Gagauz people in Ukraine

The Gagauz are an ethnic Turkic minority in Ukraine. The total number of the Gagauz diaspora was 31,923 counted in the 2001 census, most of whom (86.51%) live in the Bessarabian region of Odesa Oblast: Izmail, Reni, Kiliya, and Bolhrad raions (districts).[1][2]

Gagauz Ukrainians
Gold: Gagauz in Budzhak region, Odesa Oblast
Total population
31,923
Regions with significant populations
Odessa Oblast
Languages
Predominantly Gagauz (71.5%), Russian (22.7%), Ukrainian (3.45%)
Religion
Eastern Orthodox

Place of residence

The Gagauz are speaking Gagauz language who live in Ukraine, mainly in the Odesa region, where they make up 1.1% of the region's population. The number of Gagauz in the period between the 1989 and 2001 censuses increased by 0.9%, and the share of residents of the region - by 0.1%.

Regions of Ukraine by the number of Gagauz in 2001:[3]

Quantity
Odesa Oblast27617
Mykolaiv oblast877
Donetsk oblast494
Crimea387
Dnipropetrovsk oblast365
Luhansk oblast275
Zaporizhzhia Oblast268
Kherson oblast239
Kharkiv oblast205
Other regions1196
All31923

Gagauz live in the south and southwest of Odesa region in Bolhrad (18.7%), Reni (7.9%), Tarutyne (6.0%), Kiliia (3.8%) and Artsyz (1.8%) areas. The number of Gagauz increased in Ivanivka (+ 100.0%), Ovidiopol (+ 100.0%), Bolhrad (+ 0.7%) districts and the city of Izmail (+ 14.3%), slightly decreased in Kiliia (-14, 8%), Artsyz (-10.0%), Tarutyne (-6.9%) and Reni (-5.9%) districts.

The Gagauz also traditionally lived in the south of the Zaporizhzhia region, where they moved from Budzhak with Bulgarians and Albanians after the Crimean War. There the Gagauz population was present in the villages of Oleksandrivka, Vovchanske, Golivka, Dechnya, and Dimitrivka.

Gagauz ethnic territory within Moldova
Settlement of Gagauz in the Odesa region

Language
Distribution of the Gagauz language in the Odessa region according to the 2001 census

The majority of Gagauz (71%) consider Gagauz their mother tongue, a significant proportion (23%) consider Russian their mother tongue.

Native language of Gagauz of Ukraine according to population censuses:[4][5][6]

1970  % 1989  % 2001  %
Gagauz language 23 564 89,0 25 401 79,5 22 822 71,5
Russian language 2 171 8,2 5 478 17,1 7 232 22,7
Ukrainian language 155 0,6 450 1,4 1 102 3,5
Other 574 2,2 638 2,0 496 1,6

Notable people
  • Mykola Palas (born 1980), colonel during the Russo-Ukrainian War, recipient of the Hero of Ukraine award

See also

References
  1. "The Gagauzes of Ukraine. Who are they? • Ukraїner". Ukraїner. 2019-07-25. Retrieved 2020-08-06.
  2. "Gagauzy". Internet Encyclopedia of Ukraine. 2014. Retrieved 6 August 2020.
  3. "Ethnic composition of Georgia 2014". mashke.org. Archived from the original on 2018-11-04.
  4. Итоги Всесоюзной переписи населения 1970 года. Том IV — М., Статистика, 1973
  5. Всеукраїнський перепис населення 2001. Розподіл населення за національністю та рідною мовою
  6. "Перепис 1989. Розподіл населення за національністю та рідною мовою (0,1)". Archived from the original on 2020-10-29. Retrieved 2021-08-21.


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