Proto Bulgarians- turks or iranians

For some year into Bulgarian society there was and still is an argument if proto bulgarians have iranian or turk origin . First studies, made years ago, and which defined proto bulgarians as a turkish tribe rely primarily on this:
- some proto bulgarian titles and words have turkish sounding /such as bagatur, tarkan, boil, balkan and so on/
- the images of proto bulgarians /on coins, medallions/. On these images proto bulgarians seem to have "turkish" characteristics
- the structure of the fortifications and some tradition are near to the turkish ones.
Nevertheless, the recent studies have shown that above cited marks cannot be so strong indicator for one or other group's appurtenance. For exemple the title bagatur or baganin which has the word "bag" as root is actually with iranian origin and means master or landlord. Kanartiken the word for the heir for the throne now is said that comes from iranian ken, meaning son and tegin - prince. Also the images of proto bulgarian cannot be so strong proof, as far the art of this time have not been on so high level. Moreover the DNA studies support the thesis that Bulgarians have iranian origin.

"Conclusions

In the present study we assessed the male-mediated genetic legacy in modern Bulgarians by analyzing their Y-chromosome composition and by surveying the internal variation within the main haplogroups. We found that a major part of the Bulgarian Y-chromosome gene pool is constituted by Western Eurasian haplogroups with a particular affinity to neighbouring groups from the Balkans and Greece, in agreement with previous anthropological [26] and mtDNA studies [24]. When analyzed in a broader context, the Bulgarian haplogroup profile is located among European populations and apart from Altaic and Central Asian Turkic-speaking populations."

http://www.plosone.org/article/info%3Adoi%2F10.1371%2Fjournal.pone.0056779

Edited by tzar - 10-Jan-2015 at 12:49