Population Language Family[1] R1b R1a I E1b1b J
Albanians IE (Albanian) 17.6 9.8 19.6 21.6 23.5
Serbs IE (Slavic, South) 10.6 15.9 36.3 21.2 8
Albanians Kosova IE (Albanian) 21.1 4.4 7.9 47.4 16.7
Greeks IE (Greek) 13.5 11.1 15.8 31.6 19.9
Turks Altaic (Turkic) 20.3 11.9 6.8 13.6 30.5
I am no dna expert and tracing origins is very complex, but this is my educated belief based on the above data from wikipedia.
I have organised this by haplogroups:
R1b (west european) - Kosovars have the highest percentage of this, followed by Albanians. This goes
along with the idea that they descend from the Illyrians and the Illyrians were non-slavic
tribes from the west/north. The serbs have the lowest of this haplogroup which follows along
with their slavic eastern background. The surprise is the turks which show a high percentage of
this gene, somehow the turks have more west-european genes than most people think. So far,
albanians are closer to kosovars than to greeks.
R1a (east-european, slavic) - In this group the albanians are closer to the greeks than to kosovars.
I (latin, german) - In this group the albanians are closer to greeks than to kosovars.
E1b1b (north-west african, phoenician, pelasgian) - In this group albanians are closer to the greeks. However, these numbers are
quite surprising to me; it seems the greeks are more pelasgian than the albanians but the kosovars are more pelasgian than the greeks.
J (babylonian, arabic) - The turks by a large distance score the highest on this one, since they're closer to mesopotamia. As far as our question goes,
this is a tie, the distance albanian-kosovar is the same as the distance albanian-greek. What is surprising is that the greeks are again
in the middle, meaning greeks are more babylonian than kosovars but albanians are more babylonian than greeks.
Based on this analysis the albanians, kosovars, and greeks are very homogenous populations. If we take out the language barriers, from a world perspective
genetically they could be considered the same people. Historically this goes along with the fact that for at least a thousand years these people were the
backbone of the byzantine empire.
A more plausible and modern argument is that a large percentage of today's greeks were actually albanian in 1832, when greece declared its indipendence from
turkey. This goes along with historic records showing that when greece declared its indipendence, 40-50% of its population was speaking albanian,
especially in the north and west greece.
Another idea shown from this data is that the serbs are heavily mixed with pre-slavic groups in the balkans. They seem to be genetically closer to albanians
than to greeks or turks. This goes along with history and geography. However they still maintain their differences shown by the large percentages of R1a and I haplogroups.
As an endnote, these differences are extremely trivial if we compare the above populations with people from other race groups. In fact europe has by far the most homogenous population of all contine
Albanians IE (Albanian) 17.6 9.8 19.6 21.6 23.5
Serbs IE (Slavic, South) 10.6 15.9 36.3 21.2 8
Albanians Kosova IE (Albanian) 21.1 4.4 7.9 47.4 16.7
Greeks IE (Greek) 13.5 11.1 15.8 31.6 19.9
Turks Altaic (Turkic) 20.3 11.9 6.8 13.6 30.5
I am no dna expert and tracing origins is very complex, but this is my educated belief based on the above data from wikipedia.
I have organised this by haplogroups:
R1b (west european) - Kosovars have the highest percentage of this, followed by Albanians. This goes
along with the idea that they descend from the Illyrians and the Illyrians were non-slavic
tribes from the west/north. The serbs have the lowest of this haplogroup which follows along
with their slavic eastern background. The surprise is the turks which show a high percentage of
this gene, somehow the turks have more west-european genes than most people think. So far,
albanians are closer to kosovars than to greeks.
R1a (east-european, slavic) - In this group the albanians are closer to the greeks than to kosovars.
I (latin, german) - In this group the albanians are closer to greeks than to kosovars.
E1b1b (north-west african, phoenician, pelasgian) - In this group albanians are closer to the greeks. However, these numbers are
quite surprising to me; it seems the greeks are more pelasgian than the albanians but the kosovars are more pelasgian than the greeks.
J (babylonian, arabic) - The turks by a large distance score the highest on this one, since they're closer to mesopotamia. As far as our question goes,
this is a tie, the distance albanian-kosovar is the same as the distance albanian-greek. What is surprising is that the greeks are again
in the middle, meaning greeks are more babylonian than kosovars but albanians are more babylonian than greeks.
Based on this analysis the albanians, kosovars, and greeks are very homogenous populations. If we take out the language barriers, from a world perspective
genetically they could be considered the same people. Historically this goes along with the fact that for at least a thousand years these people were the
backbone of the byzantine empire.
A more plausible and modern argument is that a large percentage of today's greeks were actually albanian in 1832, when greece declared its indipendence from
turkey. This goes along with historic records showing that when greece declared its indipendence, 40-50% of its population was speaking albanian,
especially in the north and west greece.
Another idea shown from this data is that the serbs are heavily mixed with pre-slavic groups in the balkans. They seem to be genetically closer to albanians
than to greeks or turks. This goes along with history and geography. However they still maintain their differences shown by the large percentages of R1a and I haplogroups.
As an endnote, these differences are extremely trivial if we compare the above populations with people from other race groups. In fact europe has by far the most homogenous population of all contine