Kobzar of the Ukraine from Turkic Origin

Abstract

The article notes that the Ukraine and Azerbaijan are not only the states with similar problems, but they are also the nations with similar faith and history.

The difference is the fact that while we lost our lands as the result of Russian invasion, the Cossacks of Don, Dnepr, and Dnestr lost their language and ethnic identity.

First, with Peter I’s decree, Cossacks were forbidden to speak their own language in the army. Then Catherine II, the Empress of Russia issued a special decree forbidding them to speak their own language at home. Under new prohibitions, Taras Shevchenko, the great poet of the Ukraine nicknamed Kobzar was born. 60 percent of the language of his poems consists of Turkic words.

Khokhol means kekil ‘forelock’, kobzar means gopuzchu ‘a person playing gopuz’, sebchi means prophet.