Gagauz of the Moldovan Steppe, a Turkic People of the Orthodox Faith

In the open steppes of southern Moldova lives one of the most unusual peoples of Europe: the Gagauz, a Turkic-speaking nation who are devout Orthodox Christians. Speakers of a language close to Turkish yet worshippers in the Orthodox church, settlers of the Black Sea steppe with roots in the Balkans, they have preserved a rare and distinctive identity and won an autonomous homeland of their own within Moldova.

This is the story of who the Gagauz are: where they came from, how they lived by flock and vineyard, what they believe, and how they preserved a Turkic language and a Christian faith through empire and the Soviet age. It is a tale of a mysterious origin, a great migration, and a small people whose unusual blend of Turkic speech and Orthodox faith makes them one of the most remarkable nations of Europe.

The Gagauz on Film

Origins
The Name
The Language
The Homeland
The Old Way of Life
Society and Community
Religion and Belief
Traditions
Crafts
Food
Festivals
History
Today

Origins

The Gagauz are a small Turkic-speaking people of southeastern Europe, remarkable above all for being Orthodox Christians who speak a Turkic language, a rare and striking combination. The great majority of them live in the region of Gagauzia in the south of Moldova, with smaller communities in Ukraine, Bulgaria, and elsewhere in the Balkans and the former Soviet lands.

The origins of the Gagauz are debated and something of a mystery. They speak a Turkic language closely related to Turkish, and most theories connect their ancestors either to Turkic peoples who came to the Balkans in the Middle Ages, such as the Pechenegs, Cumans, or Oghuz Turks, or to a Turkic-speaking Christian population of the medieval Balkans. However they came to be, they emerged as a distinct people combining a Turkic tongue with the Orthodox Christian faith.

In the early nineteenth century, many Gagauz migrated from the eastern Balkans, above all from what is now Bulgaria, into the region of Bessarabia, in the south of present-day Moldova, then part of the Russian Empire, settling the open steppe lands of Budjak. It is here that the main body of the Gagauz people took root and their homeland of Gagauzia was formed.

From these origins, whatever their ultimate source, the Gagauz developed as a distinct people, bound together by their Turkic language, their Orthodox Christian faith, and their settlement in the southern steppes of Moldova. Small in number and long overlooked, they preserved a strong sense of their own identity, one of the most unusual of the peoples of Europe.

The Name

The Gagauz call themselves Gagauz, and their homeland in southern Moldova is Gagauzia, or Gagauz Yeri, meaning the land of the Gagauz. The origin of the name itself is uncertain and much debated, like the origin of the people, and has been connected to various Turkic groups and rulers of the medieval Balkans.

Whatever its source, the name Gagauz came to identify this distinct people, set apart from their neighbors both by their Turkic language, which distinguished them from the Romance-speaking Moldovans and the Slavs around them, and by their Orthodox Christian faith, which distinguished them from other Turkic and Muslim peoples.

The Gagauz have their own flag and symbols, expressing the identity of the people and their autonomous region, and the wolf’s head appears among their emblems, linked to old Turkic symbolism. These symbols express the sense of a distinct Gagauz people and homeland within Moldova.

Gagauzia is today an autonomous territorial unit within the Republic of Moldova, with its own assembly and considerable self-government, and the Gagauz name carries a strong sense of a distinct people. The Gagauz speak of their land and heritage with attachment, conscious of belonging to a small and unusual nation, Turkic in speech and Christian in faith.

The Language

The Gagauz language is central to the identity of the Gagauz people, a Turkic language belonging to the Oghuz branch and very closely related to Turkish, so that Gagauz and Turkish speakers can largely understand one another. It is this Turkic tongue, combined with the Orthodox Christian faith, that makes the Gagauz so distinctive among the peoples of Europe.

Though Turkic in its structure and much of its vocabulary, Gagauz has been shaped by long contact with the surrounding peoples, absorbing many words from the neighboring Slavic, Romance, and Greek languages, reflecting the position of the Gagauz among Orthodox Christian nations. This gives the language its own distinctive character within the Turkic family.

For much of their history the Gagauz had no written language of their own, and their Turkic speech was carried above all in the home and the village, while Russian, and to some extent other languages, served for education and public life, especially in the Soviet period. A written form of Gagauz was developed in the twentieth century.

Today Gagauz is an official language in the autonomous region of Gagauzia, alongside Romanian and Russian, and it is written in the Latin alphabet, taught in schools and used in media and public life, as part of the effort to preserve the identity of the people. Though under pressure from Russian and other languages, the Gagauz tongue remains the heart of the identity of this small Turkic Christian people.

The Homeland

The homeland of the Gagauz is Gagauzia, an autonomous region in the south of Moldova, a land of open steppe and rolling plains in the historic region of Budjak, near the borders of Ukraine and not far from the Black Sea. It is a country of wide horizons, farmland, and vineyards, quite different from the forests and hills of much of Europe.

The land is one of the sunny, fertile steppes of the northwestern Black Sea region, well suited to the growing of grain, sunflowers, and above all the vine, for Gagauzia lies in a great wine-producing region and viticulture is central to its economy and life. The flat, open landscape shaped the pastoral and farming way of life of the people.

Gagauzia is not a single continuous territory but is made up of several districts and towns where the Gagauz form the majority, scattered across the south of Moldova, the largest being the capital, Comrat. Smaller Gagauz communities also live beyond the autonomous region, in Ukraine and elsewhere, but the heartland of the people is the steppe of southern Moldova.

The towns of Gagauzia, above all Comrat, the seat of the autonomous region’s government, along with Ceadîr-Lunga and Vulcănești, carry the life of the Gagauz, while the surrounding villages and the vineyards and fields of the steppe preserve the traditional way of life. This open, sunlit land of steppe and vineyard is the homeland at the heart of Gagauz identity.

The Old Way of Life

For most of their history the Gagauz were a people of farmers and herders, living in the villages of the open steppe of southern Moldova, in a way of life shaped by the land, the flocks, and the seasons. The raising of sheep was especially important, a legacy of a pastoral heritage, along with the growing of grain and, above all, the cultivation of the vine.

The Gagauz village, with its houses set along wide streets on the open steppe, and its Orthodox church at the heart, was the center of life, and the communities were bound together by kinship, custom, and the shared faith. The seasonal round of farming, herding, and the work of the vineyard set the rhythm of the year in the villages of Gagauzia.

Viticulture and wine-making have long been central to Gagauz life, for the region lies in a great wine-producing land, and the tending of the vines and the making of the wine were woven into the culture and the calendar. Sheep-herding, too, kept alive older pastoral traditions, and the products of the flock were important to the household economy.

This world of steppe village, flock, and vineyard, though changed by the modern age, is remembered and remains close to the heart of Gagauz identity. The farming and pastoral traditions, the crafts, the folk customs, and the close bonds of the village communities are cherished as the roots of the Gagauz people, preserved in their museums and their living culture.

Society and Community

Traditional Gagauz society was built around the family, the village, and the Orthodox church, in a world of steppe farming and herding. Close bonds of kinship, respect for elders, and strong customs of hospitality ordered life in the villages, and the extended family was the basic unit of a settled, agricultural community.

The Gagauz were overwhelmingly a rural people of farmers, shepherds, and vine-growers, without a native nobility of their own, so that their identity was carried above all by the village, the peasantry, and the clergy of the Orthodox church. The village community, gathered around its church, was the focus of life and identity.

The combination of a Turkic language and the Orthodox Christian faith gave the Gagauz a distinctive place among their neighbors, and a strong sense of being a people apart, neither like the Muslim Turkic peoples nor like the Slavic and Romance-speaking Christians around them. This unusual identity fostered a strong attachment to their own traditions.

Shaped by the steppe, the farming and pastoral life, and their distinctive identity, the Gagauz developed a strong sense of themselves as a small and unusual people. In the modern era this sense of identity found political expression in the movement for autonomy, and the bonds of family, faith, and village community remain important features of Gagauz life today.

Religion and Belief

Comrat Cathedral — The Orthodox cathedral of St John the Baptist in Comrat.

Religion lies at the very heart of Gagauz identity, for the Gagauz are Orthodox Christians who speak a Turkic language, and it is above all their Orthodox faith that has distinguished them from the Muslim Turkic peoples and given them their unusual character. The Orthodox Church has been central to their life, calendar, and sense of themselves.

The Gagauz belong to the Eastern Orthodox Church, sharing the faith of their Slavic and Romanian Christian neighbors, and their churches, festivals, and religious customs are those of the Orthodox world, though carried on in a community that speaks a Turkic tongue. The village church was the heart of the community, and the Orthodox calendar shaped the rhythm of life.

The cathedral of St John the Baptist in Comrat and the churches of the towns and villages of Gagauzia are centers of the religious life of the people, and Orthodox faith and practice remain strong among the Gagauz. Their devotion, and the blend of Christian faith with older customs, give Gagauz religion its own distinctive character.

Through the Soviet period, when religion was suppressed, and into the present, the Orthodox faith has remained an important part of Gagauz identity, and its festivals and customs are woven into the culture of the people. The combination of Turkic speech and Christian faith, so central to who the Gagauz are, continues to define this small and distinctive people.

Traditions

Gagauz traditions blend the Turkic heritage of the people with the customs of the Orthodox Christian world and the folk culture of the southeastern European steppe, producing a distinctive culture of music, dance, festival, and custom. These traditions are cherished as expressions of a small and unusual people’s identity.

Music and dance lie at the heart of Gagauz tradition, and the lively folk dances performed at weddings and festivals in colorful traditional costume, accompanied by their own music, are among the most vivid expressions of the culture. The songs of the Gagauz, in their Turkic tongue, carry the feeling and memory of the people.

The great seasonal festival of Hederlez, marking the coming of spring and the start of the pastoral year, is among the most important of Gagauz traditions, a celebration with deep roots that blends old customs of the herders with the Orthodox calendar, marked by festivity, ritual, and the movement of the flocks. It is a vivid expression of the pastoral heritage of the people.

The customs surrounding weddings and the great moments of life, the traditional costumes with their embroidery and ornaments, and the festivals of the Orthodox year form a rich living heritage. These traditions, blending the Turkic and the Christian, the pastoral and the settled, are cherished and celebrated as expressions of the distinctive identity of the Gagauz people.

Crafts

The crafts of the Gagauz grew from the materials and needs of a steppe farming and herding people, and above all from the products of the flocks and the traditions of the home. The working of wool was central, and Gagauz women wove carpets, rugs, blankets, and cloth, and embroidered the traditional costumes in patterns handed down through the generations.

Carpet-weaving and the making of woven and embroidered textiles were among the most important crafts, and the traditional dress of the Gagauz, with its embroidered garments and ornaments, was a fine expression of the folk art. These textile crafts, the special province of the women, adorned the home and marked the great occasions of life.

The pastoral and farming life gave rise to its own crafts and skills, the making of the tools and objects of the household and the field, the working of wood and leather, and above all the arts of the vineyard and the wine cellar, for wine-making was a craft as much as an industry in the vine-growing land of Gagauzia.

These traditional crafts, above all the weaving of carpets and the embroidery of the costumes, are preserved and displayed in the ethnographic museums of Gagauzia, such as those at Beșalma and Congaz, and are cherished as a valued part of the heritage of the people. They keep alive the material culture of the Gagauz way of life.

Food

Gagauz cuisine reflects the people’s position at the meeting of the Turkic, Balkan, and steppe worlds, combining dishes and tastes shared with the wider region with a character of its own. Rooted in the produce of the steppe farms, the flocks, and the vineyards, it is a hearty cuisine of bread, meat, dairy, and wine.

Bread and pastries hold a central place, above all filled flatbreads and pies of thin pastry stuffed with cheese, meat, or other fillings, in the manner shared across the Turkic and Balkan world. Lamb and mutton, a legacy of the pastoral heritage, and dishes of the flock, along with the produce of the farm and garden, are characteristic of the cuisine.

Dairy holds an important place, with cheeses and other products of the sheep, while the fertile steppe provides grain, vegetables, and the fruit of the vine. Above all, Gagauzia is a great wine-producing land, and wine is central to the culture and the table, accompanying meals and celebrations throughout the year.

Food is bound up with the customs and festivals of the Orthodox calendar and the great occasions of family life, when tables are laden and hospitality generously given, a deeply valued custom among the Gagauz. Rooted in the steppe, the flocks, and the vineyards, Gagauz cuisine is a hearty and cherished expression of the culture of the people.

Festivals

The festivals of the Gagauz blend the Orthodox Christian calendar with the customs of the steppe and the pastoral year, and they are central to the life and identity of this small and distinctive people. Religious feasts, seasonal celebrations, and the customs of the village mark the year in Gagauzia.

The great seasonal festival of the Gagauz is Hederlez, celebrated in spring, which marks the start of the pastoral year and the season of the flocks, blending very old customs of the herders with the feast of Saint George in the Orthodox calendar. It is a joyful celebration of the coming of spring, with festivity, ritual, and the marking of the herders’ year.

The feasts of the Orthodox church, above all the great celebrations of Christmas and Easter and the festivals of the patron saints of the villages, are the high points of the religious year, marked with services, customs, and family gatherings. These Christian festivals, observed by a Turkic-speaking people, reflect the distinctive character of the Gagauz.

Modern Gagauzia also celebrates its identity through cultural festivals of music, dance, and folk tradition, and above all through the great wine festivals of this vine-growing land, which draw on the deep bond between the Gagauz and the vine. These festivals, blending faith, the pastoral heritage, and the culture of the vineyard, are vivid expressions of the Gagauz people.

History

The history of the Gagauz is bound up with the movements of Turkic peoples and Orthodox Christians in the Balkans and the northern Black Sea region, and their ultimate origins remain uncertain. Emerging as a distinct people combining a Turkic tongue with the Orthodox faith, they lived in the eastern Balkans, above all in what is now Bulgaria, before their great migration.

In the early nineteenth century, following the wars between the Russian and Ottoman empires, many Gagauz migrated northward from the Balkans into the region of Bessarabia, in the south of present-day Moldova, then newly under Russian rule, settling the open steppe of Budjak. Here the main body of the Gagauz people established their homeland and their villages.

Through the nineteenth and twentieth centuries the Gagauz lived under Russian and then Soviet rule, sharing in the great upheavals of the region, and in the Soviet period their language gained a written form even as Russian dominated public life. Their distinct identity, Turkic in speech and Christian in faith, endured through these changes.

With the breakup of the Soviet Union and the independence of Moldova, the Gagauz sought to protect their identity, and after a period of tension a settlement was reached granting Gagauzia autonomy within Moldova in 1994, with its own assembly and wide self-government. This autonomous status secured the position of the Gagauz as a distinct people within the Moldovan state.

Today

Today the Gagauz are a small people numbering some hundreds of thousands, the great majority living in the autonomous region of Gagauzia in the south of Moldova, with smaller communities in Ukraine and elsewhere. Comrat is the capital and center of Gagauz life, and the autonomous region has its own assembly, governor, and wide self-government within Moldova.

Modern Gagauzia is a land of farming and, above all, of viticulture, for the region is an important wine producer, and agriculture and wine-making are central to its economy, alongside the challenges faced by a small and relatively poor region. Emigration for work has taken many Gagauz abroad, above all to Russia and Turkey.

Gagauz identity remains strong, expressed in the autonomous status of Gagauzia, in the official use of the Gagauz language alongside Romanian and Russian, and in the vibrant traditions of music, dance, festival, and faith. The politics of the region, poised between Moldova, Russia, and Turkey, reflect the position of this small people at a crossroads.

Through their uncertain origins, their great migration, and the upheavals of empire and the Soviet age, the Gagauz have preserved a distinct and unusual identity, a Turkic-speaking people of the Orthodox Christian faith, rooted in the steppes of southern Moldova. Small in number but strong in their sense of themselves, proud of Gagauzia and their heritage, the Gagauz remain one of the most distinctive of the peoples of Europe.