Are the Ashkenazi Jews descendant of the Khazars?

The question of the origins of the Ashkenazi Jews has been a topic of scholarly debate, and the theory suggesting a Khazar origin is one of the hypotheses proposed. The Khazars were a Turkic people who lived in the region that is now modern-day Ukraine, southern Russia, and Kazakhstan. <img alt="" src="https://miro.medium.com/v2/resize:fit:630/1*KSU1P0m4WYCQfgA50blp0Q.jpeg" style="height:569px; width:700px" /> The Khazar hypothesis suggests that Ashkenazi Jews are descendants of the Khazars, a multi-ethnic group in the Caucasus region who converted to Judaism in the 8th–9th centuries. This theory, largely abandoned by historians, proposes that Khazars migrated to Eastern Europe after the collapse of their empire and became a significant part of the Jewish population. The hypothesis, popularized by Arthur Koestler in 1976, has faced criticism and lacks strong supporting evidence. <a href="https://medium.com/@iliyan.revenetov/are-the-ashkenazi-jews-descendant-of-the-khazars-ab239fb97a80">Learn More</a>