The Gok-Turks had been a nomadic people who came to be ruled by a Siberian Turkic tribe called the Ashina. They had been forced to migrate westwards toward the Black Sea by the Chinese Tang Empire – who were in power in China at the time.
... recent DNA analysis of Ashkenazic Jews – a Jewish ethnic group – revealed that their maternal line is European. It has also been found that their DNA only has 3% ancient ancestry which links them with the Eastern Mediterranean (aka the Middle East) – namely Israel, Lebanon, parts of Syria, and western Jordan [i.e.,] the part of the world Jewish people are said to have originally come from – according to the Old Testament. But 3% is a minuscule amount ...
Not one, but many tribes
... we need to go back in time to look at where these other ancestors came from. It starts in Persia (modern-day Iran) during the sixth century... where most of the world’s Jews were living at this time.
The tolerance of the Persians encouraged the Jews to adopt Persian names, words, traditions, and religious practices, and climb up the social ladder gaining a monopoly on trade. They also converted other people who were living along the Black Sea, to their Jewish faith. This helped to expand their global network.
Among these converts were the Alans (Iranian nomadic pastoral people), Greeks, and Slavs who resided along the southern shores of the Black Sea. Upon conversion, they translated the Old Testament into Greek, built synagogues, and continued expanding the Jewish trade network.
These Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, and the DNA of Ashkenazic Jews can be traced to “Ancient Ashkenaz” – an intersection of trade routes in eastern Turkey.
The rise of the Ashina
We now know that at the time these Jews adopted the name Ashkenaz, they also acquired unique Asian mutations on their Y chromosome. This is where another important group of people in our story come into play – the Gok-Turks.
https://theconversation.com/ashkenazic- ... -dna-97962
Thanks to their organisational and military skills, the Ashina united many tribes in this area, including Jews and the Gok-turks – and a new empire called the “Khazar Khaganate” was born, at the intersection of trade routes in eastern Turkey.
At roughly the same time they adopted the name 'Ashkenaz' Jews acquired unique Asian mutations on their Y chromosome, indicating that some or all of the Ashina and core Khazar clans, including the Gok-Turks, were 'absorbed' by the Jews, and likely converted from Shamanism to Judaism.
The next chapter
... the Jewish empire began to collapse. By the tenth century, the Jews on the Black Sea migrated to and Italy. Yiddish became the lingua franca of these Ashkenazic Jews and absorbed German words while maintaining the Slavic grammar. And as global trade moved to the hands of the Italians, Dutch and English, the Jews were pushed aside ...
https://theconversation.com/ashkenazic- ... -dna-97962