But Arabic is a significant language in the area. IDK how much Arab blood got spread through the populations in their conquests, but since Arabic is roughly to Islam the way Latin was to Catholicism or Hebrew to Judaism, not to mention the religion being a method of transmitting Arabic culture to those other peoples, it might not be as inaccurrate as a strictly geneological analysis of the population might indicate. It's like them calling the Crusaders "Franks". However technically errant the term, the Crusaders were cultural and spiritual descendants of Charlemagne, whose grandfather achieved the first significant western victory against Islamic expansion.
Hey! Those states go back AT LEAST as far as the ancient and honored traditions of the Ukranian government! We're coming up on a whole century of those lines existing on some maps.
Which worked out pretty well at the time. Almost like breaking up multi-ethnic empires that had lasted for centuries wasn't a good idea... National identities or not, the region was constantly subjected to invasions and migrations with the Ottomans simply the last ones in before gunpower became a thing and suddenly a band of barbarian horsemen was no longer sufficent to establish themselves as a power within a civilization. The Ottomans were the ones in charge when established states got the upper hand, and were simply more successful than prior conquerors & displacers in getting it done.