Is there such a thing as a European race?

[Neon Knight]

For Europeans to form a distinct group there must be siginficant fine-scale genetic gaps between Bulgarians/Greeks & Turks and between eastern Russians & Kazakhs. Do such gaps exist? If not, then there is just one large mass of Eurasians with no racial identity.

[Kale]

Well Mesolithic European and early European neolithic ancestry drop off sharply once you leave Europe (excluding fringe areas of Russia of course), so yeah pretty much.

[Unome]

For Europeans to form a distinct group there must be siginficant fine-scale genetic gaps between Bulgarians/Greeks & Turks and between eastern Russians & Kazakhs. Do such gaps exist? If not, then there is just one large mass of Eurasians with no racial identity.
This is a false dichotomy fallacy.

Because intermixing/miscegenation occurs between 'pure' members from different races. If you take the thoroughbred/purebred members of one race and compare them to another then there are in fact stark differences between race/ethnicity around the world. The difficulty is in approximating the purebred members best representing one race from another.

[Neon Knight]

How can you tell whether people from in-between areas (e.g. Turkey) are recently mixed or whether they are historical intermediaries through a process of genetic mutation?

[Kale]

How can you tell whether people from in-between areas (e.g. Turkey) are recently mixed or whether they are historical intermediaries through a process of genetic mutation?

Science.

[Unome]

How can you tell whether people from in-between areas (e.g. Turkey) are recently mixed or whether they are historical intermediaries through a process of genetic mutation?
Sex = Genetic Mutation. Offspring is a mix of genes from both parents.

Miscegenation causes population differences. For most people the differences are easy to determine: people look different from one country to the next.

[pelikarski]

There's gap between Bulgarians and Greeks let alone Turks.
Genetic Bulgarians are closer to nothern europeans than Turks

[Ianus]

There is an Europoid race, and there are some Europoid subraces that are European

[Vesuvian Sky]

According to Cavalli-Sforza:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k9Y9gxxz2Eo/TLCNBnPi_4I/AAAAAAAAAHE/3jV1NvkmFTA/s1600/cavalli-sforza+map.jpg

[Not a Cop]

between eastern Russians & Kazakhs. Do such gaps exist?

Yes it does.

[Argang]

Kazakhs are closer to pure Siberians.

Finestructure-PCA
http://s30.postimg.org/d02u882i9/mdlset1_3.png

Spatial Ancestry analysis
http://verenich.files.wordpress.com/2013/02/mdlpmap.png?w=1544&h=743

[Jackson]

Broadly, but of course the borders do meld into other regions, because we are not complete genetic isolates, same as most other places. And there are some significant differences within Europe as well.

[Fire Haired]

For Europeans to form a distinct group there must be siginficant fine-scale genetic gaps between Bulgarians/Greeks & Turks and between eastern Russians & Kazakhs. Do such gaps exist? If not, then there is just one large mass of Eurasians with no racial identity.

It is to simplistic to call Europeans a race, but rather people who live in the same region and therefore have many of the same ancestors.

You should read this: Revised Lazaridis, Ancient Genomes suggest three ancestral populations for present-day Europeans (http://www.theapricity.com/forum/showthread.php?121668-Revised-Lazaridis-Ancient-Genomes-suggest-three-ancestral-populations-for-present-day-Europeans). That study found that there is one stone age population that contributed ancestry only to modern Europeans(or a very small amount to people in other regions) and that's Mesolithic Europeans, they were most likely descended of people who arrived in Europe over 30,000 years ago. Most modern Europeans trace the majority of their middle eastern ancestry to the near easterns who introduced farming to Europe ~9,000BP. mtDNA, Y DNA, and autosomal DNA of early European farmers shows that their descendants and close relative's descendants are pretty much only in Europe(so they also help make modern Europeans distinct), but all modern middle easterns(including north Africa) trace the majority of their ancestry to the same source as early European farmers descended from.

There are many major differences between Greeks and Turks, and it's because Greeks have alot of common ancestry with other Europeans. I think Greeks are mainly a mixture of early European farmers(who had some Mesolithic European ancestry) and modern south-west Asians, but it is defintley much more complicated. It seems that the same modern-like south-west Asian population admixed with Europeans in the Balkans(highest in the south) and Italy(highest in the south) after the Neolithic, so Sicilians and southern Italians are as modern south-west Asian-like as Greeks.

[Prisoner Of Ice]

How can you tell whether people from in-between areas (e.g. Turkey) are recently mixed or whether they are historical intermediaries through a process of genetic mutation?

Because they don't have any unique DNA, so they are not origin of anything. Same for Indians and Pakis. There is just Caucasians, East Asians and Negroids. Everything else is just mix and in africa and europe there's a decent amount of mixing too.

[Fire Haired]

According to Cavalli-Sforza:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_k9Y9gxxz2Eo/TLCNBnPi_4I/AAAAAAAAAHE/3jV1NvkmFTA/s1600/cavalli-sforza+map.jpg

Don't listen to that guy, he is an idiot and used to say that Europeans are 2/3 east Asian and 1/3 African. He refuses to accept the fact that there are differences between human populations that's more than skin deep. He is one of those extreme anti-raciest, who are so afraid of racism that they become blind to facts about human genetics.

[Fire Haired]

Because they don't have any unique DNA, so they are not origin of anything. Same for Indians and Pakis. There is just Caucasians, East Asians and Negroids. Everything else is just mix and in africa and europe there's a decent amount of mixing too.

You forgot about basal Eurasians(a possible ghost Eurasian population found by Laz), besides that i agree with you.

[Vesuvian Sky]

Don't listen to that guy, he is an idiot and used to say that Europeans are 2/3 east Asian and 1/3 African. He refuses to accept the fact that there are differences between human populations that's more than skin deep. He is one of those extreme anti-raciest, who are so afraid of racism that they become blind to facts about human genetics.

Actually what's strange about his work is that aspects of it actually affirm the idea of different races and even geographically tends to adhere to the more traditional notions of 'race'. That's why I posted that map. However, he for some reason had to candy coat his research with statements like that. : /