Turkish DNA History 🧬 🇹🇷

The country of Turkey is incredibly diverse. For example, when you go up into the western regions of the country, people typically have high levels of Central Asian DNA. And when you go down towards the east, towards Gaziantep, people typically have higher levels of Armenian-related admixture. You know what's really interesting about the Turkish genome guys, is that despite the Turkish living in close proximity to Europe and the Levant, the Turkish people's ancestral origin is found deep in ancient Siberia, similar to many Turkic groups across Central Asia. We are going to look at the Turkish genome through a variety of different time periods to understand who these people are from a genetic perspective. Over here, I've got a Bronze Age DNA breakdown of the average Turkish genome. Remarkably, around 36% of their DNA traces back to Anatolian Neolithic farmers. These farmers, originating from the very lands of modern day Turkey, were not just early adopters of agriculture around 9,000 years ago. They were the pioneers who spread this revolutionary practice to neighboring regions such as Greece and as far north as Sweden. Essentially, Turkey was the cradle of early European farming cultures. Genetically, these Anatolian Neolithic farmers share a close affinity with modern day Sardinians explaining why the haplogroup G2A common among these early farmers reaches its highest frequency in Sardinia today. Interestingly, when we delve further into the DNA breakdown, we find that 31% of their genetic makeup is linked to the Caucasian Iranian populations. This group associated with the haplogroup G2A migrated into Anatolia and intermingled with the existing Neolithic farming communities. This rich blend of genetic influences in Turkey didn't just shape the local population, it laid the foundation for some of the earliest and most influential civilizations in the region such as the Hattian civilization. 4,000 years ago, the steppe nomads originating in southern Russia started to migrate within Eurasia. The migration of the Yamnaya into modern day Turkey is contested with some suggesting that they migrated through the Balkans from the Black Sea, while others have suggested they may have migrated through the Caucasus region. These Anatolian Indo-Europeans were themselves the descendants of the fierce Yamnaya. These Yamnaya tribes didn't just conquer Anatolia, they conquered regions of modern day Greece, Italy, Ireland and India. Interestingly, if we explore the origin of the Yamnaya themselves, we see that they are two-thirds North Eurasian hunter-gatherer and one-third West Asian hunter-gatherers related to present-day Armenians. These Indo-European speakers overthrew and dominated the Neolithic inhabitants of the previous Hattian civilization around 2000 BC. These conquering Indo-European tribes mixed with the native Hattian Anatolians to form a new genomic component which would go on to establish the ancient Hittite civilization. The time period depicted in the Bible is closely intertwined with that of the Hittite civilization, who were at times a foe and at times a friend to the ancient Israelites, holding a notable presence in these ancient scriptures, which reflects their dominant position in the Near East at the time. When we look at the average Turkish genome from a Bronze Age perspective, we see that 16% of their genome is Indo-European Yamnaya related. Unlike their neighbouring European groups, such as the Italians and Greeks, whose identity was derived from these Indo-European conquerors, the Turkish identity was set much later. If we look at the Bronze Age DNA breakdown of the Turkish genome and compare it to a Greek equivalent, we see that both ethnicities share four similar ancestral groups. However, the Turkish have one group that distinguishes them, the Turkic tribes who invaded in the 11th century. Interestingly, before their invasion, these two neighbouring populations of modern-day Greece and Turkey, on both peninsulas, would have existed within the same cultural and historical sphere, coming under the influence of a plethora of empires such as the Persians, Romans and Byzantine Empire. Before the Turkic tribes invaded, the Anatolian population would have spoken Greek. After the initial invasion of the Seljuk Turkic people in the 11th century, subsequent invasions followed and within a few centuries, the whole Anatolian peninsula was dominated by Turkic speaking kingdoms known as Beyliks, one of which, named the Ottoman, would come to dominate. If we analyse the genotype of a medieval Ottoman Turkish female, I have on my datapass, we see that genetically, these tribes were closest to other Central Asian ethnicities such as Turkmen and Kazakh people and were approximately 50% East Asian in origin. Their origin lay deep in North Eastern Asia, which would today be considered Siberia. Around 300 BC, where they migrated out from, establishing the Göktürk Empire in Central Asia around 500 AD, overthrowing the previous Indo-European speaking tribes such as the Indo-Iranians, which had previously dominated this region for millennia. Because of the Asian origin of the Turkic people, a question I get asked all the time is, are the modern Turkish people a European or an Asian people? If we look at the Turkish Bronze Age DNA breakdown, one final time, we see that approximately 10% of their DNA is East Asian in origin, which as said previously, originates in Siberia. In comparison to other Turkic groups in Central Asia such as Kazakhs and Turkmen, this is quite minimal in comparison as the former had between 30-60% East Asian DNA. This makes sense when considering that Turkey is the westernmost point of the Turkic peoples expansion and the low input is as a result of the gradual dilution of the original Turkic DNA from its origin point. Finally, if we compare the average Turkish person's DNA with all the ethnicities around the world, we see that there is great variance in the Turkish genome, with some Turkish people plotting closer to Europeans, others plotting closer to Middle Eastern populations and some plotting close to Central Asian populations. This I feel encapsulates Turkey's position as a meeting point of the world. For the most part, these are the key migratory events that impacted the Turkish genome. Of course, there were a slew of invasions that I didn't cover, like the Mongol invasion of the 13th century or the collapse of the Ottoman Empire in the 20th century, returning millions of Turkish speaking people from around the world back to Turkey. But for the most part, we can use these migratory events as the basis of the Turkish genome. Reflecting on these migrations, I find it interesting how Turkey, the meeting point of the world, has passed through countless civilizations such as the Romans and Persians, but it is the small Turkic tribes from Siberia, thousands of miles away, which ultimately came to define and mould the identity of modern day Turkish people. If you're interested in having your DNA analysed similar to what you've seen in this video, please click the link in the bio.