I bet you've never heard of this European Country! Gagauzia

Maybe my most random adventure yet! This time I head to the south of Moldova and a little known Turkic Republic known as Gagauzia, home to about 120,000 Turkish speaking Gagauzian Moldovans. This place was in fact independent (kind of) between 1991 and 1994, until deal was struck to be officially an autonomous republic within modern Moldova. In this video, I explore the capital city of Comrat, home to 20,000 Gagauzians, and St. John's church. We also try a bit of local food, wine and beer, and meet local barman Diman whilst also exploring the surrounding countryside, the Lenin statue, the street named after him and the Alley of Gagauzian heroes. Not to be missed, this is one of my most random adventures yet! Oh and I also help out a guy at the market after he knocks over his boxes.

[@capacle]

I’m Brazilian, but my great grandfather emigrated from Gagauzia 100 years ago to Brazil, and that’s where my last name comes from. Never had the chance to visit it, so thank you so much for the video! That’s the first time I get to see it

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

I'm so pleased I could let you see it! It's modest but pleasant!

[@russt8874]

Hi mate. Just wanna ask, what might seem a strange question, but nevertheless. Could you please tell more about your grandad, as much as you know. Name, place he came from, job.... The reason I ask is, my grandads cousin immigrated to south America some time between 1915 - 1925 when he was about 18 - 23 years old, all this is very aproximat. So, please if you could. I know it's a long shot, but who knows.... 😊

[@WilliamKufe]

You might be related to my family . I am black gagauz born in comrat but my relatives told me of family members that moved to Brazil a long time ago but lost contact . They were from beshalma . Nice to know !

[@methany4404]

Hi from Türkiye. Very nice to see a video about Gagauzia, thank you.

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Absolutely, hope you enjoyed it!

[@DikWhite]

Very interesting wander around this bustling metropolis and, indeed, I'd never heard of that region. The sign on the front of the building reading "Altindağ Belediyesi Gençlik Merkezi" actually means "Altindağ Council Youth Centre". The other sign explains that the building was constructed by the Altındağ Municipal Authority in 2018. Something else that might interest you, the "OĞLU" suffix in Turkish surnames actually means "SON OF".

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

I knew you'd have some great insight to add to this video, thanks a lot Dik!

[@87alebo]

Nice content, no bullshit comments, appreciated. Not so many videos on Gagauzia, nice!

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Glad you appreciate it, thanks for watching!

[@queensabina9983]

I am so glad to see someone doing a video about this region 🤩makes me even more motivated to go some day

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

You should!

[@kippersofdoom]

If you can call Scotland and Wales Nations, Gagauzia is too.

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Absolutely!! Greetings from the nation of Scotland

[@Lukejb2Butterworth]

but its still not a country

[@johnroff1941]

Enjoyed the video. Surprised you don't have more views and subscribers. I considering going to live in Moldova.

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Thanks man! What would you do in Moldova?

[@johnroff1941]

@@helloantoniotraveladventures retire! LoL.

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Go for it, great little country where you'll get more for your money!

[@dipayanroy8300]

Your voice is exactly like Benjamin Rich from Bald and Bankrupted.

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

We're from the same part of the world

[@piratizaslobodu]

everybody's so creative

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

What makes you say that?

[@walterbertin]

Acctually Gagauz use to live in Bulgaria some hundreds years ago - when at the time Bulgaria was under Ottoman or Turkish rule - and crossed the river to Moldova - refuges Moldova that on the other hand at that time was under the Russian rule - them are christian - exactly bulgarian-ortodox church - orthox churchies are national like russian-orthodox or greek-ortodox or serbian-orthodox or rumanian-orthodox but due to them living under Ottomans Gagauz speak turkish - mixed with slavic and romanian world - them adoped to the pressure of the other ruler and speak russian to the pression of the other ruler Next - Many countries of today middle and eastern Europe had dem refugees or expats in the past - and established programs - comming home for them people - as result many molodovans take romenian passport - them great parents in the time 1920 - 1940 used to be romanian citizens - and many gagauz take bulgarian passport - both still living in them home country - them become EU citizen - can travel and work in all EU - this explains the cars with bulgarian licanse plates in Gagauz - this cars most certain are owend buy bulgarian citizens gagauzian nationality so them do not need to pay customs in moldova for importing the car into the country as to the law them are tourists/visitor in Gagauzia There is kind of pirvate leasing to avoid tax - and a kind of trade - someone with gagauzian nationality and bulgarian passport in his pocket - buys the cars in Bulgaria - drives them to Moldova (Gagauzia) and lets other people drive the cars - with legal authorisation - the people donot buy the cars - but only use - so none of them pays import duties to the moldovan customs Next 2 - there are in Camrat some Gagauz nationalitis wanting the part of Moldova Republic become separate state - the answare from Chicinau the govarmento or capiltal of Moldova was simple - show us the gagauze people in your region - 99% are by the law bulgarian citizens - so there is no need to make saparate country with no-people or just a few people like you same situation is in Transnistria - this is also county with no-people - a lot of them have at least Rep Molodova passport or Rumanian passport in them pocket - some old people have russian passport as inheritance of Soviet Union but also Putin payed a add-on pension to his citizens living abroad - kind of bribing the people to become russian citizens - this bonus is now nothing cause of the expences of war in Ucraine

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Fascinating insights, thanks for sharing. Especially interesting to hear about the Bulgarian cars

[@Valkyraw]

This is wrong on so many levels. Them being Christian doesnt mean they were originally Slavic and them mixing with other populations doesnt make them less Turkic. The origin of the Gagauz is through and through turkic. They may have been oghuz or Bulgars, but they were Turkic nonetheless. Would appreciate it if westerners would stop discrediting turkic people of being turkic. its quite annoying. The original Bulgarians were Turkic as well, not slavic. what happened? slavic people stole their country and their history too. even the name.

[@caseyjeter9957]

Did you visit some of the other little towns in Gagauzia?

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

No. Any you'd recommend for me to go explore?

[@Lukejb2Butterworth]

Its not a country only an autonomous region

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Indeed the definition of a country is flexible and I might have been pushing it to the limit here!

[@TheRaven.]

😊 🍻

[@tarkanyilmaz6905]

He sounds exactly like BoldnBankrupt😮

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

We're from the same part of the world I guess

[@GennadiCitrus]

"all live in peace"...

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Absolutely

[@GennadiCitrus]

@helloantoniotraveladventures bro it's sarcasm... 95% of Gagauze people hate romanians (moldovans) and want Russia to "liberate them" right after it's done with Ukraine. I don't want to blackpill you further explaining why...

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

@FFKorMax I'm not getting involved!

[@GennadiCitrus]

@@helloantoniotraveladventures lol

[@traveler_serhat]

Love ❤ gokoguzya

[@hater8812]

Is this city very small?

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Yes, I think it was only about 25k people

[@jonnyscottblair]

Whackpacking loyal, I whackpacked it in March 2024.

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

How did you like it?

[@akoden2667]

Most Ukrainians speak Ukrainian, and it is very different from Russian even though they're close linguistically they aren't mutually intelligible. Most Russian speakers are in the Donbass and Kharkhiv

[@helloantoniotraveladventures]

Thanks for the clarification, I'm pretty clueless when it comes to Slavic sociolinguistics

[@steveortiz1026]

most ukrainians don't speak ukranian its only the banderite galicians that speak that Village idiot dialect you should know you are probably one of them you can tell from the combat footage from the Ukrainian side they're only speaking Russian or Surzhyk even the majority of the searches on Google are made in Russian in Ukraine 😂😂