Obama, Tell the Truth About the Armenian Genocide

newsmax ^ | March, 2010 | Pamela Geller

[ZULU]

I'm not sure about that.

The Celts did invade Anatolia and gave the name Galatia to the area where they settled.

But they also invaded Greece, Italy, and parts of Egypt. The Goths invaded Italy and Spain. But in all these instances, I don't think there was any massive impact on the native popualtion bases there from a genetic perspective.

I guess the point is HOW many were part of the invasion force, and what was the composition of that force.
If the invasion force was massive, you could expect a significant impact on the population. If it was mainly warrior raiding parties, perhaps not. If the invading force include families, again, the impact would be more significant.

When you look at genetic markers, parts of Anatolia are distinct from most parts of Europe - with the interesting exception of Tuscany. It has been postulate that the Etruscans may have come from ancient Anatolia.

Before the Celts arrived, there were large Greek and Persian populations in Anatolia, and before them a very large population base of Carians, Lydian, Lycians, Hittites, Luwians and other people like probably Assyrians in Eastern and Southern Anatolia. I think these groups contributed more significantly to the population base than the Celts.

As for the actual RACIAL impact of the Seljuk and Ottoman Turks, I think that would make an interesting Ph.D. thesis in population genetics.

[muawiyah]

The Celts were pretty handy at converting other, less militarily capable civilizations to their way of thinking ~ particularly the baby making part.

The only place they failed to supplant a population was in the West. In fact, they were pretty much reduced to simply enslaving Basques and taking them to Ireland ~ just weren't enough Celts. Today the Irish and the Basques are virtually identical when it comes to DNA.

The Eastern marches were a whole 'nuther story though. There they were the dominant population wherever they lived.

[muawiyah]

Regarding population genetics I think the issue of the Seljuks must finally be analyzed at the DNA level. As they moved into Anatolia proper their leadership elite already had names that can be read as either Turkic or Celtic ~ which means any number of things. One might be that the original Seljuk core population was a lot more Celtic than had ever been imagined, or the Seljuk leadership elite was simply supplanted by a smaller, but more militarily capable Celtic group, much as happened in Spain more than a thousand years earlier.