Two countries, one origin?

The Altaic theory is dead. Long live the Altaic theory!

After decades of negligence, scholars from all over the world have come together to revive the theory of ancient connections between Turks, Japanese, Mongols, Koreans and Tungus people – sort of. Unlike the Altaic theory, the new Transeurasian theory focuses on linguistic and archeological evidence without going overboard. While it is not universally accepted and has received quite some criticism within Academia, it prompted me to take a look at the actual relations between the Turkic peoples and their four alleged cousins. We start with the Japanese. In the first episode, and for the first time ever on Khan’s Den, a scholar was available for an interview: Ms. Prof. Martine Robbeets herself, the group research leader of the Transeurasian theory.

In the second episode, we delve deeper into actual feasible modern Turkish-Japanese relations and take a look at how the first contacts between the Ottoman Empire and Meji Japan were marked by the turbulent developments of the 19th century.