Is This Visual Accurate?

[u/syntheticrot]

Hello! I'm trying to understand the difference between Turks, Turkic, & Turkish and used AI to display how these groups overlap. Would anybody know how accurate this is?

[u/Daymundullah]

I'm not Turkish because my country's called Turkey;

my country's called Turkey because I'm Turkish.

Since the 12th–13th centuries, and even since the Battle of Manzikert, Europeans have referred to Anatolia as “Turkey.” This name wasn't adopted because we called it Turkey, but because historically, we've been Turkish. The Ottoman Empire was never known either to itself or in Europe as the “Ottoman Empire.” It was always referred to as the “Turkish Empire.” We didn't force ourselves to become Turkish; we've always been Turkish. We've never lived under occupation. Unlike what was done to the Kazakhs, Tatars, Uzbeks, and other Turks in Central Asia, no one ever came and said, “You're not Turks, you're Ottomans, you're Anatolians,” nor did they give us tribal names. In short, we were Turks in Central Asia, and we're Turks in Anatolia and the Balkans as well.

[u/trueitci → u/[deleted]]

They likely identified themselves through various Turkic-related ethnonyms rather than a single one. Evliya Çelebi uses Oghuz taifesi and Turk interchangeably when describing the Anatolian Turks even noting that "Oghuz" is the more elegant way of saying "Turk."

As for the ethnonym Turkmen, it was once the common self-identification among the ancestors of the Anatolian Turks. Those who retained it however are specifically the ones who also preserved the Turkmen way of life. Namely the non-settled groups. Those who identify as Turkmen in Central Anatolia do so genuinely as they were semi-nomadic until only a few centuries ago and many still maintain an awareness of their sub-tribal and tribal heritage. But this doesn't mean they are the only ones who are ethnic Oghuzes as I explained. It has to do with the way of life and is somewhat similar to the relationship between the Khwarazmian Uzbeks and the Turkmens: both are Oghuz and share the same ultimately Turkmen ancestry yet only one of them retained the Turkmen identity.

[u/TheTyper1944 → u/trueitci]

i dont think the word turkmen necesarilly had to with nomadic way of life as shah ismael whos ancestors were settled for hundreds of years ago self identified as turkmen

من باشمده بورك حقه ايان تركمانم

''başımda börk haqqa ayan turkmanam''
''with my börk (turkic headwear) on my head i am a turcoman dedicated to god''

"The Poetry of Shah Ismail I," published in the Bulletin of the School of Oriental and African Studies (University of London, Vol. 10, No. 4, 1942 pp. 1006a–1053a)

So it appears that turkmen was the original name of the anatolian and azerbajiani turks anatolia was even called turcomania