THE MIGRATION of KUBER KHAN and SERBIAN KINGS |
| Osman KARATAY |
The Oghur Turks, who were living in the Southwest
Siberia in a confederation of tribes, were forced to leave their lands by another Turkish
tribe, Sabirs, and entered into Europe passing the Volga river. This Oghur migration
coincides with the decline of Europe (Western) Hun Empire. So, they filled the Eastern
Europe geography, emptied by the Hun power. Oghurs founded their first state ‘Great
Bulgaria’ on the north of the Caucasus and Black Sea, today’s Southern Russia and
Ukraine, at the first half of the 7th century, gaining independence from Göktürks in the
East and Avars in the West. But life of this state did not long much, and its decline
resulted in also their scattering towards different directions. One of the scattered
groups came to the Balkans to establish the first Bulgarian state; one founded Hungary
with its Finnish allies; another one went to Upper Volga to create the Bulgarian Khanat.
Another group, about whom is said that it remained in the Caucasus, is likely ancestors of
today’s Balkars. A little part of the scattered Oghurs, led by Kuber Khan, who took
refuge among Avars living on the Middle Danube basin, soon rebelled with Slavs called
Sorbs, who were Avar vassals and had come from Eastern Germany, against the Avar state;
then they fled to Byzantine land and settled near Thessaloniki. These Turks and Sorbs
(Serbs), who did not enjoy the environment, wanted to return but were stopped on the
mid-way by Byzantine commandants and forced to settle just in the heart of today’s
Serbia. Being generally in good relations with the Byzantine rule, this community
developed a separate and independent political identity and the first Serb state was
founded by Kuber Khan and his companions. Turkish factor of the community lost its
identity in the course of time, being assimilated by Serbs and overcrowded Slavs, who came
to the land earlier than Oghurs and Serbs. So, those who first founded and centuries-long
ruled the Balkan Serb state were Turks. |
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