Comparative analyses for the central asian contribution to Anatolian gene pool with reference to Balkans

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Tezin Türü: Doktora

Tezin Yürütüldüğü Kurum: Orta Doğu Teknik Üniversitesi, Fen Edebiyat Fakültesi, Biyolojik Bilimler Bölümü, Türkiye

Tezin Onay Tarihi: 2006

Öğrenci: CEREN CANER BERKMAN

Danışman: İNCİ ZEHRA TOGAN

Özet:

Around 1000 ya, Turkic language started to be introduced to Turkey and Azerbaijan (Region of language replacement, RLR) in parallel with the migrations of Turkic speaking nomadic groups from Central Asia. The Central Asian contribution to the RLR was analyzed with four admixture methods considering different evolutionary forces. Furthermore, the association between the Central Asian contribution and the language replacement episode was estimated by comparatively analyzing the Central Asian contribution to RLR and to their non-Turkic speaking neighbors. In the present study, analyses revealed that Chikhi et al.’s (2001) method represents the closest estimates to the true Central Asian contributions. Based on this method, it was observed that there were lower male (13%) than female (22%) contributions from Central Asia to Anatolia, with wide ranges of confidence intervals. Lower contribution, with respect to males, is to be explained by homogenization between the males of the Balkans and those of Anatolia. In Azerbaijan this contribution was 18% in females and 32% in males. Moreover, results pointed out that the Central Asian contribution in RLR can not be totally attributed to the language replacement episode because similar, or even higher, Central Asian contributions in northern and southern non-Turkic speaking neighbors were observed. The presence of a 20% or more admixture proportion in the RLR, and the presence of even higher contributions around the region, suggested that language might not be replaced inaccordance with “elite dominance model”.