A research on Gagauz Turkish community

Gagauz Turks, whose main source of income is agriculture and who today live densely in the southwest of the Republic of Moldavia and the west of Ukraine, are a Turkish community that has not lost its national identity, although they have become Christianized. The most fundamental element that distinguishes this Turkish Community from other Turkish communities is that although they believe in the Orthodox sect of Christianity, they do not undergo assimilation like other Turkish tribes and they unconsciously preserve their national identity thanks to the language they use. Although the Gagauz people, who retreated into their own shell with the minority psychology in the geography they lived in for many years, protected their own language and traditions, they were subjected to serious pressures in the process of preserving their national identity. As a result of these pressures, many states felt the need to introduce the Gagauz people as the remnants of their own lineage. Gagauz people; It was seen as the Greek remnant by the Grecophiles (Greekophiles), as the Bulgarian Community by the Bulgarophiles (Bulgarophiles), and as a small Slavic Community within lineage by the Russians. To date, no serious evidence has been produced for the accuracy of all these theories. Therefore, all the studies have weakened the theories that the Gagauz people are Greek, Bulgarian and Russian. However, it is possible to see among the Gagauz people who adopt the Greek and Bulgarian national identity, as well as those who adopt the Russian identity. It is also possible to see that the Russians, influenced by the religious and conservative nature of the Gagauz people, established schools in places where the Gagauz people lived densely to train clergy. Breaking the influence of the dominant religious factor within the Gagauz Turkish Community was possible thanks to the atheist policy implemented by the Soviet Socialist Regime. In this way, Gagauz people realized that their national identity should be built on language and ethnicity. With these developments, the Gagauz intellectual community began to question their own origins. For this purpose, they applied to Pastor Mihail Çakır, a clergyman of Gagauz origin who is also an educator, and requested him to conduct a study on their history and origins. Mihail Çakır, who carried out studies in response to this demand and is a very important value for the Gagauz people, concluded as a result of his studies that the Gagauz people are Turkish nobles. Çakır concluded this work with his work titled "The History of Bessarabian Gagauz", which he wrote in Gagauz Turkish in 1934. In this study, Çakır stated that, contrary to popular belief, the Gagauz people are of Turkish origin and focused on research on Gagauz Culture. The Gagauz people, who went through very difficult times against the pressures of the Socialist Soviet Regime, remained within the borders of Moldavia following the discovery of ethnic identity and the disintegration of the Soviet bloc. Unlike the Republic of Moldavia, which declared its independence in 1991, the Gagauz people had already established a state in 1990 under the name of the Gagauz Socialist Soviet Republic. However, between 1990 and 1994, a soft unification was achieved in harmony with the Republic of Moldova, with the contributions of the Republic of Turkey. Thus, a legal state emerged under the name of the Autonomous Republic of Gagauzia, which continues to exist today. Key Words: Gagauz, Orthodox, Grecophile, Bulgarophile, Slav, Atheist