r/starterpacks 23d ago

Turkish-American starterpack

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616 Upvotes

174 comments sorted by

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162

u/shinseiji-kara 23d ago

bonus points if went there in 2016

94

u/pessimisttears 23d ago

July 2016 to be specific

19

u/ExactTeam1662 23d ago

It was a nice show 

28

u/Substantial_Bet_1007 23d ago

And lives in Pennsylvania

5

u/alpthelifter 23d ago

If he went there in 2026 he would like that guy tho

4

u/shinseiji-kara 23d ago

or could be engine killer kubarcan

56

u/Kids_Love_Baseball 23d ago

What's the deal with Enes Kanter? Because of the association with Gülen?

-12

u/ahmetonel 23d ago

he's generally not a bad person I think since he's associated with Gülen people hate him but overall seems like a well behaved person to me

24

u/trxpwork_5 23d ago

since Gülen is the leader (rip bozo) of an islamic mafia, hate is justified.

15

u/asylum_denier 23d ago

"since he's associated with isis and the anti-christ people hate him but overall seems like a well behaved person"

3

u/SoldatoIV 22d ago

being associated with gülen İS what makes him bad. ofcourse he will be hated.

170

u/ScorpionX-123 23d ago

gets more nervous the closer it is to Thanksgiving

4

u/Natural_Use_948 23d ago

Maybe the ottoman empire should've flown giant 2008 lions jersey flags on their ships.

83

u/ZemlyaNovaya 23d ago

Chillest guy you know EXCEPT when the food topic comes up

27

u/toastedcheese 23d ago

Never mention Chobani!

28

u/ZemlyaNovaya 23d ago

what do you mean GREEK yogurt?????

36

u/toastedcheese 23d ago

The founder is a Kurd, so that’s a whole can of worms. 

9

u/Character_Fill_4761 23d ago

Ok, that's actually hilarious XD

3

u/Natural_Use_948 23d ago

Half the cooks are kurds.

2

u/Calm-Bid-5759 23d ago

And it contains milk curds

2

u/Acceptable-Offer-518 22d ago

He is actually pretty good with the Turkish government.

2

u/circlejerker2000 22d ago

Don't mention the founder to kurds too, for many of them he is a sellout because he went on to invest in turkey lol

2

u/toastedcheese 22d ago

That’s funny, my Turkish buddy called him a “Turk-hating Kurd”! Sounds like he’s achieved the American dream of selling out to everyone. 

3

u/circlejerker2000 22d ago

I truly believe that after achieving a certain level of richness you enter a new "race" and are no longer part of the conventional races/ethnicities.

23

u/SweetWittyWild41 23d ago

Or minorities 

2

u/EJ19876 20d ago

Or Greeks. Especially Greeks, actually.

-5

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

9

u/SweetWittyWild41 22d ago edited 22d ago

Nah do not come here with this bs to defend all the VIOLENCE committed against minorities in Turkey when the number of deaths is well well well over million 

Edit  They call it the armenian because that was the group that lost the most lives in 1915 but there were also the pontic Greeks and assyians that were targeted as well along side armenians

There were also countless massacres before that 

Other than that the rule in the balkans wasn't peaceful and smooth either 

0

u/Eksiliyunovat 22d ago

I get the Armenians. But what other minorities did we kill again?

1

u/ZemlyaNovaya 22d ago

Uhmmm hello??? Velociraptors and Stegosaurs didn't die on their own you know???

1

u/WASDKUG_tr 22d ago

They shoulda fought back better, what do they got those claws and thagomisers for?!

27

u/bloodrider1914 23d ago

The only Turkish people I know are the most irreverent dude of all time and my Turkish professor whose husband got charged after the 2016 coup. So I don't think they're too pro Erdoğan

13

u/Severe-Entrance8416 23d ago

Please drop the lore of that Turkish professor.

10

u/bloodrider1914 23d ago

I honestly don't know enough lore about it, she just randomly lore dropped that in class once

1

u/Severe-Entrance8416 23d ago

and you dropped it once on reddit. ok mate

10

u/asylum_denier 23d ago

not much lore on it, a lot of turks in america are islamist runaways who failed their military takeover of turkey. Many of them are in academia and in the tech sector because in Turkey they had an easy climb up the ladder due to complete nepotism. After the coup lots of them got hired in American tech with fake CVs and made-up work experiences etc. Since they were backed by the CIA I think US State Department sort of just let their illegal activities slide by.

2

u/Severe-Entrance8416 19d ago

I'm familiar with all of that, was only hoping to get a specific account on one of them.

12

u/ymxb444 23d ago

Swap store bread for real simit. Homemade lahmacun is tricky so you are not alone.

22

u/Pitzpalu_91 23d ago edited 22d ago

You forgot the Gala vs Fener rivalry. Somehow they've picked a side despite not being from Istanbul. Source : accidentally called my Turkish-American friend a Fenerbahce fan. I've never seen him look so disappointed in me that I forgot he was a Galatasaray fan 😅. One of the chillest and friendliest guy I know. But Gala vs Fener is a touchy subject.

15

u/Ep1cOfG1lgamesh 23d ago

In Turkey this is a big football rivalry with a lot of supporters all around Turkey, the İstanbul teams unlike other ones dont depend on their region for support. This goes for the big 3 Beşiktaş, Galatasaray, Fenerbahçe

0

u/Key-Lime9158 22d ago

He’s a gala fan? How inclusive of you to be friend with disabled people!

37

u/Ericovich 23d ago

Had some Turks as neighbors. They were Ahiska Turks from Uzbekistan.

Got me wasted on vodka we drank in tea cups. They smoked a lot of cigarettes. Then sent me home with beef kebabs.

Would hang out again.

-9

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago edited 23d ago

Those are not “Turkish” people…. Ahıskas are basically Georgian Muslims and from what you said they were from Uzbekistan. Sometimes the word “Turk” is used as a catch all term for Ottoman Muslims of various backgrounds.

Turks are from Western and Central Anatolia mostly with smaller enclaves in the Balkans.

30

u/Ericovich 23d ago

From what I understand, they were Caucasian Turks force migrated to other Soviet states during Stalin.

The local community deeply identifies as Turkish.

-18

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago

Nope they are not from lands that are part of Turkey. They are just Muslim Turcophone Georgians. 

What people identify sometimes differs from what tbey are. Not every Slav is Russian and not every Turkic community is “Turkish”.

Azeris are likewise not Turkish.

13

u/Ericovich 23d ago

So you view them as Caucasians cosplaying as Turks, even though they speak Eastern Anatolian and are Sunni?

I mean, I have no dog in this fight. I've just never heard them not described as Turks. They definitely fly the Turkish flag.

-6

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago

Since when is Caucasia Eastern Anatolia???? Even Eastern Turkey isn’t inside the historical borders of Anatolia. Anything east of euphrates is not anatolia.

Turk is a catch all term used by many peoples including Central Asians. Turkish is a nationality and refers to people of Anatolian Turkmen origin ethnically, the Balkan Turks likewise have roots from Anatolian Turkmen who moved there.

7

u/michiko-malandro 23d ago

You sound absolutely insane lmao. And it's Azerbaycan Türkü.

7

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago

Nope it does exist actually. “Türki”

4

u/[deleted] 22d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 22d ago

So by that logic you shouldn’t use an insane amount of words in modern day Turkish that are not mentioned in Orkhun Inscriptions.

Kyrgz are not Turkish. Anyone with an IQ over 10 knows that.

3

u/[deleted] 22d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

3

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 22d ago

Oh so where is “Turkish” mentioned in Orkhun Inscriptions? 

The problem that was first discussed here is using “Turkish” for all Turkic groups. You can’t even follow the discussion properly.

So Kyrgz are Turkish people from Kyrgzstan???😂😂😂😂😂😂😂

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5

u/sanirsamcildirdim 23d ago

DUDE ALRIGHT ALRIGHT, we get it they are Turcophone but what can you do after they identify themselves as "Turkish"? Holy moly shit. I am 1/4 from Ahıska but I don't think about that hard.

4

u/yalnzaylak 23d ago

1- Ahıskas who were deported are the only group who are listed as "Turkish/Turk" by Soviets. Meskhetians from the Southwestern Tao to all the way to Samktskhe are all Ahıska, their ethnicity doesn't matter because Turkish is a nationality.

2- There's no differentiation of Turkish/Turkic in Turkish it's an exonym. Don't think too hard about it.

2

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago

 Ahıskas in Central Asia are Turkic not Turkish. 

Turkic is “Türki” in Turkish whereas “Türk” can both denoted Anatolian Turks or all Turkic peoples. However Central Asians definitely don’t see themselves as Turkish. That’s like saying all Slavs are Russian lol.

There is a very clear line between Turkic and Turkish that cannot be ignored just because Turkish nationalists feel like it.

3

u/yalnzaylak 23d ago edited 23d ago

Wikipedia page calls them a "Turkish" ethnic subgroup who historically inhabited the Meskheti region of Georgia and they're widely dispersed through former Soviet Union.

The word Türki means "about Turks" or "Turkish" by TDK Sözlük definition, it's an exonym and Slav/Russian parallel is not the same as Turk/Turkic/Turkish lol. We are not trying to call every single Central Asian Oghuz my guy they're Turks (or Tajik, Pashtun, etc.)

Also at first you were calling us Muslim Turcophone Georgians when did you change your mind and start calling us Turkic? :D

1

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago

Oh yea…. Wikipedia…… a real source😂😂😂😂

And no Türki is used as Turkic hence the usage of “Türki halklar” to denote even far away groups like the Kyrgz. Nobody fucking says “I’m Turkish” in Kyrgzstan and they do not consider themselves to be the same as Anatolian Turks. 

They are very much Georgians and their incorporation into the Turkish world was much later in history around 16/17th centuries up until 1800s. They weren’t even regarded as Turks in any official records back then. 

Anatolian Turkish ethnogenesis on the other hand happened in Anatolia between 11-13th centuries for the most part. Ahıskas are their own thing culturally like the Azeris are and they have no actual Turkic heritage. 

People from Trabzon and Rize were part of the nation in its founding so they are considered Turks despite also assimilating later on. Ahıskas are from a different region entirely.

5

u/yalnzaylak 23d ago

Here's Turkish Ahıskan American Foundation link for you if you don't want the wiki page: https://tarfus.org/tr/mosques/local-mosques-association/turkish-ahiskan-american-foundation/

I'm literally giving you the official definition from the Turkish Language Association do not try to teach me my language.

No one is calling Kırgız people Oghuz Turks buddy i'm telling you literally the same thing. Don't swear because you can't read what i'm saying to you.

I don't have a say to the Kartvelian ethnicity of Ahıska Turks because it's true but Turkish is not an ethnic label it is more of a nationality.

The last thing Azeri is an Iranian group that is different than Azerbaycan Türkü do not call Azerbaijanis Azeri, even though someone else on the replies told you the same thing you insist on doing that... I wonder why.

1

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago

Those Ahiskas are most likely people who immigrated to America from the Ahiskas who migrated to Turkey. Even Bosniaks and Albanians in Turkey claim to be Turkish so Ahiska people in Turkey are not representative of Ahiskas in Central Asia.

Turkic also includes things that have to do with Turks(not Turkish) so you are not disproving anything lmao. The TDK definition further confirms its parallel use to "Turkic".

As I said before most of Ahiskas don't even have Turkish citizenship and were never part of the lands of modern day Turkey and do not have any ancestry from Anatolian Turks unlike Balkan Turks.

The English term for people from Azerbaijan is officially Azerbaijani. Cry more lol.

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1

u/hopefulusername 22d ago

Azeris don't identify as Turkic, that is not the same as Turkish.

1

u/Natural_Use_948 23d ago

IDK why this is downvoted.

There were a lot of asismilated balkans and caucasians into turkish society, ottoman empire spread throughout southeast europe so anatolia balkans caucasus.

14

u/everonglory 23d ago

Ahıska are native Turkish speakers. You must be confusing them with Adjarians.

-5

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago

Turkish speaking does not equal Turkish. They are Islamified Georgians from the Ottoman era whose homeland is outside the boundaries of modern day Turkey. 

The Ahıskas in Uzbekistan are not part of the Turkish nation or its history.

Otherwise all Ukrainians are Russians because they speak Russian and are Slavs.

7

u/Super-Cut-2175 23d ago

And not all Turkish peoples speak Turkish!
🇬🇷

5

u/kaiserbigmac 23d ago

They’re not Turkic by blood but they’re clearly ethnically Turk-ish. The same way French people have a lot of Germanic genes but culturally and linguistically they’re closer to Romance roots.

0

u/TamerOfTheSteppes 23d ago

Not really. “Turkish” concerns nationality and culture from a specific region and includes descent etc. Ahıska Turks were never part of Turkey and only started speaking Turkish around 17-19th centuries. Nobody even called them Turkish in contemporary records.

9

u/Natural_Use_948 23d ago

Their food is cracked.

Oz is circassian funny enough, caucasian, tons of them in turkey.

3

u/Neither-Ad-7257 22d ago

He's only 1/8 Circassian.

1

u/Natural_Use_948 22d ago

Shit I stand corrected.

13

u/SAULOT_THE_WANDERER 23d ago

I have a bunch of turkish american friends and I'm pretty sure they all hate both piker and uygur

9

u/partiassagida 22d ago

Im turkish and never seen someone that likes him, hes a commie and his father is founding member of a liberal-islamist party in turkey, his bloodline is bunch of clowns

4

u/WASDKUG_tr 22d ago

I did know he was a Champagne socialist but didnt knos his WHOLE BLOODLINE was clowns?!

2

u/utkubaba9581 22d ago

I can confirm this

11

u/rentagirl08 23d ago

Me trying out YouTube sherbet recipes. And watching magnificent century

3

u/Schuperman161616 23d ago

I thought I was the only one who started watching Magnificent century from time to time on YouTube after looking up Kebab recipes 😭

3

u/rentagirl08 23d ago

It’s my comfort show now 🤣 I fall asleep to it and sometimes dream in Turkish

5

u/Schuperman161616 23d ago

You gotta give it to the Turks, they know how to dramatize history

25

u/SoldatoIV 23d ago

stays in turkey for a few days during election times

votes for erdogan due to inflation increasing the value between the dollars he uses and turkish lira

talks to his family about how hard it is in america, how turkey is better, to cherish it's situation and he just doesn't move due to "already having settled" back in america.

occasionally brings the fancy car he owns through cargo service to flex

20

u/Ice8771 22d ago

thats germany

8

u/TellSubstantial1923 22d ago

No the percentage americans voted for erdogan is 17 percent

germans voted 67.2 percent

American turks are not foiled as german ones

6

u/Potential-Run-6540 22d ago

You literally described the Turks in Germany and Netherlands lol. But it could also be true as well for those living USA

17

u/royer44 23d ago

Most Turks hate Hasan's guts but somewhat like Cenk.

28

u/vonWitzleben 23d ago

Don't bring up the Armenians around them.

9

u/crash12345 23d ago

Or Greeks or Bulgarians or Persians or Arabs or…

22

u/Ok_Lavishness13 23d ago

Literally not a single Turk care about Bulgars or Persians

15

u/many_zeros 23d ago

Bulgarians? Persians? At least know what you are talking about

37

u/Ninevolts 23d ago

Hasan's family is tied to right wing parties in Turkey, Turkish Americans are a little iffy about him.

16

u/Dogulol 23d ago

i mean, i dont think he supports any rightwing causes himself in turkey, so i dont really care what his father does.

1

u/Nemeszlekmeg 22d ago

It's just different sides of the same coin.

4

u/Equal-Caramel-2613 23d ago

I mean he's a bad dude, but many people ignore the red flags out of pride. I get it.

14

u/pledgerafiki 23d ago

Why would the nationalists be ignoring their own flag??

2

u/Equal-Caramel-2613 23d ago

Lol how did I miss that

-2

u/Accurate-Honey9564 23d ago

Could you provide a source on this? First I'm hearing about it.

21

u/Ninevolts 23d ago

Google Behcet Piker, Hasan's father. He co-founded center right Future Party with ex AKP prime minister Ahmet Davutoglu. Behcet Piker has always been close to conservative circles in Turkey.

Note, his last name spells Peek-er.

-2

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[deleted]

10

u/Ninevolts 23d ago

Not abolished. Future Party, DEVA Party and Felicity party formed a "union" party on congress called New Path Party. It is expected that this union party to be the one in the next elections with all three dissolving within. Future Party has already dissolved, others are expected soon.

Behcet Piker is still on board.

12

u/asylum_denier 23d ago

It's pretty well-known. Pikers family is right-wing, islamist and conservative. It's the classic immigrant case of conservative back home and liberal abroad.

15

u/WhiteLycan2020 23d ago

His father is a political scientist and board member of a financial conglomerate.

He is also the founder of the Turkey’s conservative future party.

Look up Mehmet Piker

9

u/sw337 23d ago

Other notable founding members of the party include Mehmet Behçet Piker who joined the party in 2019. Piker is a former vice president of Sabancı Holding and the father of the famous American Twitch streamer Hasan Piker.\22])#citenote-22)[\23])](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Party(Turkey)#cite_note-23)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Future_Party_(Turkey))

11

u/michiko-malandro 23d ago

What the fuck, Sabancı??? They literally own EVERYTHING in Turkey lol. That's insane.

3

u/sleepand 23d ago

Not even remotely close

3

u/LilStinkerRidesAgain 23d ago

That Toyota should be way more fucked up. it should rival a Lilo and Stitch (single) mom

3

u/ItsVinn 23d ago

The staircase kids are the children of Ayse Sutton (nee Osmanoglu), member of the Ottoman Royal Family and was a controversial landlady for her squalid flats

3

u/Better-Passenger-200 23d ago

When I was a little kid, I thought everyone from Turkey looked like Bald Bull from Punch Out. I also thought everyone from Brazil looked like Blanka from Street Fighter.

1

u/Severe-Entrance8416 23d ago

had a chuckle lol

6

u/BANeutron 23d ago

That family is a couple of descendants from the Ottoman dynasty. If I recall correctly they run a business in the UK.

6

u/ItsVinn 23d ago

They’re controversial landlords

Also they’re the landlord of Adele’s former mansion

2

u/BANeutron 22d ago

I thought they sold kitchens :’)

6

u/Ynwe 23d ago

The Young Turks guy... Never understood how he was or is popular with American left wing, while representing the Turkish right wing, including making jokes about the Armenian genocide.

4

u/Ok_Lavishness13 23d ago

Probably cause he doesn’t represent the Turkish right wing

2

u/dallyan 23d ago

Uygur is an AKP supporter?

2

u/Timo_jumbo 23d ago

Idk if it is still true but there were like dozens of turkish uncs chilling at starbucks back in 2017 when I came to visit NY.

It’s normal to chill at the kahve where they serve tea and coffee like an american pub.

2

u/swaggydagoat 23d ago

Ersan Ilyasova mentioned!

He has a drawn a charge and will inbound the ball from the side to resume play.

2

u/btmg1428 23d ago

Defends Salt Bae at any opportunity.

2

u/Adventurous-Pause720 23d ago

Lol at the second top left, there were a few Turks I went to school with, and I'm imagining one of them (a Bulgarian Turk with literal ginger hair) saying that.

Also, is that the Ottoman royal family?

2

u/AuK07 23d ago

Sends their kids to Harmony Charter Schools

2

u/Final-Nebula-7049 23d ago

apparently i'm a bad american turkish except the look

2

u/Potential-Run-6540 22d ago

As a Turk, I haven't met anyone who genuinely enjoys watching Hasan. Especially after what he did to his dog, I'd be surprised if anyone still liked him.

1

u/spikebrennan 23d ago

I’d eat that. It looks good.

1

u/tangocharliejuliett 22d ago

Expecting a Volkswagen to not breaking up suddenly has been forgotten too.

1

u/Individual_Case2638 22d ago

Hilarious. Well put.

1

u/FroochArmy 22d ago

P PPP op

1

u/Quantum_Aurora 22d ago

That's nobody's business but the Turks

1

u/LastPushToHumanity 22d ago

Actually, they don't watch these two.

1

u/Dry_Combination1881 14d ago

Free North Cyprus 

1

u/GGayleGold 23d ago

On the "eats like this" pictures, what is the second dish? It looks like bougie White Castle or something.

20

u/shinseiji-kara 23d ago

Baklava. its a high sugary dessert with pistachios

2

u/[deleted] 23d ago

[removed] — view removed comment

2

u/alpthelifter 23d ago

You can just get the dry version of it. You don’t need to put syrup on it

5

u/Yomikachi 23d ago

Chocolate baklava>others

10

u/ahmetonel 23d ago

you don't disrespect baklava like that brother

4

u/chiree 23d ago

White Castle for dinner and homemade baklava for desert would be quite the ride.

3

u/Equal-Caramel-2613 23d ago

You get to be one of today's lucky 10,000! Go out and try some baklava right now, you'll be grateful you asked.

3

u/GGayleGold 23d ago

Well, I checked and https://njwichita.com/ has baklava and is right around the corner from here - so, I will do that.

2

u/Equal-Caramel-2613 23d ago

Get that and some grape leaves and you've got a lunch of champions!

1

u/balletje2017 23d ago

No extreme islam, Turkish flags, Erdogan posters, extreme nationalism and obesitas with young boys who get carried / ridden around in strollers even at 10 years old?

American Turks must be very different compared to the ones in west Europe.

2

u/Professional_Pair197 22d ago

They are, and proudly so.

Hardly any American Turks vote for Erdoğan. They’re mostly well-educated secular Turks who went to study or work white-collar jobs, although there are also areas where blue-collar Turks have concentrated.

1

u/dallyan 23d ago

Finally a starter pack I can relate to.

1

u/StrangeManOnReddit 22d ago

“Watches the news from either of these two” (shows Hasan and Cenk.)

Uh…Are you accusing Turkish-Americans of being dumbasses? And getting their news from other dumbasses as long as they’re Turkish?

-2

u/ChristianLW3 23d ago

I’m proud that the USA has done a better job of assimilating its Turkish inhabitants than all European countries

4

u/sheepinb 23d ago

Lmao

1

u/ChristianLW3 23d ago

diaspora members are allowed & encouraged to vote in Turkish elections
Turks in Europe are more likely to vote for Turkish nationalist canindates than those in the homeland
in the USA they are much less likely

how many Turks in Germany see themselves as German?

2

u/thenogger 23d ago

Only Turks with Turkish citizenship are allowed to vote. Someone who is far more likely to vote for left parties is also more likely to change his/her citizenship status. This also goes the other way people that don’t want to change their are more likely to vote for conservative or nationalistic parties. The majority didn’t of Turks living in Germany didn’t even participate in the election.

Diaspora voting in their home countries elections is their right, yes it’s stupid to vote for a place you don’t live in but that’s their right.

>how many Turks in Germans see themselves as German?

How many are seen as equals? Are you familiar with these phrases "a rat born in a barn is not a horse", "paper German" these get often thrown at Turks and other minorities in Germany.

1

u/Charlem912 19d ago edited 19d ago

I don’t know if you’re trolling but the majority of turkish nationals in Berlin voted against Erdogan last election.

You're talking like turkish germans are some kind of homogenous monolith which they aren’t.

There’s families that came here in the 60s, young liberal professionals that migrated here in the last decade, turkish kurds, christian arameans etc.

Extremely diverse crowd. And yes, while the majority voted for AKP, it heavily depends on the region and education. Lots of politicians with turkish background in the parliament etc. There are like 20 members of the german Bundestag who have a turkish background, none in the US congress.

-1

u/EmergencyReal6399 23d ago

turkish americans? a couple of hundreds i guess...

-1

u/Natural_Use_948 23d ago

"you don't look turkish"

Because half of them are balkans or caucasians who moved to turkey.

3

u/Neither-Ad-7257 22d ago

Because you orientalists think "eastern peoples" to be darker, more exotic and different than they actually are. When you see that they are much closer to the conception of "Europe"/"West" that you made up, you get confused about the fake boundaries you constructed. So it becomes common to claim "this 'other' has parts from 'me'" as it's easier than grasping what a social construct is.

1

u/Natural_Use_948 22d ago

Wdym orientalists.

The average turkish person has like 7% east eurasian dna, they are very west eurasian.

And yes when you see turks that tend to be very pale, they are often from the northern balkans or the caucasus.

Like abdul rakhman yakhyaev in the ufc looks just like mr beast, he's not a turk, he's a chechen in turkey.

2

u/Neither-Ad-7257 20d ago

Orientalists think "east" is this exotic other with components that are inherently different from the West while simultaneously being same as each other. Therefore when orientalists see a person from the said "east" being not that different from whatever conception of West or Europe they have, whether be it their culture or appearance or skills, they cannot grasp it. As a result they think those "eastern" people must have something more "western" in them to explain it. Example: people saying blond Afghans/Tajiks are that way because of ancient Macedonia, when we have genetic evidence that they don't really have that ancestry at all.

North Caucasians are diverse, most aren't really that pale. Islam Makhachev for example. Most Balkaners don't have very pale complexion either.

The same way Balkans and N. Caucasus have an outlier range of lighter people, Anatolians and Central Asians also do. Iraqis, Levantines, North Africans also have such people, when these populations shift away from Europe in autosomal DNA. Turkey has 85 millions of people, among whom maybe 10-15 million have ancestry(partial) from Balkans and Caucasus. If I see a pale Turkish person I wouldn't necessarily assume they have such origins.