The Turkic peoples, or simply Turks are the native population of Central Asia, Western China, Northwest and Northeastern Iran, the Caucasus, Anatolia, Ural and Siberia regions in the Russian Federation. Like all other ethnic groups, the Turkic peoples speak various dialects of one common language known in the Western World as Turkic. Though, among them, they do recognize each other as Turk and by according to their tribe name; for example, Azerbaijani-Turks, Ottoman-Turks, Uzbek-Turks...etc. The majority of Turks are Muslims who confess the Orthodox (Sunnite) sect of Islam, while the minority is Shiite, and then comes the Alevis. Some Turks still beleive in the ancient Turkish/Turkic religion, Shamanism, and some others beleive in Bhuddism, though both are less than a million people; These Bhuddist and Shamanist Turks are the Yakuts, Khakass, Tuvans, and the Altays; they live in their autonomous Republics within the Russian Federation, and still use a modified versions of the Russian Cyrillic alphabets to write their dialects; they are one million as a total population. They all have Asian features
The Muslim Turks are the Uygurs of Western China, who live in their autonomous Republic of Uyguristan, Eastern Turkistan, or the Chinese Turkistan; They are Sunnite-Muslims and have a population of 16 millions in China; they use the a modifed version of the Arabic scripts to write their dialect. They have mixed Medditeranean-Asian features.
Other Muslim Turks are the Uzbeks who live in Uzbekistan and Afghanistan, Kazakhs who live in Kazakhstan and Russian Federation, Kyrgyzs, and Turkmens who live in Turmenistan, Afghanistan, and Iran. They live in their Central Asian independent Republics, and they number about 60 millions combined. They use a modified version of the Latin alphabets to wrtie their dialects. Most of who have mixed Medditeranean-Asian features. Their influence is still clear on Indian languages and culture. Noteworthy, they were the real rulers of Indian subcontinent until the arrival of the British in the 19th century.
The Azerbaijanis, are the only Shiite Turks; they number about 25 millions. and live in Azerbaijan Republic as well as in Northwestern Iran, which also known as South Azerbaijan, in Georgia, Russian Federation, and in Iraq. Azerbaijani dialect was the lingua franca of all the Turks of Central Asia, Ottomans, and the Caucasus due to its letirature richness. Azerbaijani dialect and culture had a great influence on many foreign peopls and their languages such as, Persians, Armenians, and Caucasus peoples. Moreover, Azerbaijani dynasties were the one to make adpot Shiite sect and forced it on the Persians of Iran during the Safavid dynasty; their various dynasties ruled Iran, the Gulf states, Afghanistan, and the Caucasus between the 10th century until the ealry 20th century. They were the one to establish the constitution of modern Persia in 1923.
The Ottoman Turks or simply the Turks, were the one to strenghten the Sunnite sect, and spread Islam to European regions, manily the Balkan countries. they established the only World's long lasting and largest Turkic Empire. They fought the Czar Russians for many centuries, and thery competed with their Azerbajiani brothers in letirature, religion, arts, and science.
The last group are the Tatars. The term Tatar is a Russian term used for all urbanized Turks including the Azerbaijanis. The Tatars are Sunnites and live in the Russian Federation and count by 8 millions; they are two groups: Tatars and Bashkurts; They were the one to establish the Golden Horn Empire and burned Moscow to ground.
During all the various Turklic Empires, there were three official languages: Turkish, Arabic, and Persian.
All are Turks and Turkic nation is the master nation.