lipka Tatars

              After Tokhtamysh the Khan of the Golden Horde and a direct Jochid descendant of Genghis Khan was defeated by Timur, some of his tribesmen and loyalists sought refuge in Grand Duchy of Lithuania. These Muslim Tatar's were given land and nobility in return for military service and were known as Lipka Tatars. They are known to have taken part in the Battle of Grunwald.

              Another group appeared in Jagoldai Duchy (Lithuania's vassal) near modern Kursk in 1437 and disappeared later.

              The Lipka Tatars were among the first founders of Muslim communities in the United States.
              Belarusian Tatars
              Further information: Islam in Belarus

              Islam spread in Belarus from the 14th to the 16th century. The process was encouraged by the Lithuanian princes, who invited Tatar Muslims from the Crimea and the Golden Horde as guards of state borders. Already in the 14th century the Tatars had been offered a settled way of life, state posts and service positions. By the end of the 16th century over 100,000 Tatars settled in Belarus and Lithuania, including those hired to government service, those who moved there voluntarily, prisoners of war, etc.

              Tatars in Belarus generally follow Sunni Hanafi Islam. Some groups have accepted Christianity and been assimilated, but most adhere to Muslim religious traditions, which ensures their definite endogamy and preservation of ethnic features. Interethnic marriages with representatives of Belarusian, Polish, Lithuanian, Russian nationalities are not rare, but do not result in total assimilation.

              Originating from different ethnic associations, Belarusian (and also Polish and Lithuanian) Tatars back in ancient days lost their native language and adopted Belarusian, Polish and Russian. However, the liturgy is conducted in the Arabic language, which is known by the clergymen. There are an estimated 5,000-10,000 Tatars in Belarus.
              Polish Tatars

              Main articles: Lipka Tatars and Islam in Poland

              Tatar cavalry training in their Sarai.

              From the 13th to 17th centuries various groups of Tatars settled and/or found refuge within the Polish-Lithuanian commonwealth. This was promoted especially by the Grand Dukes of Lithuania, because of their reputation as skilled warriors. The Tatar settlers were all granted with szlachta (nobility) status, a tradition that was preserved until the end of the Commonwealth in the 18th century. They included the Lipka Tatars (13-14 centuries) as well as Crimean and Nogay Tatars (15th-16th centuries), all of which were noticeable in Polish military history, as well as Volga Tatars (16th-17th centuries). They all mostly settled in the Grand Duchy of Lithuania, lands that are now in Lithuania and Belarus.

              Various estimates of the number of Tatars in the Commonwealth in the 17th century are about 15,000 persons and 60 villages with mosques. Numerous royal privileges, as well as internal autonomy granted by the monarchs allowed the Tatars to preserve their religion, traditions and culture over the centuries. The Tatars were allowed to intermarry with Christians, a thing uncommon in Europe at the time. The May Constitution of 1791 gave the Tatars representation in the Polish Sejm.

              Although by the 18th century the Tatars adopted the local language, the Islamic religion and many Tatar traditions (e.g. the sacrifice of bulls in their mosques during the main religious festivals) were preserved. This led to formation of a distinctive Muslim culture, in which the elements of Muslim orthodoxy mixed with religious tolerance formed a relatively liberal society. For instance, the women in Lipka Tatar society traditionally had the same rights and status as men, and could attend non-segregated schools.
              King Charles X Gustav in skirmish with Tatars near Warsaw during the Second Northern War.

              About 5,500 Tatars lived within the inter-war boundaries of Poland (1920–1939), and a Tatar cavalry unit had fought for the country's independence. The Tatars had preserved their cultural identity and sustained a number of Tatar organisations, including a Tatar archives, and a museum in Wilno (Vilnius).

              The Tatars suffered serious losses during World War II and furthermore, after the border change in 1945 a large part of them found themselves in the Soviet Union. It is estimated that about 3000 Tatars live in present-day Poland, of which about 500 declared Tatar (rather than Polish) nationality in the 2002 census. There are two Tatar villages (Bohoniki and Kruszyniany) in the north-east of present-day Poland, as well as urban Tatar communities in Warsaw, Gdańsk, Białystok, and Gorzów Wielkopolski. Tatars in Poland sometimes have a Muslim surname with a Polish ending: Ryzwanowicz; another surname sometimes adopted by more assimilated Tatars is Taterczyński, literally "son of a Tatar".

              The Tatars were relatively very noticeable in the Commonwealth military as well as in Polish and Lithuanian political and intellectual life for such a small community.[citation needed] In modern-day Poland, their presence is also widely known, due in part to their noticeable role in the historical novels of Henryk Sienkiewicz, which are universally recognized in Poland. A number of Polish intellectual figures have also been Tatars, e.g. the prominent historian Jerzy Łojek.

              A small community of Polish speaking Tatars settled in Brooklyn, New York City in the early 1900s. They established a mosque that is still in use today.
              Dobruja Tatars

              Main articles: Tatars of Romania, Crimean Tatars in Romania and Crimean Tatars in Bulgaria

              Tatars were present on the territory of today's Romania and Bulgaria since the 13th century. In Romania, according to the 2002 census, 24,000 people declared their ethnicity as Tatar, most of them being Crimean Tatars living in Constanţa County in the region of Dobruja. The Crimean Tatars were colonized there by the Ottoman Empire beginning with the 17th Century.
              Tatar language
              Main article: Tatar language

              The Tatar language together with the Bashkir language forms the Kypchak-Bolgar (also "Uralo-Caspian") group within the Kypchak languages (Northwestern Turkic).

              There are three Tatar dialects: Eastern, Central, Western.[10] The Western dialect (Misher) is spoken mostly by Mishärs, the Central dialect is spoken by Kazan and Astrakhan Tatars, and the Eastern (Sibir) dialect is spoken by Siberian Tatars in western Siberia. All three dialects have subdialects. Central Tatar is the base of literary Tatar.

              Tatar was written with the Arabic alphabet prior to 1928, in the so-called İske imlâ alphabet and from 1920 to 1928 in the Yaña imlâ alphabet. In 1928 the Soviet Union introduced a Latin orthography, known as Jaŋalif. Jaŋalif was replaced by a Cyrillic orthography in 1940. After the collapse of the Soviet Union, use of Jaŋalif was revived, but the Cyrillic script was again enforced in 2002, when the Russian Federation passed a controversial law enforcing the use of Cyrillic for all official languages.[11]
              Famous Russian Tatars

              Marat Kabaev, association football coach
              Galima Shugurova, former gymnast
              Rudolf Nureyev, dancer & choreographer
              Aliya Garayeva, gymnast
              Dinara Gimatova, former gymnast
              Sultan Galiev, Bolshevik
              Timati, rapper and actor
              Marat Safin, tennis player and politician

              References

              ^ "Демоскоп Weekly - Приложение. Справочник статистических показателей". Demoscope.ru. Retrieved 2011-03-07.
              ^ "Uzbekistan - Ethnic minorities". Retrieved 2011-06-03.
              ^ Про кількість та склад населення України за підсумками Всеукраїнського перепису населення 2001 року (Ukrainian)
              ^ a b c Tatar. (2006). In Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved October 28, 2006, from Encyclopædia Britannica Online: http://search.eb.com/eb/article-9071375
              ^ "Tartar, Tatar, n.2 (a.)". (1989). In Oxford English Dictionary. Retrieved 11 September 2008, from Oxford English Dictionary Online.
              ^ Olson, James S., An Ethnohistorical Dictionary of the Russian and Soviet Empires. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1994) p. 55
              ^ Wixman, Ronald. The Peoples of the USSR: An Ethnographic Handbook. (Armonk, New York: M. E. Sharpe, Inc, 1984) p. 15
              ^ Siberian Tatars
              ^ Halil İnalcik, 1942[page needed]
              ^ Akhatov G. "Tatar dialectology". Kazan, 1984.(Tatar language)
              ^ Russia reconsiders Cyrillic law BBC News, 5 October 2004.
              "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
              GOTSE DELCEV

              Comment

              • Razer
                Banned
                • May 2012
                • 395

                Originally posted by George S. View Post
                Bulgarians

                Bulgarians have been recognized as a separate ethnic group on the Balkan Peninsula since the time of Tsar Boris I (852-89), under whom the Bulgars were converted to Christianity. Early historians began mentioning them as a group then descended from Tartars; however, it is not clear whether such references were to the earliest Bulgarians, who were Asiatic and migrated to the Balkan Peninsula from the Ural Mountains of present-day Russia, or to the Slavs that preceded them in what is now Bulgaria. By the end of the ninth century, the Slavs and the Bulgarians shared a common language and a common religion, and the two cultures essentially merged under the name "Bulgarian".

                Acceptance of the Eastern Orthodox church as the state religion of the First Bulgarian Empire in A.D. 864 shaped the Bulgarian national identity for many centuries thereafter. The Bulgarian language, which was the first written Slavic language, replaced Greek as the official language of both church and state once the Cyrillic alphabet came into existence in the ninth century. National literature flourished under the First Bulgarian Empire, and the church remained the repository of language and national feeling during subsequent centuries of occupation by the Byzantine and Ottoman empires.
                Ok, this sounds a bit better. Where did you get it from? Did you noticed is says that the Bulgarian language was the first Slavic language? The Tatar reference is wrong tho..."Tatars" was a term used by the Rus, meaning "Mongol".

                Comment

                • Razer
                  Banned
                  • May 2012
                  • 395

                  @ George S.

                  Mate, can I just ask one question? How well do you know Bulgarian history, from 1 to 10? You seem not to be aware of some very basic facts and I don't say that to offend you, but please educate yourself about a topic, before developing an opinion.

                  Comment

                  • George S.
                    Senior Member
                    • Aug 2009
                    • 10116

                    You know most people would be happy about the origins but not the bulgarians that's why it thought it could try & masquerade as macedonian & drop references to it';startaric origins.You only got to look at a bulgarian & you will see the tartar in them oh joy why deny yourself your real roots from asia.Also today you say your language is bulgarian there never was one.You take pride of macedonian instead coz you got nothing!!
                    "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                    GOTSE DELCEV

                    Comment

                    • Razer
                      Banned
                      • May 2012
                      • 395

                      Please rate your knowledge about Bulgarian history from 1 to 10. And be honest.

                      Comment

                      • Razer
                        Banned
                        • May 2012
                        • 395

                        Have you ever heard of Volga Bulgaria?

                        Comment

                        • Razer
                          Banned
                          • May 2012
                          • 395

                          Volga Bulgaria was a Bulgarian kingdom that existed from the 7th century to the 12th century, long before the so called Tatars. The movie "13th Warrior" was based on the real-life story of an Arabic traveller visiting Volga Bulgarian. It was destroyed by the Mongols (Tatars). Later the Russians overcome the the Mongols (and who they called Tatars). This is why today, the Russians call those people Tatar, but one small part of them (around 3-5 million) don't identify themselves as Tatar, but as Bulgar. So Tatar = Mongol, and Volga Bulgar = Bulgar.

                          This is in a nutshell, but I recommend you read more. It's interesting stuff and will help you in future debates with Bulgarians because otherwise you're just humiliating yourself. No hard feelings
                          Last edited by Razer; 05-22-2012, 03:15 PM.

                          Comment

                          • Razer
                            Banned
                            • May 2012
                            • 395

                            I mean, did you even read what you posted???!!! It explains it perfectly.

                            Originally posted by George S. View Post
                            Many Kazan/Volga Tatars prefer to be called Bulgars and reject the Tatar name, a position known as Bulgarism. Bulgarism pertains to the notion that The Volga/Kazan Tatars are actual Bulgars who did not mix with any other group (additionally, Tatarstan was called Bolgaristan until 1919).

                            Exact origin of Volga Bulgars is still unknown, possibly descendants of Sarmatian, Scythian and other Uralic tribes inhabiting Eurasian Steppe of modern day Russia. After the Mongol invasion, Bulgaria was defeated, ruined and incorporated in the Golden Horde. Much of the population survived, and there was a certain degree of mixing between it and the Kipchak Tatars of the Horde during the ensuing period. The group as a whole accepted the ethnonym "Tatars" (finally in the end of 19th century; although the name Bulgars persisted in some places; the majority identified themselves simply as the Muslims) and the language of the Kipchaks; on the other hand, the invaders eventually converted to Islam. As the Horde disintegrated in the 15th century, the area became the territory of the Kazan khanate, which was ultimately conquered by Russia in the 16th century.
                            Last edited by Razer; 05-22-2012, 03:21 PM.

                            Comment

                            • George S.
                              Senior Member
                              • Aug 2009
                              • 10116

                              yes i did you are tartars & that is lll to it.You are very good at denying it""certain degree of mixing between it and the Kipchak Tatars of the Horde during the ensuing period. The group as a whole accepted the ethnonym" "Tatars" No wonder you wanted to ditch your tartar/mongolian ,tukic ancestry & latch on to some macedonian.Today's bulgarian would rather not know the real truth as it could be very painfull.Nothing to be proud of indeedwe have proven that they are trying to steal our identity & history.Cyril & methodius took with
                              them the macedonian language & from there invented the cyrilic alphabet>the bulgarians have got nothing & so are happy to appropriate it as their own includng the brothers from macedonia.Do you really think the tartars had their own bulgarian language & alphabet??
                              So the cyrillic alphabet developed from the glaholitic,Which of course was liturgical in macedonia.
                              Last edited by George S.; 05-22-2012, 04:00 PM. Reason: ed
                              "Ido not want an uprising of people that would leave me at the first failure, I want revolution with citizens able to bear all the temptations to a prolonged struggle, what, because of the fierce political conditions, will be our guide or cattle to the slaughterhouse"
                              GOTSE DELCEV

                              Comment

                              • Onur
                                Senior Member
                                • Apr 2010
                                • 2389

                                Originally posted by Razer View Post
                                Volga Bulgaria was a Bulgarian kingdom that existed from the 7th century to the 12th century, long before the so called Tatars. The movie "13th Warrior" was based on the real-life story of an Arabic traveller visiting Volga Bulgarian. It was destroyed by the Mongols (Tatars). Later the Russians overcome the the Mongols (and who they called Tatars). This is why today, the Russians call those people Tatar, but one small part of them (around 3-5 million) don't identify themselves as Tatar, but as Bulgar. So Tatar = Mongol, and Volga Bulgar = Bulgar.
                                You deny what i wrote about the 9th century Bulgars of Danube was just subjects of assimilation with Cyril&Methodius`s missionary work but at the same time you bring up the issue of Volga Bulgars on the table.

                                OK then tell me what the Arab traveler Ibni Fadlan said about the Volga Bulgars of 10th century? Who were they and what was their language? and what is their language today? Is it your current slavic language?

                                Ibni Fadlan gone there to islamize them just like Cyril&Methodius christianized you few decades before. Volga Bulgars was speaking Turkic as Ibni Fadlan wrote in 10th century and they are still speaking Turkic today.

                                Do you speak same language with Volga Bulgars today? Nope, then why?

                                I didn't understand which part of my message you refuse. Everything is so clear especially after your example of Volga Bulgars of 10th century.

                                Comment

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