78% of Chechens belong to J Y DNA

78% of Chechens belong to J, of which 57% are J2 and around 20% are J1.

The Chechen people are mainly inhabitants of Chechnya, Russian Federation. There are also significant Chechen populations in other subdivisions of Russia (especially in Dagestan, Ingushetia and Moscow).

Outside Russia, countries with significant diaspora populations are Kazakhstan, Turkey, Azerbaijan, and the Middle Eastern states (especially Jordan and Iraq, where they are mainly descendants of people who had to leave Chechnya during the Caucasian War (which led to the annexation of Chechnya by the Russian Empire around 1850) and the 1944 Stalinist deportation in the case of Kazakhstan. Tens of thousands of Chechen refugees settled in the European Union and elsewhere as the result of the recent Chechen Wars, especially in the wave of emigration to the West after 2002.

In the Middle Ages, the lowland of Chechnya was dominated by the Khazars and then the Alans. Local culture was also subject to Byzantine and Georgian influence and some Chechens converted to Eastern Orthodox Christianity. Gradually, Islam prevailed, although the Chechens' own pagan religion was still strong until the 19th century. Society was organised along feudal lines. Chechnya was devastated by the Mongol invasions of the 13th century and those of Tamerlane in the 14th. The Vainakh bear the distinction of being one of the few peoples to successfully resist the Mongols, but this came at great cost to them, as their state was utterly destroyed. These events were key in the shaping of the Chechen nationhood and their martial-oriented and clan-based society.

Here are some photos of the J1 and J2 Y DNA Chechen males, where auburn hair and blue eyes are prominent.

The overwhelming bulk of Chechen J2 is of the subclade J2a4b* (J2-M67), of which the highest frequencies by far are found among Nakh peoples: Chechens were 55.2% according to the Balanovsky study, while Ingush were 87.4%. Other notable haplogroups that appeared consistently appeared at significant frequencies included J1 (20.9%), L (7.0%), G2 (5.5%),R1a (3.9%), Q-M242 (3%) and R1b-M269 (1.8%), but much higher in Chechnya itself as opposed to Dagestani or Ingushetian Chechens). Overall, tests have shown consistently that Chechens are most closely related to Ingush, Circassians and Georgians, occasionally showing a kinship to other peoples in some tests. Balanovsky's study showed the Ingush to be the Chechens' closest relatives by far.

A 2004 study of the mtDNA showed Chechens to be extremely diverse in the mitochondrial genome, with 18 different haplogroups out of only 23 samples. Chechens clustered closest to Azeris, Georgians and Kabardins. They clustered closer to European populations than Middle Eastern populations this time, but were significantly closer to Western European populations (Basques and Britons) than to Eastern European populations (Russians and other Slavs, as well as Estonians), despite living in the East. They actually clustered about as close to Basques as they did to Ingush (Chechens also cluster closer to many other populations than Ingush, such as Armenians and Abazins), but the Chechens were the closer to the Ingush than any other population, the imbalance probably largely being due to the uniqueness of the Ingush on the mitochondrial DNA among those tested.

And here is a woman from the area. Fatima Hazueva is "Miss Caucasus 2006" winner. And she was runner-up "Miss Chechnya 2006"

Although the MtDNA is more mixed than the male, the Rh negative traits

do show up in the women too.

A group of Chechen women.

The photos included in this article have been found on an anthropology forum and are for illustration purposes only. We do not hold the copyright to these photos and we are willing to link to the original source if it is provided, or remove any at the copyright holders request.

- Tau Tia L Douglass

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