ASHKENAZI: SOME OF US ARE «KHAZAR»

The “Khazar hypothesis” of the origin of Ashkenazi Jews was strongly refuted by Doron Behar in 2003. His research team identified subclade M582, which they recognized as the «exclusive property» of the Jews. Most of the carriers of this gene were found in Ashkenazi of Eastern Europe, and more precisely, in Levites originating from Eastern Europe. 13.3% of the Ashkenazi men  carry the genes of subclade M582 (according to Behar), including about half of those East European Jews who identify themselves as Levites. I received my name Aaron from my grandfather who identified himself as a Levite.

According to Behar, 3.4% of Sephardic men (descendants of fugitives from Spain) also carry the M582 gene. Behar, and after him Klyosov, came to the conclusion that both Ashkenazi Jews and Jewish Spaniards (Spharadim) received this gene from their Middle Eastern ancestors. The assumption seemed logical; but the Ashkenazi could get this gene from the Khazars of the Jewish faith.

I didn’t doubt the results of the research conducted by the Behar group, but their “linking” to populations. Let’s review these results together and try to explain them.

To begin, consider the (becoming famous, written in Hebrew) letter of the Kiev Jewish-Khazar community from the 12th century. As we know, 30% of the signatures on this letter are purely Turkic ancestral and personal names. At the end of the letter there is even a Khazar word written in runic signs.

However, two thirds of the names were Hebrew, and not only biblical. Some personal names were taken from the names of holidays, months of the year, etc. Such names have been adopted to this day by the Mountain Jews, but they are not used by the Ashkenazi Jews.

That is, the Kiev Jewish community of that time consisted of the Judaist Khazars, but only part of these Khazars were genetically Türks. Probably, most of them were not Turkic converts but just the «genuine» Jews living in Khazaria. One signer even wore the Slavic name Gostiata.

The Kiev letter, (as well as linguistic analysis in general), does not indicate the genetics of the people who wrote it. We know that the language and self-consciousness of people are not always related to their genetics. For example, Turks and Yakuts both speak the languages ​​of the Turkic group, but belong to different races.

“Turks”, “Indo-Europeans”, “Khazars” — all these names characterize the language and identity of the groups of people designated by them, but not their genes. We will have to analyze more deeply the data of genetic research as well as historical, archaeological and linguistic data. This is the only way to untie this long-knotted knot.

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Thus, why should the Turkic-speaking group that dominated Khazaria, adopt Judaism, and not Christianity or Islam? Two empires of the time tried to impose their faith on the Khazars: the Byzantines — Christianity, and the Arabs — Islam. It is believed that the Khazars adopted Judaism in order to avoid the enslavement or division of their state between these rival empires. But I have a different opinion: the Khazars adopted Judaism in order to receive income from trade along the “Great Silk Road”.

The trade with China controlled Jewish merchants, whom the Arabs called Radhanites. The starting point where the Radhanites began their journey was the Rhone Valley in France (the ancient name is Rhodanus), and the main port was Marseille. At that time this land was ruled by the Germanic Burgundians, although the majority of the population were Romanized Gauls, the ancestors of the French.

I suppose that already there and then a few local Jews began to switch to the German dialect of the Burgundian rulers, the main buyers of expensive overseas goods brought by Radhanites.

And, perhaps, they married local women. Today, four Italian mothers are credited with exclusive copyrights for the Ashkenazi population (Rogers and Co). However, earlier researchers talked about 40% participation of 4 Italian mothers, and about 120 «side» mothers. Who is right here — wait, see. The notorious “bottleneck” with four mothers should have happened earlier, when the ancestors of the Radhanites lived in Italy.

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By the way, what happened to the 50,000 Jews who lived in Rome at the beginning of the Christian era? Why did the Jews have a bottleneck in Italy and in the south of France? Well, all this happened because of the Christians. Jews who converted to Christianity were able to marry goy women freely, according to the principle of «neither the Hellenes nor the Jews.» But just the children and grandchildren of Jewish Christians were no longer Jews. This way the Jews disappeared.

Christianity at that time was considered simply a branch of Judaism. The Roman authorities suppressed Christians for being Jews.

I think that the initial success of Christianity was due to the fact that, unlike orthodox Jews, Christians gave their wards the opportunity to freely choose their spouses. Simply, a Jew and his pagan bride converted to Christianity, and the priest proclaimed them husband and wife.

The epistles of Paul, in which he substantiates the principle of “neither the Hellene nor the Jew,” were a response to the need of fellow believers to freely choose a spouse. In his epistles, Paul devotes much attention to the need to avoid debauchery, promoted sexual abstinence and marital fidelity. Seemingly, this topic was very relevant to his flock.

Stories about a certain Jesus of Nazareth, that nobody in Rome had ever heard about, appeared a hundred years after the famous epistles of Paul. The first to try to clarify the question of Jesus was the Roman Evangelist Mark, but two more centuries passed before the four gospels were invented, settled down and declared canonical.

As a result of the mass conversion of Jews and pagans to Christianity, Orthodox Jews almost disappeared. They preserved outside Rome, in remote places like the Rhone Valley. Only merchants who traded with distant countries continued to adhere to Judaism. Their trading partners and agents in these countries were their relatives, who remained loyal to their clan and faith, and did not allow strangers into the family.

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But let’s back to the Rhone Valley. It was captured by the king of the German tribe of Franks, Charles the Great (Charlemagne), who created the first all-European empire. It is known that Charlemagne treated the Jews very well, supported their trade with the East, and benefited from it.

Under Charlemagne, it is believed that Jewish Radhanite merchants migrated from the Rhone Valley to the Rhine Valley, closer to the capital of the empire Aachen and, most importantly, in the direction of the new northern trading route that passed through the Rhine Valley and southern Germany to Krakow, Przemysl, Kiev , Belaya Vezha (Sarkel), Itil, Caspian Sea, Turan, Balk and further to China.

In all points of this “northern silk road” there were, or emerged, Jewish communities, which served not only as transshipment bases, but also a kind of “banks”. Since it was impossible to transport large sums of money in caravans, the money gained from trading and necessary for the purchase of goods, was transferred by letters of guarantee. The recipient of the letter issued cash at his place of residence or work, and upon returning the caravan he received cash and issued his letter of guarantee. This «Written Jewish money» replaced the bank and the Internet.

In the first century of their aggressive campaign Muslims closed the southern trade routes of the Radhanites from Marseille to the Middle East, to Cochin on the southern tip of India, to China and to the spice islands in Indonesia. Subsequently, the Muslims seized all these southern routes of commerce. Therefore, the Radhanites were forced to open a new, northern trade route through the Khazar empire.

Due to reliance on Jewish trade, the empire created by the Khazars did not disintegrate shortly after its creation, as happened with the Turkic kaganate that preceded it. Moreover, when the Khazars transferred the capital of their state from Dagestan to Itil, this city became the main transit point on the way of Jewish caravans. Of the three religions, the Khazars chose Judaism with its writing, finances and the Great Silk Road.

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However, there was another reason for the Judaization of the Khazars, namely the presence of Mountain Jews in the original Khazar territory. At the same time, when the Khazars moved from the Turkic Kaganate, torn by civil strife, to the Terek river, and began to create a new state there, Jewish refugees from the Persian empire escaped the persecution of Iranian revolutionary Mazdak, moving to the outskirts of the empire: to Caucasian Albania (North Azerbaijan and southern Dagestan ), to Armenia, Khorezm, Balkh, Dagestan … In particular, the communities of Iranian-speaking (Mountain) Jews were present in Derbent and in Samandar, the newly made capital of the Khazars.

To manage a sustainable (and not temporary nomadic) state, Khazars needed competent officials. Jewish rabbis, invited by Khazars from Mesopotamia, Iran and Armenia, brought the Hebrew writing and language to Khazarian empire. King Joseph (or his scribe) wrote his letter in Hebrew, and Kiev letter, too.

State revenues consisted of tribute paid by conquered peoples and income from trade along the Silk Road. Officials supported by the army were engaged in collecting tribute, while Jewish and other merchants were engaged in trade. The rabbis taught everyone literacy and faith. Thus, this state, which existed for 300 years after the adoption of Judaism by the Khazar elite, was established.

So, the Jews of Khazaria consisted of such social groups as the royal family with scribes and competent officials, the military, headed by Bek (the commander), who pushed Kagan to the second role as a spiritual leader, and finally, the common people.

Certainly, along with Turkic converts, the «genuine» Jews were present in Khazaria. These were merchants and rabbis, whom the Khazars invited to their country to strengthen the economy and to train officials in Hebrew reading and writing. After all, Hebrew language and its script served the needs of the state apparatus.

But there was an additional “sort” of Jews in Khazaria. The original territory of Khazaria and its capital Samandar were settled by Mountain Jews. Just the Bek Bulan (according to Khazar Jew’ letter his name was Sabriel), supported by army, proclaimed Judaism as the state religion. Probably, Mountain Jews served and lead the army. The revolution that the Bek Bulan arranged, aimed to unite the founding groups of the Khazar empire: the pagan Khazars with Mountain, Radhanite and Babilonian Jews.

It seems that the Khazar Bek had two names, one for the Khazar-Turks, and the other for the Jews of Khazaria. Frankly, this phenomenon is well known from the Jewish life in the 20th century. So did many of my relatives and friends. Some even changed the nationality. If the commander Sabriel claimed the supreme power, he had to appear before the ruling class and the whole people as “their”, not Jewish. Such a phenomenon is also familiar to us from Soviet history. Trotsky (Bronstein), and most of the leading Jewish Bolsheviks, changed their names in order to make a career in the «international» Soviet Union. Only Kaganovich remained with his “maiden” name, but in the passport column “nationality” he wrote: “a communist”.

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The Radhanite merchants arrived in Itil from the valleys of the Rhone and the Rhine, where they had already mastered the Swabian German dialect, later called Yiddish. Other Jewish merchants moved from the countries of Islam, where they had to be tight due to the heavy tax on dhimmi.

Jewish merchants and rabbis were open for marriage with the gers (converts), with whom they lived together up to 400 years! In the course of these centuries of Judaism, the entire top of the Khazars could intermarry with the «genuine» Jews who arrived in Khazaria from different countries. The wealth of Jewish merchants, the literacy of rabbis, the absence of a ban on marriages with converts, which the Khazars were in the eyes of the Jews, and finally the power and noble origins of the royal and other «noble» families of the Khazar elite — all this contributed to the «confusion» through marriage.

I believe that the Turkic Khazars mixed with the Kazaria Jews not after emigration, but also before it. That is why the Jewish communities who accepted the refugees perceived them as genuine  Jews, including Levites. Well, the Cohanim remained always cohanim … They were excluded from the general fair of brides and grooms. The Cohanim emigrated after the fall of the Khazar Empire, taking with them their “clean” genes. If they emigrated to Europe, this did not change the genetics of the Jews there. But the Levites, Am Israel and the converts could make their subclade … that is, a contribution.

The Hebrew names of the signatories of the Kiev letter are similar to the names of the Mountain Jews today. Probably, the Jews of Kiev were a mix of Turkic converts with Mountain Jews. This mix emigrated further westward, to Central and Western Europe, adding Turkic, Caucasian and Middle Eastern genes to the newly emerged Ashkenazi  community.

Let us dwell on the hypothesis, that the Kiev Jewish-Khazar community represented the structure of the whole Khazar ruling class, which consisted of the original Khazar hereditary elite (by 30%), and the majority (by 70%), that consisted of the Jews of various origin: Mountain Jews, Jewish refugees from Islamic states, and the descendants of Radhanites. Just this “mix” moved from Kiev to Europe, and their genes joined Ashkenazi genes pool.

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The rabbis arrived in Khazaria from Mesopotamia, through Armenia and the country of Ashkenaz, which Israeli researcher Eran Elhayk found near the borders of historical Armenia and Georgia. Simultaneously, four names in this area contain the root Ashkenaz, and this goes beyond randomness. The Prophet Jeremiah also placed the country Ashkenaz north of Mesopotamia.

This does not mean, however, that the Radhanites and their descendants, who spoke German dialect Yiddish, arrived in the Rhine Valley from the Caucasus, as Elkhayk suggested. Transferring the name from Armenia to Germany does not need the physical movement of people with their genes. It is much easier, with the Torah in hand, to transfer the name thousands of kilometers away. Actually, in the Bible the word Ashkenaz simply meant «The Country of the Scythians.» Why the Jews called Germany Ashkenaz (the country of the Scythians), we will see further.

Yet before the Bek and Kagan converted from Judaism to Islam, most of Khazar mercenary army was Muslim. In the time of decline, the mosques in Itil were more numerous, than synagogues. Most of merchants were Muslims, too. The Jewish Khazar Empire became weak yet before Kiev prince Sviatoslav crushed it. However, the remainders of this empire survived in Dagestan and Crimea, where there remained Jewish population.

Khazar muslim mercenary army really could be composed of the people of Caucasian and Turkic origin. From a genetic point of view, most of the Khazar Empire population could be close to the Scythians and the inhabitants of the Caucasus, and only the tip remained with the East-Asian Turkic genes.

The majority of the population of Khazaria, even if accepted Judaism formally, had a very remote concept of this religion and its rites. Unlike supranational religions like Christianity and Islam, Judaism has been and still remains an ethnic religion, alien in its spirit to non-Jews.

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During the crisis and the collapse of the Khazar state, the army, the people, and after them the king, willingly or forcibly abandoned the nationalist Jewish religion and converted to Islam. Khagan with his family was the last to agree. For Khagan, this meant a complete loss of social status and the role of the spiritual leader.

In addition, the break with Judaism destroyed the cash supply of the Khazar elite from Jewish trade and finance. Likewise, the rabbis lose their status and remained without income and prestigious position. The Hebrew-trained officials have had to learn Arabic, or Swedish, or Slavic (in Kiev).

The rabbis had no choice but to emigrate. It is likely that just the rabbis, Jewish merchants  and a part of the Khazar elite, who were related to the «genuine» Jews, emigrated from the Khazaria to the west, to Kiev and then to Western Europe, where they were received with kingly honor.

But why just to Europe only? Khazaria on the Terek river with its Judaism and Jewish trade continued to exist after the destruction of Itil. At the time of the fall of the Khazar state, the outskirts were already independent of Itil (like Khazaria on the Terek, Crimea and Tmutarakan), or came under the authority of other states (Kiev).

Most of the Khazars converted to Islam, so they could not join the Jews. Regardless of what happened to them further, these people could not pass on their genes to the Jews.

The rupture with Judaism deprived the Khazars of the opportunity to use the services of the «Jewish system» of guarantee and financing. Khazaria as a trading power ceased to exist.

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Kiev Judeo-Khazar community emerged yet before the fall of the Khazar state. Its members could be merchants, artisans and tribute collectors. The collection of tribute is not complete without a military brigade. So, soldiers could also be members of the community. After the fall of the Khazar government, they had to look for a new occupation, for example, to move to the service of the new government, that is the Varangians and the Kiev princes.

By the way, the letter of the Kiev community to the rich Jews of Egypt speaks precisely about debts and the slavery that threatens the Jews of Kiev. The ethical code of Jewish communities demanded the ransom of Jews who fell into slavery. This rule was exploited by both pirates and rulers who systematically took Jewish hostages for ransom.

It would be logical if the Khazar Jews from the Kiev community would also seek help from the Jews of Europe, including emigrating to the west. It turns out, that yes: in the 12th century, a group of Jewish Khazars of the “royal family” arrived in Spain. There’s no report, how numerous they were. The Jewish community of Spain during this period was the largest and richest of all. The report of the arrival of the Jewish Khazars in Spain confirms that in the 12th century such a migration did take place.

As for the possible emigration from the Khazaria proper, it is more likely that the residents of Itil emigrated from the destroyed city to the nearby Caucasus, to the Crimea, or to Khorezm, with whom the Khazars had long established close trade ties. It was the Shah of Khorezm who «pressed» the Khazar king and his army, demanding the conversion to Islam in exchange for military assistance.

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But let’s go back to where we started.

The hypothesis of the (partially) Khazar origin of the Jews of Europe has a historical basis. The question is, how numerous were these Jewish Khazars, and what is their share in the general gene pool of Ashkenazi Jews.

Another question is, how many Turkic, Caucasian, Iranian and Middle Eastern genes they possessed. The actual Ashkenazi gene pool reflects all the components of this exotic Eastern “mixture”, together with exotic Western mixture.

We should recall that the “mixing” of people and the transfer of genes is the result of sexual relations, which in turn are based on the “basic instinct”, and on the preferences when choosing a sexual partner. I would say that “the basic instinct of the basic instinct” is the preference of a genetically distant sexual partner. Exogamy is the norm, and endogamy is violence against nature. This is how the “basic instinct” works.

For Jews, “mixing” (that is, sexual instinct) was limited both by ideology (the ethnic religion of Judaism) and monetary interest. It was unprofitable and dangerous to accept strangers into a closed community, take them for maintenance, and to devote them the secrets of business and international trade.

I even assume that the norm to define Jewry by mother was introduced at a time when international trade and finance became the main occupation of the Jews. This way, the rabbis «discarded» the Jewish youths from the drive into the family of delicious goyish girls.

Jewish girls, too, were not averse to getting a strong young goy husband. But the girls had less freedom of choice. Thus, by suppressing the freedom to choose a sexual partner, Jewish endogamy was maintained.

And then, oh, happiness, the Jewish Khazars arrived in Germany. They were completely different from boring Europeans, well educated, well-groomed, literate, completely beautiful and handsome, and even possessed noble royal blood… It is very likely that the delegation to Spain consisted of unmarried men and arrived with matrimonial intentions. Of course, they were related to the local Jews, got married, and accepted into business.

I recommend everyone to remember the famous story of Sholem Aleichem. He tells a story of a teacher who, on behalf of the bride, the daughter of a rich man, wrote letters to her fiance, whom she had never seen. He lived far away in another city. It turned out that his teacher also wrote letters instead of the fiancé to his bride … So the Jewish rich saved their children from marriage with people from their own community, where all were related.

Really, why did Angela Merkel so willingly accept Syrian «refugees» to Germany? Of course, for the sake of the «basic instinct» of German women, who elected her chancellor. Sex and politics have always been connected. In the end, this is how new, “passionary” nations originated.

The Khazar «admixture» saved European Jews from degeneration, and gave impetus to the demographic explosion, which lasted eight centuries. From a community of 400 people, the Ashkenazi people of 16 million emerged. 6 million of them were killed by anti-Semites, inspired by Hitler. The reason was our «inferior» race.

However, fool psychopath called Hitler was just jealous of Jewish endogamy. He enrolled himself to the lowest non-Nordic type of Germans. Among the blood relatives of Hitler, the North African genes were discovered … In general, his career was based only on impudent charisma and on monetary support from German entrepreneurs.

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Subclade M582 possess 3-4% of Jews from Spain and 13% of Ashkenazi. If we agree with Doron Behar and Anatoly Klyosov that Jewish Spaniards received this gene from their Middle Eastern ancestors, then (13-3 =) 10 percent of Ashkenazi men could get the M582 gene from the Khazar Jews. But if we disagree, then 13% will remain, according to the number of owners of the M582 genes.

Among the so-called Eastern European Levites, this figure reaches 50%. This means that, by expressing respect to the high-born Khazar Jews of “royal blood”, the Ashkenazis enlisted new members of the community to the noble Levite caste, but not Cohanim.

Some Khazar Jews may retained their “Ikhes” as Cohen, since among the Jewish Khazars were Cohanim of Babylonian origin. But these are unlikely to carry the gene of subclade M582. The title of Cohen is inherited, and there is no dedication to this dignity.

And yet, why does subclade M582 considered be of the Middle Eastern origin? According to Behar, non-Jewish populations carrying 2.5-3% of this gene are found just in Iran, Kurdistan, Afghanistan … All these are linguistic and, possibly, genetic relatives of the Scythians.

According to Klyosov, the investigated remains of the Khazar period on the Don gave the Scythian result … Well, the Scythians are Biblical Ashkenaz. Maybe, the Khazar Jews who settled in Europe called themselves Scythians, so that the rest of the Jews could understand that the Bible mentions them, and how noble their kinship ties are? Biblical Scythians were considered the descendants of Yaphet, the progenitor of kings.

Jews living in Spain chose the biblical name Sfarad for themselves and for their country, while the French Jews chose the biblical name Tsarfat. In fact, both Sfarad and Tsarfat were places in Judea, and mentioned in the Bible. And only the rootless Jews of Germany remained without a prestigious biblical name.

The Jews of Germany, with whom the noble «Scythians» became friends and married, happily appropriated the honorary title of Ashkenaz to raise their “ikhes” (prestige) in the eyes of the Spharadim (Spaniards), who considered the «Germans» less noble than they were. German Jews began to call themselves Scythians (Ashkenazi), the descendants of the noble Yaphet. The name Ashkenaz for Germany was first encountered in the 14th century.

For comparison, let’s recall: the Slavs of Bulgaria appropriated the honorary name of the Bulgarians, a people of Turkic origin, and continue to speak the Slavic language. In fact, the Turkic dynasty that ruled in Bulgaria left no trace in the genetics of the Bulgarian population.

The Varangians, who gave their name “Rus” to the Slavs of Kievan Rus, were also few in number, but nonetheless, the Slavs of Russia proudly appropriated the Danish name Rus, to this day. Such examples can be multiplied. “Ikhes” (prestige) is a delicate matter.

The Khazars themselves spoke Turkic, but it seems that their genes were taken from the people of Scythia and Caucasus. The religion was influenced by both Mountain Jews and Radhanites. When commander Bulan (Sabriel) made a coup and «pushed» Khagan, he did it under the slogan «to return the religion of the ancestors, Judaism.» So, before Bulan’s cup, the army and rich people professed Judaism, but Khagan and his family did not!

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At first glance, the assumption of Elkhayk that the Jews of Khazaria spoke Yiddish and carried the Caucasian genes, looks lunatic. However, if you think well…

Caucasian genes, most likely, fell to the Khazar Jews during their stay in Dagestan. The Mountain Jews, dispersed from Northern Azerbaijan through Dagestan to Chechnia and Kabarda, remain in this place since before establishment of Khazar state in Dagestan. There’s local tradition, that Khazars were converted to Judaism by Mountain Jews. The Jewish state in Dagestan lasted longer than the capital Itil, which has not yet been found  by now… Some Chechen clans maintain tradition of their Jewish origin…

Today, the Kumyks (Dagestan Turks) live in the very place where the first capital of the Khazars, Samandar, was located. They speak Turkic language, but carry Caucasian genes, and profess Islam.

The Yiddish language could bring to Itil the Radanites, and then the Jewish merchants from Germany. So it all fits together, if only we recognize that the Caucasian genes and the German language of Yiddish came to Khazaria from different parts of Eurasia, and from different populations.

However, the language of the ruling class and the majority of the people of Khazaria was the Turkic Khazar language, and this is not related to genes. Let Elkhayk, that was already pecked by all and sundry, will retouch his lunatic hypothesis.

Thus, who were the Turkic Khazars genetically? Yes, their language and customs of the top were typically Turkic. The first genetic result was Scythian, but it concerns the province on the Don. What was the genetics of the higher Khazar caste?

On this occasion, let’s recall that Bulan (Sabriel) wanted “to return to the religion of the ancestors,» Judaism. At least part of his ancestors, and wife, were Jews. Not only Bulan, but also many ordinary inhabitants of Khazaria of Dagestan were mountain Jews. They were known as strong warriors and riders and served in the Khazarian army, so entering the «high society». These Mountain Jews, during the time of Bulan, seized power over the empire and imposed their religion, Judaism, on it. They shared power and “mixed up” with the Khazar Turks, the Jewish Radhanites and Jewish refugees from the Muslim lands.

Maybe, the revolution of Bulan was intended to unite the motley population of the empire and the top of the Khazars, due to common religion for all people. Nearly as, say, the revolution of the Bolshevik internationalists was intended to unite the peoples of the Russian Empire due to a common communist faith.

Further developments were as such: When Muslims took the upper hand (namely took the army away from the mountain Jews, and the trade routes from the Jewish merchants), that happened long before the fall of the Khazars, and was the main reason for weakening the Khazar empire, the remnants of Jews of different origin, together with Judaist Turks moved in different directions, to avoid the persecutions by the Muslims.

Of course, the descendants of the Radhanites chose Europe, the descendants of the Mountain Jews went to the Caucasus, and the Judaist Turks chose Crimea, Tmutarakan and, possibly, Russia and Volgan Bulgaria. So the descendants of the Radhanites, who lived 300-400 years in Khazaria (and other countries through which the Great Silk Road passed), returned to Europe.

Since the Khazaria Jews freely married converts, Turkic men with their non-typical genes, for example R1a1, came into Jewish gene pool. In addition, the remnants of the “true” Turkic Khazars that didn’t convert to Islam and Christianity, joined the “genuine” Jews of European and Caucasian origin, when they found themselves outside the Khazaria proper when the empire declined and then collapsed (for example, the Kiev community).

Quantitatively, the “Khazar” Jews were inferior to the Jews who remained in Europe, and could carry the Jewish-European, Jewish-Caucasian, Iranian and Turkic genes. Hence, the result is 13% of R1a1, compared with prevailing «primordial» European-Jewish male genes, and 38% of “Caucasian” genes.

Strictly speaking, 38% of the “Caucasian” genes to which Eran Elhayk refers to in his hypothesis, could have been the original Middle Eastern genes of the Jews, but they could get to the Ashkenazi in two ways: through Rome directly to Western Europe, and through Iran, the Caucasus and the Khazaria to Eastern Europe. In Central Europe, both met and “mixed up”.

Those Judeans- «Khazars» who were genetically mountain Jews, descendants of refugees from Mesopotamia and Iran, may have «mixed» with the Khazars-Turks, and then their «mixed» descendants came to Europe through Kiev. Let us recall on this occasion those Hebrew names of the signatories of the Kiev letter, which coincide with the names of the Mountain Jews, and 30% of Turkic names.

Mountain Jews seem to have played a decisive role in the Judaization of the Khazars, and hardly agreed to convert to Islam. Their Caucasian genes could get to the Ashkenaz through Khazaria and Kiev. After the empire collapsed, the “Khazar” Jews of Caucasian origin returned to the Caucasus. These «remnants» joined the communities of the Mountain Jews, and, probably, the Chechens.

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At the end of the Khazar state, some Jewish prince threatened to free Palestine from Muslim rule.

As for the Yiddish language in Iran and the Caucasus (and possibly in the Khazaria), it was the business language of radhanites. This is not my proposal, I am only trying to rationalize hypothesis of Elhayk.

In order to reassure ourselves and our opponents, let’s agree on the most plausible figure: Ashkenazi have 10% to 13% Khazar-Turkic genes. That is, our Ashkenazi population is by 87% Jewish, and by 13% Khazar. Hey, Erdogan, do not be so anti-Semitic, maybe you is my relative?

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Now let’s turn from politics to arithmetic and conclusions.

Let’s suppose, that one third of the Khazarian Jews were genetically Turks who carried the R1a1 gene, while two thirds were Mountain Jews with their “Caucasian” genes (actually, their ancestors came from Mesopotamia, that is, from the Middle East). Now, 13% percent of Ashkenazi carry the same Turkic-Slavic R1a1 gene. This means that the total contribution of the Khazaria Jews to the genetics of Ashkenazi can be estimated as 13X3 = 39%. Of these 39%, about 26% are “genuine” Jews of Caucasian origin and 13% are Khazar Turkic converts. It is clear that the percentage of «Khazar» genes is increasing towards Ukraine, and as it approaches France and Spain, it is decreasing.

If we agree with Elkhayk that 38% of Ashkenazi carry Caucasian genes, while 26% of them we received from the «Mountain-Khazar» Jews, so we would receive 38-26 = 12% of our «Caucasian» genes from the Middle East through Rome and Western Europe.

Conclusion: Elkhaik’s “Caucasian-Turkish-Iranian” hypothesis fits exactly Khazarian Jews’ origin, (excluding, however, the Yiddish language, inserted to Khazaria by Radhanites), but not Ashkenazi as a whole.

After all, both German and Mountain Jews were genetically Jewish, not converts. Only Khazar Jews of Turkic origin were converts. This is why Ashkenazic males predominantly bear genes of Middle Eastern origin, which was found by all the researchers who dealt with this issue. Genetically, Ashkenazi are mostly Jews of Middle Eastern origin.

The “GPS” method, inserted by Elkhaik, is acceptable for last 1000 years, and this fits the range of time when Khazaria Jews moved from Itil to all possible shelters, including Europe. “GPS” doesn’t clarify pre-Khazar history of the Jews who came to Khazaria. The Khazarian puzzle may be resolved due to Mountain Jews’ DNA history research.

In fact, the “Khazar” and “Caucasian” hypotheses do not contradict the “German” theory of the origin of Ashkenazi, but only complement it and clarify. These three hypotheses, connected together, are consistent with the results of both population genetics and DNA genealogy. All we need is an unbiased explanation of all available data.