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    Sibling’s DNA Results as a Turk, turned out we are half Georgian
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    Sibling’s DNA Results as a Turk, turned out we are half Georgian


    Hello friends, where do we apply for citizenship?

    Anyway, I hope you will join the EU and I can ask this question seriously. My brother had a DNA test and we have a high percentage of Georgian. This was quite surprising. Let me explain why. My mother is from a Pontic Greek-speaking family, from the Black Sea region (Trabzon). As you know, after World War I, our relations with our Greek friends got a bit tense and the guns were drawn. The population exchange that followed was based on religion. So even if you were Greek-Muslim, you stayed in Turkey and became a Turkish citizen. I always thought my mother’s side was Greek. Until yesterday. Now, am I a Turkish-Georgian mix? Is my Georgian side Hellenized? Why does the family speak Greek instead of Georgian or Laz? If any of you are experiencing such existential crises, I await your answers.

    P.S. Your dancing is great. Also, although I am not even little bit of a communist, I liked the possibility of being related to Stalin. BECAUSE OF HIS MOUSTACHE!

    https://i.redd.it/59ognor9w3le1.jpeg

    Posted by mirful

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    12 Comments

    3. Interesting_Ice_4925 on

      To my knowledge and eyesight, the boundary between Lazs and Pontic Greeks is very blurry as both mixed with each other, especially after 1922 when the only real distinction question came to be whether you’re Turkish or dead

    5. arkadaki on

      the georgian % you see there is not really accurate because these test results are not optimized for turkish people. you can try either illustrativedna or gedmatch (then upload your results to turkishdna facebook group for their commentary). if your mother is from trabzon, it means she has both “anatolian” and georgian/kartvelian ancestry. and you’re right, pontic greeks were hellenized.

    7. MapAffectionate220 on

      Trabzon region was heavily hellenized during the middle ages after Justinians campaigns

    11. strawberry298 on

      The Black Sea region used to be one of the most indigenous territories of the old western Georgian kingdoms, which were part of the Byzantine Empire at some point. Unfortunately, Georgians (Kartvelians, to be precise) and other minority ethnic groups were so oppressed and discriminated against in Turkey/Ottoman Empire that people, for generations, have suppressed and forgotten their ethnic origins. They were also not allowed to practice their religion or cultural traditions. So, survival was quite difficult for them, and even those who are aware of their origins are still quite afraid and repressed when it comes to talking about it. All this to say that huge chunks of historic Georgia and Armenia is in Turkey now and I’m not surprised you have indigenous Georgian ancestry from that region. I hope the ethnic majority in Turkey will someday become democratic enough to create more inclusive environment for indigenous folks whose lands they’ve taken over and allow them to rediscover and be proud of their ancestry.

      Armenians are in the same boat, by the way, although they tragically genocided most of the indigenous Armenians in the 1910s and 1920s in the Ottoman Empire. But there are still many folks with Armenian ancestry in Turkey. There would be millions if not for the genocide.

      In Georgia, we practice what’s called civic nationalism. Learning about Georgian heritage is important for historical and social science reasons, but beyond that, we love and accept everyone.Not only it’s easy to get Georgian citizenship and identity, but also for cultural inclusion if someone wants to call themselves Georgian, lives in the country and believes in our sovereignty, they can become Georgian just as much as someone with the highest Georgian ancestry test results. That’s what sets our modern state apart from Russia and other extreme ethno-religious states, where people aren’t even allowed to call themselves Russian (Russkiy). Unfortunately, Russian propaganda is trying to undo a lot of this progress, but they won’t change the mindset of my generation or younger ones. We were one of the first former Soviet countries to remove the ethnicity section from identity documents, and my generation is proud of that. So, whether you have the test result or not, you’ll be very welcome in Georgia!