A.V. Shabashov for the first time in his works applied an integrated approach in the study of the problems of the ethnogenesis of the Gagauz. Drawing on historical sources and making extensive comparisons with the culture of other Turkic-speaking peoples, he examined the ethnogenesis of the Gagauz people in terms of historical, linguistic, anthropological data and in the light of material and spiritual culture. For the first time in Gagauz studies, the idea of the participation of two components in the ethnogenesis of the Gagauzians was clearly articulated: autochthonous – Balkan and external – Eurasian, as a result of the interaction of which the Gagauz ethnos was formed.