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The Republic of Kazakhstan, is a country in Central Asia and Eastern Europe. The ninth largest country in the world by land area, it is also the world's largest landlocked country
With 16.6 million people (2011 estimate) Kazakhstan has the 62nd largest population in the world, though its population density is less than 6 people per square kilometre (15 per sq. mi.).
For most of its history, the territory of modern-day Kazakhstan has been inhabited by nomadic tribes. By the 16th century, the Kazakhs emerged as a distinct group, divided into three Jüz. The Russians began advancing into the Kazakh steppe in the 18th century, and by the mid-19th century all of Kazakhstan was part of the Russian Empire.
Kazakhstan declared itself an independent country on December 16, 1991, the last Soviet republic to do so
. Kazakhstan has a population of 16.6 million, with 131 ethnicities, including Kazakh, Russian, Uyghur, Ukrainian, Uzbek, Tatar, and German. Around 63% percent of the population are Kazakhs.[
According to the 2009 Census, 70.2% of the population is Muslim, 26.6% Christian, 0.1% Buddhists, 0.2% others (mostly Jews), and 2.8% non-believers, while 0.5% chose not to answer
Originally posted by XaniMatriX
reply to post by Pedro4077
I got friends that live there, and yeah, really beautifull landscapes, a lot of korean also, mostly russian speaking though. There is a lake there one of my friends told me about, its so clean that if u put your hand in it, you will actually see black dirt coming off ur skin on contact.
Originally posted by bluemirage5
reply to post by applecore
Glad you posted the map, MOST Americans would'nt know where the hell Kazakhstan is on the map; many don't even know where NZ is for pete's sake!
Originally posted by Pedro4077
Ask anybody about Kazakstan and the first thing they will say is Borat, his Chubby Companion and Mankini's.
Originally posted by XaniMatriX
There is a lake there one of my friends told me about, its so clean that if u put your hand in it, you will actually see black dirt coming off ur skin on contact.
en.wikipedia.org...
Theory of Khazar ancestry of Ashkenazi Jews
Early Khazar theories
The theory that all or most Ashkenazi Jews might be descended from Khazars dates back to the racial studies of late 19th century Europe. In some cases it has been cited to assert that most modern Jews are not descended from Israelites and/or to refute Israeli claims to Israel, although genetic descent is not the basis of Jewish citizenry in Israel.[citation needed]
It was first publicly proposed in lecture given by the racial-theorist Ernest Renan on January 27, 1883, titled "Judaism as a Race and as Religion."It was repeated in articles in The Dearborn Independent in 1923 and 1925, and popularized by racial theorist Lothrop Stoddard in a 1926 article in the Forum titled "The Pedigree of Judah", where he argued that Ashkenazi Jews were a mix of people, of which the Khazars were a primary element.
Stoddard's views were "based on nineteenth and twentieth-century concepts of race, in which small variations on facial features as well as presumed accompanying character traits were deemed to pass from generation to generation, subject only to the corrupting effects of marriage with members of other groups, the result of which would lower the superior stock without raising the inferior partners." This theory was adopted by British Israelites, who saw it as a means of invalidating the claims of Jews (rather than themselves) to be the true descendants of the ancient Israelites, and was supported by early anti-Zionists.
In 1951 Southern Methodist University professor John O. Beaty published The Iron Curtain over America, a work which claimed that "Khazar Jews" were "responsible for all of America's — and the world's — ills beginning with World War I". The book repeated a number of familiar antisemitic claims, placing responsibility for U.S. involvement in World Wars I and II and the Bolshevik revolution on these Khazars, and insisting that Khazar Jews were attempting to subvert Western Christianity and establish communism throughout the world.
The American millionaire J. Russell Maguire gave money towards its promotion, and it was met with enthusiasm by hate groups and the extreme right. By the 1960s the Khazar theory had become a "firm article of faith" amongst Christian Identity groups. In 1971 John Bagot Glubb (Glubb Pasha) also took up this theme, insisting that Palestinians were more closely related to the ancient Judeans than were Jews. According to Benny Morris:
Of course an anti-Zionist (as well as an anti-Semitic) point is being made here: The Palestinians have a greater political right to Palestine than the Jews do, as they, not the modern-day Jews, are the true descendants of the land's Jewish inhabitants/owners.
The theory gained further support when the Jewish Zionist novelist Arthur Koestler devoted his popular book The Thirteenth Tribe (1976) to the topic. Koestler's historiography has been attacked as highly questionable by many historians;
it has also been pointed out that his discussion of theories about Ashkenazi descent is entirely lacking scientific or historiographical support; to the extent that Koestler referred to place-names and documentary evidence his analysis has been described as a mixture of flawed etymologies and misinterpreted primary sources.Commentors have also noted that Koestler mischaracterized the sources he cited, particularly D.M. Dunlop's History of the Jewish Khazars (1954).
Dunlop himself stated that the theory that Eastern European Jews were the descendants of the Khazars, "... can be dealt with very shortly, because there is little evidence which bears directly upon it, and it unavoidably retains the character of a mere assumption."
Koestler, an Ashkenazi Jew himself, was pro-Zionist based on secular considerations, and did not see alleged Khazar ancestry as diminishing the claim of Jews to Israel, which he felt was based on the United Nations mandate, and not on Biblical covenants or genetic inheritance. In his view, "The problem of the Khazar infusion a thousand years ago ... is irrelevant to modern Israel".