Are the people modern day turkey really descendants of central Asian Turks or is this just a minority of turkey's population? Or are the majority of the people in modern day turkey just byzantine people
( Greeks, Bulgarians, Armenians, native Anatolians etc.) who from 1071 (Battle of manzikert) and onwards converted to Islam when the Seljuks opened Anatolia? if this is the case, Did these people adopt the Turkic culture and identity thought the past millennia or did this start after the collapse of the Ottomans? meaning that prior to the creation of turkey there were Greek speaking Muslims, Bulgarian speaking Muslims, Armenian speaking Muslims (who would identify as ottomans) and after the creation of turkey all these different people were forced to speak this new Turkish language under the new nationalist regime and now call themselves Turks. You mention in many of your lectures that "turk" was just a derogatory term Europeans call Muslims.
Thank you very much for your question. As the whole world is nothing but a mix of people that define themselves as a particular nation, so the Turks are a mix of Turkic people, Balkan population and even Africans! Seeing that the Ottoman Empire was an empire stretching over three continents, it is normal that the descendants of the Ottomans have a variety of backgrounds. Turk is not necessarily a derogative Term, but an Ottoman Sultan would not call himself that because they did not have the idea of belonging to a Turkish nation but to an empire and being part of the Muslim Ummah. By the way, Ertugrul, the leader of the Kayi tribe from Central Asia was already Muslim before he settled in Anatolia (Minor Asia) and the ruling Seljuks were already Muslim there. Hope this has answered the question!