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Gagauzes

Gagauz People
Gagauzlar
Gagauz-children.jpg
Total population
approx. 240,000
Regions with significant populations
 Moldova
  ( Gagauzia)
147,500
 Ukraine 31,900
 Turkey 15,000
 Russia 13,700
 Kazakhstan 700
 Bulgaria 540
Languages
Gagauz
Russian
Religion
Orthodox Christianity
Related ethnic groups
Turkic peoples, Gajal

The Gagauz people are a Turkic-speaking group living mostly in southern Moldova (Gagauzia), southwestern Ukraine (Budjak), northeastern Bulgaria, Greece, Brazil, the United States and Canada. The Gagauz are Orthodox Christians. There is a related ethnic group also called Gagavuz (or Gajal) living in the European part of northwestern Turkey.

The Gagauzes, although speaking a Turkic language, belong genetically to the Balkan populations and the Gagauz language represents a case of language replacement. Gagauz belong to Y-DNA haplogroups I2a (23.6%), R1a (19.1%), G (13.5%), R1b (12.4%), E1b1b1a1 (11.1%). Haplogroups J2 (5.6%) and Haplogroup N (2.2%) are represented among Gagauzes at a usual frequency for many European and Balkan peoples. Finally, the phylogenetic analysis of Y-DNA situates Gagauzes most proximal to Macedonians, Serbs and other Balkan populations, resulting in a high genetic distance from the Turkish people and other Turkic peoples. According to a more detailed autosomal analysis of thousands of SNPs, not just of the sex chromosome, Gagauzes are most proximal to Macedonians, followed by Greek Macedonians apart from Thessaloniki, and others such as Bulgarians, Romanians and Montenegrins.


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