Minorities in Turkey

Source: Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.

Ethnic groups in Turkey (
World Factbook)[1]
Ethnic groups Percent
Turks
70–75%
Kurds
19%
Others (
Turkish Jews
, etc.)
6–11%

Minorities in Turkey form a substantial part of the country's population, representing an estimated 25 to 28 percent of the population.[2] Historically, in the Ottoman Empire, Islam was the official and dominant religion, with Muslims having more rights than non-Muslims, whose rights were restricted.[3] Non-Muslim (dhimmi) ethno-religious[4] groups were legally identified by different millet ("nations").[3]

Following the end of

Islamized under Ottoman rule, especially Muslim Albanians and Slavic Muslims.[3]

The 1923

Turkey-Bulgaria Friendship Treaty (Türkiye ve Bulgaristan Arasındaki Dostluk Antlaşması) of 18 October 1925 but there are no more Bulgarians in Turkey.[8][10][11] On 18 June 2013, the Ankara 13th Circuit Administrative Court unanimously ruled that the Assyrians were included as beneficiaries of the Lausanne Treaty,[12][a] so that Assyrians were allowed to open the first school teaching in their mother tongue.[13][14]

The amount of ethnic minorities is considered to be underestimated by the Turkish government. Therefore, the exact number of members of ethnic groups who are Muslim is unknown; these include Arabs, Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Chechens, Abkhazians, Crimean Tatars, Laz, Hemshin Armenians, Kurds, Pomaks, Turkish Roma, and Pontic Greeks, among other smaller groups like Dom, Lom, Vallahades, Greek Muslims, Cretan Muslims, Nantinets, Imerkhevians. Many of the Non turkish Muslims minorities are descendants of Muslims (muhajirs) who were expelled from the lands lost by the shrinking Ottoman Empire, like the Balkans and Caucasus Mountains.[15][16][17] The majority have assimilated into and intermarried with the majority Turkish population and have adopted the Turkish language and way of life, though do not necessarily identify as Turks, especially the

Turkish nationalist
policies strengthen these trends

Tables

Distribution of nationalities in Anatolia[18]
Ottoman official statistics, 1910
Sanjak Turks Greeks Armenians Jews Others Total
Istanbul (Asiatic shore) 135,681 70,906 30,465 5,120 16,812 258,984
İzmit 184,960 78,564 50,935 2,180 1,435 318,074
Aydin (İzmir) 974,225 629,002 17,247 24,361 58,076 1,702,911
Bursa 1,346,387 274,530 87,932 2,788 6,125 1,717,762
Konya 1,143,335 85,320 9,426 720 15,356 1,254,157
Ankara 991,666 54,280 101,388 901 12,329 1,160,564
Trabzon 1,047,889 351,104 45,094 - - 1,444,087
Sivas 933,572 98,270 165,741 - - 1,197,583
Kastamonu 1,086,420 18,160 3,061 - 1,980 1,109,621
Adana 212,454 88,010 81,250 107,240 488,954
Canakkale 136,000 29,000 2,000 3,300 98 170,398
Total 8,192,589 1,777,146 594,539 39,370 219,451 10,823,095
Percentage 75.7% 16.42% 5.50% 0.36% 2.03%  
Ecumenical Patriarchate statistics, 1912
Total 7,048,662 1,788,582 608,707 37,523 218,102 9,695,506
Percentage 72.7% 18.45% 6.28% 0.39% 2.25%  
Distribution of nationalities in East Thrace
Ottoman official statistics, 1910[19]
Sanjak Turks Greeks Bulgarians Others Total
Edirne 128,000 113,500 31,500 14,700 287,700
Kirk Kilisse 53,000 77,000 28,500 1,150 159,650
Tekirdağ 63,500 56,000 3,000 21,800 144,300
Gallipoli 31,500 70,500 2,000 3,200 107,200
Çatalca 18,000 48,500 2,340 68,840
Istanbul 450,000 260,000 6,000 130,000 846,000
Total 744,000 625,500 71,000 173,190 1,613,690
Percentage 46.11% 38.76% 4.40% 10.74%  
Ecumenical Patriarchate statistics, 1912
Total 604,500 655,600 71,800 337,600 1,669,500
Percentage 36.20% 39.27% 4.30% 20.22%  
Muslim and non-Muslim population in Turkey, 1914–2005 (in thousands)[20]
Year 1914 1927 1945 1965 1990 2005
Muslims 12,941 13,290 18,511 31,139 56,860 71,997
Greeks 1,549 110 104 76 8 3
Armenians 1,204 77 60 64 67 50
Jews 128 82 77 38 29 27
Others 176 71 38 74 50 45
Total 15,997 13,630 18,790 31,391 57,005 72,120
Percentage non-Muslim 19.1 2.5 1.5 0.8 0.3 0.2

Ethnic minorities

Abdal

Groups of nomadic and semi-nomadic itinerants found mainly in central and western

Alevis.[21]

Afghans

Afghans are one of the largest irregular migrant groups in Turkey. From the period 2003–2007, the number of Afghans apprehended were significant, with statistics almost doubling during the last year. Most had fled the

War in Afghanistan. In 2005, refugees from Afghanistan numbered 300 and made a sizeable proportion of Turkey's registered migrants.[22] Most of them were spread out over satellite cities with Van and Ağrı being the most specific locations.[23] In the following years, the number of Afghans entering Turkey greatly increased, second only to migrants from Iraq; in 2009, there were 16,000 people designated under the Iraq-Afghanistan category. Despite a dramatic 50 percent reduction by 2010, reports confirmed hundreds living and working in Turkey.[24] As of January 2010, Afghans consisted one-sixth of the 26,000 remaining refugees and asylum seekers.[25]
By the end 2011, their numbers are expected to surge up to 10,000, making them the largest population and surpass other groups.

Africans

Beginning several centuries ago, a number of Africans, usually via

Albanians

A 2008 report from the

Turkish National Security Council (MGK) estimated that approximately 1.3 million people of Albanian ancestry live in Turkey, and more than 500,000 recognizing their ancestry, language and culture. There are other estimates, however, that place the number of people in Turkey with Albanian ancestry and or background upward to 5 million.[31]

However, these assumptions of the Turkish government are contested by many scholars who claim they are without any basis.[32][need quotation to verify]

Arabs

Arabs in Turkey number around 2 million, and they mostly live in provinces near the Syrian border, particularly the Hatay region, where they made up two fifths of the population in 1936.[33]

However, including recent Syrian refugees, they make up to 5.3%[

Antiochian Orthodox Church.[citation needed
]

Turkey experienced a large influx of Iraqis between the years of 1988 and 1991 due to both the

Gulf war,[34] with around 50,000 to 460,000 Iraqis entering the country.[35]

Syrians in Turkey include migrants from

refugees of the Syrian Civil War
.

Armenians