Anthroponymy of the residents of Bolgarsky village in Kazakhstan (on ethnogenesis of the Gagauz in Budjak)

The housholders' anthroponimy of Bolgarsky village in 1917 is considered in the context of the integration of the Orthodox Turkic-speaking population in the Balkans (12th - 14th, 15th - 18th centuries) within the Second Bulgarian Kingdom, Dobroudja despotism, Ottoman Empire and the formation of its Gagauz identity in Russia / the USSR in the last third of the 19th - middle of the 20th century). The beginning of the process beyond the Danube and its completion in Budjak were determined by the political history of the territories, with the misxture of population in the Balkans under different ethnic names: some disappeared, while others (Chitaki, nicknamed as Gagauz) separated from the Ottoman power. They were divided by confession (Gadzhals), but the Orthodox part escaped from absorption by the Muslim Ottomans, hiding behind the selfnames Bulgarians and Greeks. Identifying themselves behind the Danube as Bulgarians, or true Bulgarians,the Turkic-speaking Orthodox called the Slavic-Bulgariansby an exoethnonym “Toucans” in order to be separated from them. The Gagauz identity in Budjak finally formed by the middle of the 20th century, followed by the refusal of the Turkicspeaking Orthodox population from the self-name Bulgarians in favour of the Slavic-Bulgarians, self-awareness as of the Gagauz and integration under this ethnonym of all Turkic-speaking people, previously identifying themselves as Chitaks, Greeks, Gadzhals. Budjak became the ethnogenetic territory of the Gagauz ethnos, which was ensured by the dense settlement, proximity of the Turkic dialects, common Balkan pagan-Orthodox customs, rituals and traditions. Turkic-speaking emigrants from Budjak to the Azov Sea in 1860-1861 and to the North Caucasus, Siberia, Kazakhstan, Central Asia in 19091913 retained Bulgarians as their self-name, though being of a different origin, due to the lack or incompleteness of the civilization process at the time of leaving Budjak and disperse settlement in the resettlement regions. A joint / border residence with a population speaking another language led to assimilation. Even the Gagauz emigration from Budjak to Latin America in 1925-1927 lost its ethnic and linguistic identity as well as the Orthodox faith.

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