[Billy73]

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Ancient Turkey was originally the homeland of the Hitites, a middle eastern people who were cousins to the semites, although, shorter and sturdier. Most of Turkey in fact was dominated by the Hitites until their empire fell. Their glory days were over, but as a people they survived. Western Turkey was home to Greek colonists, one colony eventually prospering and becoming the fabled city of Troy, which was destroyed by the Myceneans.

The Myceneans of Sparta, in turn, were invaded and enslaved (turned into the helot class) by a band of Dorians who went on to become the more famous warlike Spartans. Karma's a b*tch, what can I say. So anyway; despite the Myceneans destroying Troy, the other colonies survived, grew, prospered and spread throughout the rest of Turkey and began breeding with the local Hitites, so thus, ancient Turkey was a mixture of Greek and Hitite elements, that is why some Turks look Greek.

Then the Persians took it over, they really liked that land, and so they sent colonists, and they too decided to breed with the Locals, so now the Turks are a mixture of Greek, Hitite, and Persian. But then Greece under Macedonian rule wanted revenge against the Persians, and Alexander the Great overran it, and conquered the Persian empire. And many Greeks decided to stay in Turkey, so once again the now mixed Hitite, Persian, and earlier Greek mixed turks, mixed with the more recent Greeks.

But then Alexander's empire fell and then Rome rolled along, and they largely left it alone and decided not to breed with them although, there were a small handful of Romans who really liked the country so they stayed there and intermarried, but not in significant numbers. Seeing the prosperity of Anatolia (Turkey), many slavic tribes escaping the depredations of barbarians from the north, the ancestors of the Vikings the Rus, decided to move south.

So now the Hitite, Greek and Persian mixed Turks, mixed with some Slavs. But then Rome in a typically guido fashion pissed off too many people and thus those people decided Rome should burn, so they burned it. And then Attila and his Huns decided to more or less finish the job, although, Rome was already finished by then. The central asiatic hunish hordes really like Anatolia, and so, a band of them stayed, and the Hitite, Greek, Persian and Slavic mixed turks, decided to breed with them. And thus now the turks are mixed Hitite, Greek, Persian, Slavic, and central asian hunish.

But then finally the Byzantine empire fell, and a band of people from Turkmekistan decided to make that place their home, and like the huns they were also central Asian. And thus, the Turks decided to mix with the locals, who were Hitite, Greek, Persian, Slavic, central Asian and Hunish, and because it was a really nice country some Arabs decided they too wanted to join along, and so the turks became a mixture of Hitite, Greek, Persian, Slavic, central Asian and Hunish, in ADDITION to Arabs.

But it doesn't end there. As if that wasn't enough, people from Kurdistan and the Caucasus mountains, not to mention eastern European balkan origin Janissaries, decided to mix with the turks. Thus, the turks are a mixture of Hitite, Greec, Persian, Slavic from two different fronts, central Asian from two different central asian tribes, and finally, Persian and Arabic.

In other words, the Turks are REAL mutts, not like some american airhead who says "oh, I've got austrian, german and Italian in me; I'm such a mutt! tehee!" Give a freaking break man; you're only a mut if you are mixed with different peoples, like for example, the Turks. The Turks, are only linguistically related to the current residents of Turkmekistan who, appearance wise, look nothing like modern Turks. The Turks are a mixture of the above mentioned middle eastern people but it doesn't end there; one of the peoples the hitites warred against, were a band of Celtic warriors originally from central Europe. So....... they also have a little bit of Celtic in there.

Again, Turks are only related to the people from Turkmekistan, linguistically. Appearance wise, genetically speaking, they are only partially related to them, so many empires, so many peoples have settled in Anatolia, later called Turkey, that it doesn't belong to any one race, and all races who have ever lived there, lived in relative harmony with one another with the exception of their relationship with the Kurds. So why have so many empires and peoples invaded those lands?

Here are a few things you may not have known about Turkey;

1) A year long growing season. Turkey has the most fertile lands in the world, and among the most beautiful. They have watermelons the size of 4 basketballs.

2) There is varied, yet fertile soil, and every crop known to man, practically every crop known to man, is grown in Turkey. They grow everything from Tomatoes, to corn, to oranges. You name it, they grow it. From their produce alone, whenever Turkey was well managed, that generated considerable wealth.

3) As if the lands were not enough, because parts of Turkey are dotted with high mountains, there are fresh water lakes everywhere the source of near limitless fresh drinking water.

The lands of Turkey are so rich, the Turks themselves proudly say of their country, that it is the closest thing to Eden.

As if that wasn't enough, in ADDITION to being very rich lands blessed with soil enriched by extinct volcanoes, there is also its location; it is the gateway country into the middle east and east asia, and the country, or rather region, that always called the shots regarding what got into Europe from the silk road. So from its location alone, it also generated wealth there is STILL one more thing that is great about Turkey, at least from an ancient conqueror's perspective; the country is one gigantic fortress.

You can think of Turkey, as a giant fortress with gardens in the center. Turkey has only been successfully conquered, by militaries that were top notch, with generals who were in a class of their own. There is a reason, despite centuries of Ottoman rule, that the Arabs did not make a direct assault on Turkey; like Switzerland, an attack on Turkey is suicide. In the past, it was only conquered because the people who conquered it were desperate for food, and they say, if you promise a hungry man food, he will fight like a ferocious tiger.

The original anatolian Turks, the earliest peoples to inhabit Turkey, were the Hitites, then the Celts, and with each successive wave, the original hitites always mixed with whoever settled in their country. Its part of the reason modern Turks are so strange looking; they have mixed with so many people, that the majority of modern Turks don't associate themselves with any race so they simply call themselves "Turks."

With a people so racially mixed, it is little wonder they don't like Arabs; Turks, blended a people as they are, are not going to get along very well with a group of people arrogantly proud of their ethnicity to the point where they don't breed with anyone. It is also one of the ironies of history; the Turks have long said, they were the punishment of Allah on the Arabs. The Arabs, who proudly refused to breed with anyone, got the crap beaten out of them by Turks, who are pretty freaking far from being "pure."

If that is not a "God" type punishment, I don't know what is.

I overtyped and soapboxed so my apologies, hope this answers your questions, although like a more intelligent poster here I was unable to cite resources nor type this answer in an academic manner. Nevertheless I hope it helped.