Talk:Bulgariaball/@comment-88.233.145.130-20160925103852/@comment-29029659-20170103193123

>bulgarians are turkic

l m a o

Bulgars are Turkic, Bulgarians and Bulgars are different people.

The Bulgars (Bolgar, more accurately) were a Turkic tribal confederation consisting mostly of Chuvash and Kipchak groups of Turkic language speakers. Their dialect, according to some scholars, is related to the old Hunnic.

The most interesting fact about Bulgars is, despite the popular belief that first Turks to become Muslims were Karakhanids, in fact it was Itil Bulgars (Volga Bulgars) who were the first converts to Islam in Turkic realm.

The Danube Bolgars invaded the region what was later called "Bulgaria" and established a khanate there. Their titles were Turkic (khan, etc), their names were Turkic (Asparukhetc) and for a while they retained their ancestral traditions and culture. However, they eventually were converted to Christianity and their small population was quickly absorbed into the Slavic mass that had already recently settled in the region.

What is left from them is the name of Bulgaria, and the Chuvash and Volga Tatar peoples, the majority in the Republics of Chuvashia and Tatarstan, respectively - both inside the Russian Federation. Bulgaria is the legacy of Danube Bulgars, the Chuvash direct descendants of Itil Bulgars.