Also called Kara-Ogur (or Karaoghur), our family's nickname or clan name is Karakılçık, known to all nine obas of our tribal union called Tapan, which is also the unofficial, tribal and popular name of our great territory (Tapan Yöresi) comprising of nine snowy and wooded mountainous yaylas around Bolgar Mountains which is also a very good region for transhumance and highland pasture, which includes my grandfather's oba Tochmanagly and my grandmother's oba Tengerli. My grandparents, some relatives or members of our extended family or the tribe and our clan still live in Tapan-yöre, one of the most prominent yaylak areas of Taurus, besides the other prominent ones around Bulgar Mountains and Karboğazı such as Akçatekir yayla. My great grandfather was a renowned supplier of a wheat species called Karakylchyk around Tapan, hence we are known as Karakylchyks.
Our historic homeland Tapan is inhabited by the Varsaks. In ancient and historical sources, they were recorded as Karsak. The name 'karsak' is also the name given by Turks to the steppe fox, which was loaned into English as “corsac” with the same meaning aswell. The corsac fox was the ongun (spirit) and also tamga (seal) of the tribe. The tribe today is known as one of the Oghuz Turkoman tribes although it was originally an Oghur tribe belonged to the ancient Onogur tribal confederation.
Ancient Karsak tribe of Onogurs in the Kipchak Steppe and the Caucasus
Varying portions of Onoguric (or Bulgaric) speaking Turks had to leave their ancient homeland in the Idel-Ural region not once but multiple times in the course of history. The earliest recorded one among them was towards beyond the Caucasus into the vicinity of Onoguris and settle around modern-day Kars between BC 130-127.[2] The following wave of the historical records mentioning Bulgar or Onogur Turks around the Caucasus corresponds to pre-Attila era Hunnic settlements in the Caucasus, they are mentioned together with the tribes such as Saragurs and Sabirs.
Ancient Karsaks as an Onogur tribe in the Caucasus and Anatolia
Per various sources concerning the origin of the name of the city Kars, the name is associated with the Karsak tribe, and also the Onogurs, the tribal organization Karsaks belonged to, founded towns or cities around the region such as Onoguris which is also in the Kars-Imereti region. Confederational body of Onogurs (later Bulgars) or Oghur-speaking tribes was also known as Onok Confederation or Western Turkic Khaganate, also known as Tuglug, Tuglu or Duolu who originates from or are identical with the Scythian Tiele, Tingling or Tegreg people, who sometimes interpreted as Tögrüg (Törük/Türük “Turk”) or Tegereg people (people of “carts”, cart means “kangly” or “kağnı” in Turkish languages while “tegereg”, “teger/teker” or “tekerleg” means “wheel”, hence links with Kangly, Kangar, Kenger clan of Pechenegs, and Kangju peoples are possible), on the other hand “Tuglug” means “have flags (banners), have standards” in Turkish, derives from the Turkish word for banner or standard “tug”. It is also known that Onogurs (later Bulgars) or Oghur-speaking tribes splitted up from their main tribal confederational body not once but multiple times in the course of history. For example, the Onogurs were mentioned among both in the ranks of early Huns in the Caucasus and later in the khaganates of Western Turks, Khazaria and later in the entities of Bulgars or as a cognate to the ethnonym Bulgar. In 11th century, in the works of Kashgari, Kars was mentioned as “the cloth made out of camel or sheep fur”, and Karsak was mentioned as “steppe fox of which skin is used to make fur”.[2]
This user has an intermediate understanding of the Greek alphabet.
It is known that a portion of Onogurs in the following centuries, again splitted up from their main confederational body in the Kipchak Steppe and settled around the Caucasus. Likely, it was occurred during the process of the split up of Atil Bulgars towards around the Danube river, later known as Danube Bulgaria. The Ogur-speaking Turks, who dwell in an area between the Urals, the Aral, the Caucasus, the Carpathians and the Alps, began acting independently from Turkish Khaganate. While they were known to Kök-Türks as “Onok (On-Ok or On-Oq, meaning ‘ten arrows’)”, their autonym was “On-Oğur” which means “ten tribes”. In the following decades, synonymously with the name Onogur, they were recorded as “Bulgar” which means “mixed, harmonious” in Turkish, referencing to the fusion of Oghur-speaking Huns and Avars and, as the newcomers to the region, Onogurs, who jointly founded the Bulgar confederation around north of Crimean Peninsula, called Old Great Bulgaria, which is also known as Patria Onoguria (“Onogur land”). The name Bulgar is also seemed to be an autonym instead of an exonym, like the name Onogur. This confederational union of these 3 great Oguric-speaking tribes (Huns, Avars, Onogurs) was also known as Altyn-Oba (“golden tribe”) in Atil Bulgar and other chronicles around the Kipchak Steppe.
Onogundur as an exonym in the Byzantine, Jewish and Islamic sources
The Onogur confederation was also recorded as Onogundur, Vanagundur, Vagundur, Vegentur, Vehendur, Vanandur, Valendur, Velentur, Vulundur in Islamic and Hebrew sources while it was recorded with the names Vanand and Venend in the Armenian sources, hence the name of Vanand, a historical area roughly corresponds to Kars region, is associated with Onogundur Bulgars by some sources. The Oghur-speaking Karsak clan was recorded among the tribal union of Velentur in some parts of the regions of Northeastern Anatolia, Georgia and Armenia (roughly Kars-Imereti area), by contemporary sources, referencing to the Onogur confederation.[3]
This association was mirrored in old Armenian sources, such as the Ashkharatsuyts, which refers to the Olxontor Błkar, and the 5th century History by Movses Khorenatsi, which includes an additional comment from a 9th-century writer about the colony of the Vłĕndur Bułkar. Marquart and Golden connected these forms with the Iġndr (*Uluġundur) of Ibn al-Kalbi (c. 820), the Vnndur (*Wunundur) of Hudud al-'Alam (982), the Wlndr (*Wulundur) of Al-Masudi (10th century) and Hungarian name for Belgrad Nándorfehérvár, the nndr (*Nandur) of Gardīzī (11th century) and *Wununtur in the letter by the Khazar King Joseph. All the forms show the phonetic changes typical of late Oghuric (prothetic w-; o- > wo-, u-, *wu-).[4][5]
Onogur Confederation in the Balkans, Eastern & Central Europe
It is known that the name Hungarian is derived from Onogur (> (H)ungar) Bulgars of Balkans and the name of Hungary is also derived from the name of Onogur realm, Onoguria, hence the realm of Onogurians (Hungarians), which was later dominated by Magyar tribes, was always mentioned as Turkey and themselves as Turks. The name of Hungarians in some Slavic languages such as Венгерец (“Vengeris”) or Венгр (“Vengr”) is interestingly similar to the form of Venegundur among the recorded names of Onogurs around the Caucasus. While in all other Slavic languages, Hungarians are called “Vengri” or “Madyari” (and similar varieties), in Ukrainian only as a Slavic language, they are called Угорці (Ugorsi) and their country is called Угорщина (Ugorshina) which derived from the name Ogur (Oğur) rather than Onogur (Vengr in Slavic languages), hence it is easy to claim that the etymology of the name “Ugor” is derived from “Ogur” while there is no other convincing explanation of the words “Ugri” and “Yugoria” (While the modern-day Russian name for the region is “Yugra”, the region and the people were historically recorded as Oúngroi, Ongariae, and Ioughoria or Yugoria). Since the name Bulgar references to the fusion of Oghur-speaking Huns and Onogurs, it is sometimes suggested that the name Hungar also reflects another projected ethnonym, Hunoghur (Hun-Oğur) or Honagur.
Ogurs and their relation to Proto-Bulgars or Proto-Turks
The terms ‘eastern’ and ‘western’ are actively used to anthropologically identify the Turks or Proto-Turks in the historiography of the Turks and Proto-Turks by numerous scholars such as Karatay, Zakiev, Rasonyi, Pritsak, Tasagil, I. Durmus, B. Aydin, M.I. Cig. The Mongoloid-looking ‘eastern’ is used as opposing to fair-faced Turanid-looking Western Turks dwelling in the area between the Lake Balkash, the Urals and the Alps since the ancient times of the ancestors of Bulgars or Oguric-speakers, the Tiele or the Diŋliŋ who were one of the elite tribes among Scythians, together with the ancestry of Turkish Asina called Usun and the ancestry of Hunnic royal clan Akatziri called Agathyrsi also the ancestry of Turcae called Tyrcae who were also recorded as mighty tribes among Scythians, in an area roughly corresponding to the ancient Scythia or Ashkuzai i.e. Khazaria, most recent researches show that Proto-Turk language was the direct ancestor of Oguric, hence Proto-Bulgar is equal with Proto-Turkish. We can show the most significant examples of Eastern Turks from the age and realm of overcrowded Genghisid Turks who migrated from the north of Mongolic Liao-ruled Khitan China i.e. Cathay and East Asia to a vast area between Crimea and Turkistan. Since it was the most recent great migration of peoples, it still has anthropological and genetical effects in many geographies around the Eurasian Belt and Turkistan (Central Asia) in this modern-day. Genghisid Conquests were made by Mongoloid-looking Eastern Turks. Genghisid Empire was ruled by East Asian Turks together with the Mongols and/or pre-Genghisid Turkified Mongols (Mongoloid looking Turkic-speakers), popularly renowned as “Mongols” only, whose majority and the elites natively spoke Turkish (Siberian) as the lingua franca besides the minority who spoke the dialects of the Mongolic languages. There are heavy amount of Turkic loanwords in all of Mongolic languages.
Christianized Onogurs or Bulgars were fully assimilated into modern-day Slavic populations (Russians, Ukrainians, Bulgarians) gradually (see: Danube Bulgars and Bulgarians). Muslim Onogurs (such as Idel Bulgars) however, while preserving their Turkic identity, over time either Kipchakized (Cumanized) in the Kipchak Steppe or Oghuzified in Anatolia (see: Varsak Turcomans and Bolgar Mountains in Anatolia). Gagauz people, an Oghuz Turkish speaking people of Besarabia region of Moldova, who are seen as descendants of some Balkan Bulgars (they were known as “Turkish speaking Bulgars” in the Ottoman Empire, it is recorded that they called themselves “Eski Bulgar”, meaning 'Old Bulgar', in 1930s)[8][9][10] were firstly Oghuzified after choosing Islam, later after Ottomans withdrew from the area around 1860s, they were forcefully converted to Christianity. Gagauz Turks, as Christians, call their god “Allaa”, with the Gagauz Turkish version of the Muslim name for God, Allah. Most of scholars think that these Oghuric or Bulghar Turks known as Gagauz became Oghuz Turks as early as 14th or 15th century.
Early Kipchakization in Cumania and late Oghuzification in Anatolia and Azerbaijan
After Cumans or Kipchaks founded a confederation stretching from the Altays in the east, to Atil Bulgaria region to the north, Derbent and the Caucasus to the south, the Danube and the Carpathians to the west, named Cumania or Desht-i Kipchak, Bulgars or Oguric Turks of Atil Bulgaria eventually came under control of Cumania although it was autonomous in the confederation. In a 400-year span (c. 900-1300 AD), the majority of the Bulgar-speaking Oguric Turks, firstly Cumanized in the ancient homeland of Oguric and/or Onoguric Turks, Idel-Ural region, and then the ones who had to leave their ancient homeland because of Genghisid conquests, later got Magyarized, Wallachized, and Slavicized in the Balkans, and Oghuzified in Anatolia, the Balkans and Iran (Azerbaijan). Since the latter transformation occurred tribally rather than as in the former one, culturally and forcefully, it differs from the former in some aspects. Cumans who sought asylum in Hungary and Slavicized Bulgaria faced harsh treatments, difficult and bloody challenges such as forceful demands of conversion to Christianity in order to enter their lands and change their freeborn pastoral lifestyle into a sedentary town-based dependent lifestyle immediately. The Cumans who fled to Anatolia and Iran on the other hand, had seen no such demands by the Seljuk, Zengid, Khwarazmid authorities since these authorities were already familiar with the lifestyle structure of the newcomer tribes while they were welcomed by numerous autonomous tribes of Anatolia, Azerbaijan and Mesopotamia who shared same cultural values. This linguistic Kipchak to Oghuz transition took place by gradual intermingling of the Cuman-Kipchaks with Oghuz-Turcoman tribes of Anatolia & the Balkans, Azerbaijan & Persia, the Levant & Mesopotamia in early times. Since the tribes had an official and special status of tribal autonomy and they were the utter majority of Turkish people of the realms, it was independent from the late interference on tribal affairs of then-minority freestanding tribes by Ottoman, Safavid, Afsharid or Qajar (and earlier Seljuk, Zengid, Ayyubid, Khwarazmid, Mamluk) authorities. Interestingly, the Kipchak dialects of the Caucasus and Dagestan also have a visible Oghuz effect which is still observable in this modern day, showing a probable cultural struggle of Kipchaks of the Caucasus to preserve their language although they get linguistic effects from neighboring Oghuz dominions. Besides this, there are interesting Kipchak linguistic features in some Oghuz Turkish dialects of Anatolia, the Balkans and Azerbaijan as well. More interestingly, the medieval Codex Cumanicus was written with a language which is intelligible both with Oghuz and Kipchak languages although the language was called Kipchak or Cuman which is the parent language of all Kipchak languages.
It is known that ancient and medieval Turkish warlike groups were superior on blacksmithing of weaponry and armor. It is documented in Chinese sources that before the Gök-Türks rebelled against the Asian Avar Khaganate, Avar khagan Anakay insulted Gök-Türk leader Bumın with such words: "You are my blacksmith slave. How dare you utter these words?" Bumin got angry, killed Anakay's emissary, severed relations with the Avar Khaganate and one year later emerged as the leader of the revolt against the Asian Avar Khaganate. We can understand that Turkish tribes at the time were skillful on blacksmithing, around 550s AD.
Varsaks or Karsaks were famous for their smithery in medieval ages. They were known as skillful smiths in the Ottoman Empire. The famous Turkish kilij or saber known as yatagan was called “varsak saber” or “varsak kilij (sword)” by the Ottoman elites, the Janissaries and especially other military units that fully made up of Turkish tribes in the Ottoman Army such as Yamaks, Sipahis and Akinjis. Varsak tribe is still famous for their smithery since the ancient Karsak and Onogur times. Today the famous Tapan Knife is originated from Tapan tribal region and still being produced by Varsaks who are the inhabitants of Tapan.
Bulgar Mountain in a region of Anatolia where Karsaks (Varsaks) still dwell
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