Turanians

Turanian is a controversial term that has been used in reference to diverse groups of people. It has had currency in Turanism, Pan-Turkism, and historic Turkish nationalism.

Many of the uses of the word are obsolete. It may refer to:

• The Turanid race
• An Aniranian ethnic group mentioned in the Avesta; see Turan
• Any historical people of Transoxiana or present-day Turkistan
• Any historical Ural–Altaic people, in particular:
  • The Turkic peoples during Turkic expansion
  • The Huns described by the Europeans and Chinese
  • The Mongols, who are distantly related to the Turks
  • Some sources have mentioned the Japanese people
• The Sami or Lapps of northern Scandinavia
• Finno-Ugric peoples like the Finns, Estonians, and Hungarians
• The Dravidian people of southern India and Pakistan were theorized to have Turanian ancestors
• Speakers of Caucasian languages
• Non-Semitic and non-Indo-European peoples of the Late Bronze Age were theorized to have Turanian ancestors; see Hurro-Urartian and Etruscans
• The Basques of western Europe (northern Spain and southwest France) were theorized to have Turanian ancestors
• The term formerly used for the Caucasian Avars

See also

• Turanid race
• Altaic peoples
• Hungarian Turanism
• Turan
• Turanism
• Turkic peoples
• Uralic peoples