Gagauz

The Gagauz are a Turkic-speaking ethnic group primarily inhabiting Gagauzia, an autonomous territorial unit in southern Moldova. The region’s capital is Comrat. In addition to Gagauzia, Gagauz communities are found in other parts of Moldova and in neighboring countries such as Ukraine and Russia, with smaller populations in Turkey and Bulgaria.

The Gagauz language belongs to the Oghuz branch of the Turkic language family and is closely related to Turkish and Azerbaijani. It remains a central part of community life, though many Gagauz people are multilingual, commonly speaking Russian and Romanian/Moldovan in daily use.

Historically, the Gagauz are believed to descend from Oghuz Turkic groups who migrated into the Balkans in the medieval period and later settled in what is now southern Moldova. They established communities in the region that became Bessarabia. After the dissolution of the Soviet Union, Moldova established the autonomous region of Gagauzia in the 1990s, with a framework for self-government formalized by law in the mid-1990s.

Culturally, the Gagauz are predominantly Orthodox Christians, and they preserve distinctive customs, music, cuisine, and folk traditions that reflect a blend of Turkic linguistic heritage with Balkan Christian influences. Social life often centers on families, villages, and local religious and communal events.

Politically, Gagauzia has its own local government, led by a Bashkan (the head of the executive) and a territorial assembly known as the People’s Assembly. The region operates with a degree of self-government within Moldova, while remaining part of the country’s sovereign framework.