What is interesting is that genetically only the Kazakhs and Kyrgyz are more than 50% genetically Turkic i.e. North-East Asian
The "Turks" are only about 5% to 15% (increasing west to east) Turkic and the rest are more related to Greeks, Syriacs, Iranians and Armenians
The Uzbeks and to a lower extent Turkmen are mostly Iranian as are the Azeris
I see this is a recent posting of an artice almost 2 weeks old. Is there any newer information about developments in this area?
I noticed Tajikistan was NOT mentioned in the article. Is that because the Tajiks are not a Turkic language group? I believe in Afghanistan the fighters in the Panjshir Valley who were the last to fall to the current Taliban government were mostly Tajik. I also enjoyed the recent info about the Tajikistan dictator’s outspoken tirade at Putin at a recent meeting in his country, much to Putin’s embarrasment. See link below. Be patient it has a number of pictures including an unhappy Putin, so is a bit slow to paint.
I also suspect some of these Turkic countries are not too happy with China’s Belt and Road initiative. Is that just a plan to make it easier to extract and transport their resources back to China without providing any significant development? That was one of the things the Tajik dictator was raving about regarding Russian behavior during Putin’s visit.