In historical times, there have been three major invasions of South Eastern Europe from the direction of the Near East but no evidence of major migratory events and gene flow. The Persians dominated South Western Asia in the fifth century BC: They established satrapies in Asia Minor and invaded Europe, but they were stopped by the Greeks (
32). The Arabs attempted multiple invasions during the seventh and eighth centuries AD, but they were stopped by the Byzantines (
33). An Arab tribe originating from Andalusia established in Crete a pirate state in the ninth century, but they were exterminated by the Byzantines 140 y later, and they left no traces of settlement in the island other than the name of their seat of power in the town of Chandax (
33). The Turks invaded Asia Minor starting the 11th century and occupied the Balkans in the subsequent three centuries, but any Turks and converts to Islam left from Greek territories with the population exchanges that took place in the 20th century (
34); the origin of the Turkish tribes was the central Asia. Seljuk Turks settled in Anatolia in the 12th century AD; however, the Anatolian Cappadocians we included in this study belong to the population that have kept the religion and the language of the pre-Seljuk Cappadocians and, therefore, most likely carry the genetic makeup of the ancient Anatolians. The only important gene flows from Near East to Europe must have occurred in prehistoric times and, as genetic evidence suggests, the most prominent migrations should have occurred during the Neolithic.