“About the time when Charlemagne was crowned Emperor of the West, the eastern confines of Europe between the Caucasus and the Volga were ruled by a Jewish state known as the Khazar Empire. The country of the Khazars, a people of Turkish stock, occupied a strategic position at the vital gateway between the Black Sea and the Caspian.

“Around the time, probably 740 A.D., the Kagan (Hakan), his court and the military ruling class embraced the Jewish faith and Judaism became the state religion of the Khazars . . . It was the Jewish faith which became the official religion of the ruling strata of society. Needless to say, the acceptance of the Jewish faith as the state religion of an ethnically non-Jewish people could be the subject of interesting speculations. We shall, however, confine ourselves to the remark that this official conversion — in defiance of Christian proselytizing by Byzantium, the Muslim influence from the East, and in spite of the political pressure of these two powers—to a religion which had no support from any political power, but was persecuted by nearly all — has come as a surprise to all historians concerned with the Khazars, and cannot be considered as accidental, but must be regarded as a sign of the independent policy pursued by that kingdom.

“... Various late mediaeval Khazar settlements are mentioned in the Crimea, in the Ukraine, in Hungary, Poland and Lithuania. The general picture that emerges from these fragmentary pieces of information is that of a migration of Khazar tribes and communities into those regions of [astern Europe — mainly Russia and Poland — where, at the dawn of the Modern Age, the greatest concentrations of Jews were found. This has led several historians to conjecture that a substantial part, and perhaps the majority of eastern Jews—and hence of world Jewry— might be of Khazar, and not of Semitic origin.

“The Turkish speaking Karaites (a fundamentalist Jewish sect) of the Crimea, Poland and elsewhere have affirmed a connection with the Khazars, which is perhaps confirmed by evidence from folklore and anthropology as well as language. There seems to be a considerable amount of evidence attesting to the continued presence in Europe of descendants of the Khazars . . . This would mean that their ancestors came not from the Jordan but from the Volga, not from Canaan but from the Caucasus, once believed to be the cradle of the Aryan race; and that genetically they are more closely related to the Hun, Uigur and Magyar tribes than to the seed of Abraham, Isaac and Jacob. Should this turn out to be the case, then the term ‘anti-Semitism’ would become void of meaning.

“Until the ninth century, the Khazars had no rivals to their supremacy in the region north of the Black Sea and the adjoining steppe and forest regions of the Dnieper (River), The Khazars were the supreme masters of the southern half of eastern Europe for a century-and-a-half and presented a mighty bulwark, blocking the Ural-Caspian gateway from Asia into Europe. During this whole period, they held back the onslaught of the nomadic tribes from the East. Taking a bird’s-eye view of the history of the great nomadic empires of the East, the Khazar kingdom occupies an intermediary position in time, size, and degree of civilization between the Hun and Avar Empires which preceded, and the Mongol Empire that succeeded it.

"...From the fifth century onward, many . westward-bound tribes were called by the generic name of ‘Turks.’ The term is also supposed to be of Chinese origin and was subsequently used to refer to all tribes who spoke languages with certain common characteristics—the “Turkic’ language group. In this sense, the Huns and the Khazars were Turkic people. The Khazar language was supposedly a Chuvash dialect of Turkish, which still survives in the autonomous Chuvash Soviet Republic, between the Volga and the Sura. The Chuvash people are actually believed to be descendants of the Bulgars, who spoke a dialect similar to the Khazars. All we can say with safety is that the Khazars were a Turkic tribe, who erupted from the Asian steppes, probably in the fifth century of our era. . . .The historical evidence indicates that the bulk of Eastern Jewry—and hence of world Jewry—is of Khazar-Turkish, rather than Semitic origin.”

In conclusion, the author of this book attempts to show that the evidence from anthropology concurs with history in refuting the popular belief in a Jewish “race” descended from the biblical tribe.

 

Holdwater: Mind-blowing! And look at this irony... if "the majority of eastern Jews—and hence of world Jewry— might be of Khazar, and not of Semitic origin"... and if the Khazars came "from the Caucasus, once believed to be the cradle of the Aryan race"... that means it was lucky for Adolf Hitler that he was much more of an expert on Armenian history (which he obviously was... since Armenians keep reminding us of that "quote" he likely never said) than he was of Turkish history. Otherwise, he would have committed suicide long before he ever wrote "Mein Kampf"!

"2004" ADDENDUM:

A site that details Koestler's “The Thirteenth Tribe”.... the author is described as "an Ashkenazi Jew (who) took pride in his Khazar ancestry."

"Khazaria, a conglomerate of Aryan Turkish tribes, was finally wiped out by the forces of Genghis Han, but evidence indicates that the Khazars themselves migrated to Poland and formed the cradle of Western (Ashkenazim) Jewry..."

Turkish tribes again described as... Aryan?? Don't tell the Armenians, they might get jealous..!

http://198.62.75.1/www2/koestler/

 

In 576 AD, a new force invaded from the east — a mixed race grouping calling themselves Khazars, occupied territory on the northwestern shore of the Caspian Sea in southern Russia. 
Originally from Asia Minor (Turkey), the Khazars were the product of the integration process which had taken place in the Middle and Near East over a process of centuries. Made up of Old European, Semitic and Mongolian elements, the Khazars physically closely resembled many other peoples in that region.

The Khazars began to expand their territory westwards, occupying the land east of the Dniester River by 650 AD. In this process they drove the Bulgar Huns from the territory around the Sea of Azov, forcing them on into modern Bulgaria which they ruled for about 150 years and which bears their name to this day.

At this stage then there were three major groupings of Mongols and mixed race Asiatics in eastern Europe — the Bulgar Huns; the Avars; and the Khazars. To this group was added remnants of a Mongoloid people who had originally settled in Finland (and whose descendants to this day form part of the Lapp people in that country) but who were in part driven south by the Indo-European invaders over the centuries.

In 964 AD, Oleg's grandson, Svyatoslav, became ruler of the Rus. A fierce warrior who adhered strictly to his Scandinavian upbringing — even refusing to become a Christian after his mother had converted — Svyatoslav set as his first task the destruction of the Jewish Khazar empire in the south.

In 965, the Rus army under Svyatoslav, crashed through the Khazar borders and utterly defeated the Jewish slave trading empire forever. The Khazars who survived this great assault were scattered throughout the region, with many moving west into what became western Russia and Poland. There they re-established Jewish communities and absorbed some Nordic elements (mainly through marrying Jewish women to non-Jewish men; Jewish law dictating that only persons born of a Jewish mother can be classified as a Jew), creating the basic stock of today's modern European Jews, known as the Ashkenazim.

 

Holdwater mentions: If that's true, then Henry Morgenthau (whom I believe was an Ashkenazi German-Jew), the racist, Turk-hating and character-assassinating ambassador, actually hated himself. Isn't that ironic?

In addition, this sounds like history's first "Holocaust" against the Jewish people (probably even the Romans didn't kill as many Jews as happened here)... but one that we never hear about, today. Just because the Jews in question were of Turkic stock. Well, at least that fits the pattern of the West's failing to acknowledge Russian ethnic cleansing campaigns against the Turk... jut like we never hear about the five-and-one-half million Turks (added  to another five million made homeless) the Russians killed off during the nineteenth century.

 

Outside Reading:

houston.indymedia.org/news/2003/12/19968.php