Re: [tied] az+

I gather that in your scenario the

> "Iranians" are the Proto-Bulgars? The difference here
> is that you have yet to prove that the Proto-Bulgars
> were Iranian.*****

It is called a hypothesis and was deliberately placed between question
marks. A hypothesis is no proof, but a necessary tool in analysis.
Something like "let's see what happens if we look at it this way"?

Eva