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For other uses of Turkish, see Turkish (disambiguation), and for the broader concept of Turkic-speaking ethnic groups, see Turkic peoples.

Turkish people
Türkler

60x70px 60x70px Osman I Mihrimah Sultana Suleiman the Magnificent Durru Shehvar Abdülmecid I Safiye Ali Mustafa Fehmi Kubilay Halide Edip Adıvar Mimar Kemaleddin Bey Feriha Tevfik 60x70px Namık Kemal Cahide Sonku Mustafa Kemal Atatürk Sabiha Gökçen Tevfik Fikret 60x70px Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ Elif Şafak Nuri Şahin Şebnem Ferah Orhan Pamuk
Total population
70 million[citation needed] (see also Turkish population & Turkish diaspora)
Regions with significant populations
Turkey 55,500,000-59,000,000 [1][2][3][4]  Germany 3,500,000-4,000,000 [5][6][7]  Iraq 500,000-3,000,000 [8][9][10]  Algeria 600,000-2,000,000 [11][12]  Syria 750,000-1,500,000 [13]  Bulgaria 588,000-750,000 [14][15]  France 500,000-1,000,000 [16][17]  United Kingdom 500,000a[›] [18][19][20]  United States 500,000 b[›] [21][22][23]  Netherlands 400,000-500,000 c[›] [24][25][26]  Austria 350,000-500,000 [27][28][29][30]  Northern Cyprus 300,000-500,000 d[›] [31][32]  Belgium 200,000 [33][34]  Macedonia 77,959-200,000 [35].[36][37]  Saudi Arabia 200,000 e[›] [38]  Australia 60,000-150,000 f[›] [39][40]  Greece 80,000-150,000 g[›] [41][42][43]  Kazakhstan 150,000 h[›] [44]  Russia 120,000-150,000 [45]  Switzerland 120,000 e[›] [46]  Azerbaijan 110,000 h[›] [44][47][48]  Sweden 100,000-150,000 i[›] [49][50]  Egypt 70,000-100,000 [51][52]  Denmark 70,000 [53]  Canada 50,000-100,000 [54][55][56]  Lebanon 50,000-80,000 [57][58]  Bosnia and Herzegovina 50,000 [59][59]  Kosovo 30,000-50,000 [59][60]  Kyrgyzstan 50,000 h[›] [44][61]  Romania 28,226-80,000 [62][63][64]  Italy 21,000 [65][66]  Norway 16,000 e[›] [67]
Languages
Turkish
Religion
Predominantly Islam
Related ethnic groups
Turkic peoples  · Anatolian peoples
Footnotes
^ a: According to the Home Affairs Committee this includes 300,000 Turkish Cypriots.[68] However, some estimates suggest that that the Turkish Cypriot community in the UK has reached between 350,000[69] to 400,000.[70][71] ^ b: Government immigration figures on the number of Turks in the US estimates a total of 190,000 persons;[72] however, these statistics are not fully reliable because a considerable number of Turks were born in the Balkans and USSR.[73] ^ c: A further 10,000-30,000 people from Bulgaria live in the Netherlands. The majority are Bulgarian Turks and are the fastest-growing group of immigrants in the Netherlands.[74] ^ d: This includes Turkish settlers. A further 2,000 Turkish Cypriots currently reside in the southern part of the island.[75] ^ e: This figure only includes Turkish citizens. Therefore, this also includes ethnic minorities from Turkey; however, it does not include ethnic Turks who have either been born and/or have become naturalised citizens. Furthermore, these figures do not include ethnic Turkish minorities from Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Iraq, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania or any other traditional area of Turkish settlement because they are registered as citizens from the country they have immigrated from rather than their ethnic Turkish identity. ^ f: A further 40,000-60,000 Turkish Cypriots live in Australia.[76][77][78] ^ g: This figure only includes Turks of Western Thrace. A further 5,000 live in the Rhodes and Kos.[79] In addition to this, 8,297 immigrants live in Greece.[80] ^ h: These figures only includes Meskhetian Turks. ^ i: A further 30,000 Bulgarian Turks live in Sweden.[81]

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" (Turkish: singular: Türk, plural: Türkler), are a nation and ethnic group primarily living in Turkey, and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities have been established in the Balkans, the island of Cyprus, the Levant, Meskhetia, and North Africa. The Turkish minorities are the second largest ethnic groups in Bulgaria and Cyprus. In addition, due to modern migration, a Turkish diaspora has been established, particularly in Western Europe (see Turks in Europe), where large communities have been formed in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. There are also Turkish communities living in Australia, the former Soviet Union and the United States.

Etymology[link]

Although Turkic languages may have been spoken as early as 600 BC,^[82] the name "Turk" first appeared in Chinese sources and derives from the term "Tujue" (T’u-chue), meaning "strong" or "powerful", which was used in the 6th century C.E. to refer to the Göktürks.^[83][84]

History[link]

Origins[link]

The homeland of the Turkic peoples is assumed to have been somewhere in the vicinity of Altai in Central Asia.^[85] The first nomadic empire founded in present day Mongolia was Xiongnu, sometimes identified as a candidate for the locus of proto-Turkic.^[86][87] The Turkic languages spread from its homeland over much of Central Asia and the Eurasian steppe during the Turkic migrations of the 6th to 11th centuries.^[88]

The Turkic migration reached the territory of what is now Turkey, by the 11th century. The Turkomen, Oghuz Turks who had been converted to Islam, were the main component of Turkic migration into Anatolia.^{[citation needed]} The process was accelerated after the Battle of Manzikert victory of Seljuk Turks against the Byzantines. Anatolia would be called Turchia in the West as early as the 12th century.^[89] The Mongols invaded Transoxiana, Iran, Azerbaijan and Anatolia; this caused Turkomens to move further to Western Anatolia.^[90] In the case of the migrations, the Turkic peoples assimilated some of the Indo-European peoples encountered; Tocharian as well as the numerous Iranian speakers across the Asiatic steppe were switched to the Turkic language, and ultimately Greek, the majority language of Anatolia, declined in favour of Turkish.^[91]

The question of to what extent a gene flow from Central Asia, via Persia, to Anatolia has contributed to the current gene pool of the Turkish people, and the role of the 11th century invasion by Seljuk Turks, has been the subject of several genetic studies. A 2010 publication by Prof. Inci Togan and co-workers based on mitochondrial and Y-chromosome DNA estimated a 13% Central Asian genetic contribution to Anatolia.^[92] A 2011 study reveals the impossibility of long-term, and continuing genetic contacts between Anatolia and Siberia, and confirms the presence of significant mitochondrial DNA and Y-chromosome divergence between this regions, with minimal admixture. The research confirms also the lack of mass migration with correlative archeological, historical, and linguistic data, and suggests that it was irregular punctuated migration events that engendered large-scale shifts in language and culture among Anatolia's diverse autochthonous inhabitants.^[93] According to 2012 study the Turkish genetic structure is unique and the ancestry of the Turks is 38% European, 35% Middle Eastern, 18% South Asian and 9% Central Asian.^[94]

Seljuk era[link]

The victory of the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Manzikert over the Byzantine Empire in 1071 allowed Turcoman tribesmen from Central Asia to push westward and settle in Anatolia.

The Seljuk Turks were a nomadic people from Central Asia who had converted to Sunni Islam and flourished as military mercenaries for the Abbasid caliphate, where they were known for their ability as mounted archers.^[95] Moving gradually into Persia and Armenia as the Abbasids weakened, by the eleventh century, the Seljuk Turks grew in number and were able to occupy the eastern province of the Abbasid Empire. In 1055 the Seljuk Empire captured Baghdad and in the course of the early 11th century the Turks made their first incursions into the edges of Anatolia.^[95] The victory of the Turks at the Battle of Manzikert, north of Lake Van, over the Byzantine Empire in 1071 opened the gates of Anatolia to the Seljuk Turks led by Alp Arslan.^[96] The Turkish language and Islam were introduced and gradually spread over the region and the slow transition from a predominantly Christian and Greek-speaking Anatolia to a predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking one was underway.^[96] In dire straits, the Byzantine Empire turned to the West for help setting in motion the pleas that led to the Crusades.^[97] Between 1096 and 1099 the First Crusade commenced, with the Crusaders taking Iznik, then crossing Anatolia and retaking Jerusalem. Driven from Iznik, the Seljuk Turks established the Sultanate of Rum from their new capital at Konya in 1097.^[96] The Muslim Turks lived alongside their Christian subjects relatively peacefully as they had been freed from the burden of heavy Byzantine taxes. Furthermore, many Christians converted to Islam to save themselves from further taxation.^[96] Moreover, other Turcoman tribes who had also swept into Anatolia at the same time as the Seljuk Turks retained their nomadic ways. These tribes were more numerous than the Seljuk Turks, and rejecting the sedentary lifestyle, adhered to an impregnated Islam with animism and shamanism from their central Asian steppeland origins, which then mixed with new Christian influences.^[96] From this popular and syncretist Islam, with its mystical and revolutionary aspects, sects such as the Alevis and Bektashis emerged. By 1243, at the Battle of Köse Dağ, the Mongols, who unlike the Turks were not Muslims,^[98] were victorious over the Seljuk Turks and became the new rulers of Anatolia, and in 1256, the second Mongol invasion of Anatolia caused widespread distruction. As the Mongols occupied more lands in Asia Minor, the Turks moved further to western Anatolia and settled in the Seljuk-Byzantine frontier.^[99] Particularly after 1277, political stability within the Seljuk territories rapidly disintegrated, leading to the strengthening of Turcoman principalities in the western and southern parts of Anatolia called the "beyliks".^[100]

Beyliks era[link]

When the Mongols defeated the Seljuk Turks at the Battle of Köse Dağ in 1243, Turcoman principalities (beyliks) emerged as autonomous fiefdoms.

Once the Seljuk Turks were defeated by the Mongol's conquest of Anatolia, the Turks became the vassal of the Ilkhans who established their own empire in the vast area stretching from present-day Afghanistan to Turkey.^[99] As the Mongols occupied more lands in Asia Minor, the Turks moved further to western Anatolia and settled in the Seljuk-Byzantine frontier. By the last decades of the 13th century, the Ilkhans and their Seljuk vassals lost control over much of Anatolia to these Turkoman peoples.^[99] A number of Turkish lords managed to establish themselves as rulers of various principalities, known as "Beyliks" or emirates. Amongst these beyliks, along the Aegean coast, from north to south, stretched the beyliks of Karasi, Saruhan, Aydin, Menteşe and Teke. Inland from Teke was Hamid and east of Karasi was the beylik of Germiyan. To the north-west of Anatolia, around Söğüt, was the small and, at this stage, insignificant, Ottoman beylik which was hemmed in to the east by other more substantial powers like Karaman, based on Iconium, which ruled from the Black Sea to the Mediterranean. Although the Ottomans were only a small principality among the numerous Turkish beyliks, and thus posed the smallest threat to the Byzantine authority, their location in north-western Anatolia, in the former Byzantine province of Bithynia, became a fortunate position for their future conquests. The Latins, who had conquered the city of Constantinople in 1204 during the Fourth Crusade, established a Latin Empire (1204–61), divided the former Byzantine territories in the Balkans and the Aegean among themselves, and forced the Byzantine Emperors into exile at Nicaea (present-day Iznik). From 1261 onwards, the Byzantines were largely preoccupied with regaining their control in the Balkans.^[99] Toward the end of the 13th century, as Mongol power began to decline, the Turcoman chiefs assumed greater independence.^[101]

Ottoman era[link]

The Ottoman Empire was a Turkish empire which lasted from 1299 to 1922.

Under its founder, Osman I, the Ottoman beylik expanded along the Sakarya River and westward towards the Sea of Marmara. Thus, the population of western Asia Minor had largely become Turkish-speaking and Muslim in religion.^[99] It was under his son, Orhan I, who had attacked and conquered the important urban center of Bursa in 1326, proclaiming it as the Ottoman capital, that the Ottoman Empire developed considerably. In 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and established a foothold on the Gallipoli Peninsula while at the same time pushing east and taking Ankara.^[102][103] Many Turks from Anatolia began to settle in the region abandoned by the inhabitants who had fled Thrace before the Ottoman invasion.^[104] However, the Byzantines were not the only ones to suffer from the Ottoman advancement for, in the mid-1330s, Orhan annexed the Turkish beylik of Karasi. This advancement was maintained by Orhan's son Murad I who more than tripled the territories under his direct rule, reaching some 100,000 square miles, evenly distributed in Europe and Asia Minor.^[105]

Gains in Anatolia were matched by those in Europe; once the Ottoman forces took Edirne (Adrianople), which became the capital of the Ottoman empire in 1365, they opened their way into Bulgaria and Macedonia in 1371 at the Battle of Maritsa.^[106] With the conquests of Thrace, Macedonia, and Bulgaria, significant numbers of Turkish emigrants settled in these regions.^[104] This form of Ottoman-Turkish colonization became a very effective method to consolidate their position and power in the Balkans. The colonizers consisted of soldiers, nomads, farmers, artisans and merchants, dervishes, preachers and other religious functionaries, and administrative personnel.^[107] While Ottoman attacks were launched into the kingdom of Bosnia and Serbia, Niš falling in 1385, further south, Ottoman forces were active in Greece, taking Thessaloniki in 1397. Under Murad's son, Bayezid I, the Ottoman state continued to expand. In Anatolia, the beyliks of Menteşe and Aydin fell to the Ottomans in 1389-90. In Europe, Bayzeid ultimately took Serbia and Ottoman forces moved into Bulgaria and Wallachia. This advancement resulted in a large crusading force which, in 1396, met the Ottoman forces in the Battle of Nicopolis, and was soundly defeated, thus effectively ending the era of Christian crusading to the east.^[106]

Half a century later, in 1453, Ottoman armies, under Sultan Mehmed II, conquered Constantinople.^[105] Mehmed reconstructed and repopulated the city, renaming it "Istanbul", and making it the new Ottoman capital.^[108] After the Fall of Constantinople, the Ottoman Empire entered a long period of conquest and expansion with its borders eventually going deep into Europe, the Middle East, and North Africa.^[109] Selim I dramatically expanded the empire’s eastern and southern frontiers in the Battle of Chaldiran. He established Ottoman rule in Egypt, Palestine, and Syria and gained recognition as the guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina.^[110] His successor, Suleiman the Magnificent, further expanded the conquests after capturing Belgrade in 1521 and using its territorial base to conquer Hungary, and other Central European territories, after his victory in the Battle of Mohács. Meanwhile, to the east, he pushed the frontiers of his empire by attacking Iran in 1535 and occupying Iraq and the Persian cities of Tabriz and Hamedan.^[111] Furthermore, the exploits of the Ottoman admiral Hayreddin Barbarossa included the conquest of Tunis and Algeria.^[105] Following Suleiman's death, Ottoman victories continued, albeit less frequently than before. The island of Cyprus was conquered, in 1571, bolstering Ottoman dominance over the sea routes of the eastern Mediterranean.^[112] However, after its defeat at the Battle of Vienna, in 1683, the Ottoman Empire started to stagnate. The army’s retreat was met by ambushes and further defeats, ending in the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz, which granted Austria the provinces of Hungary and Transylvania, and marked the first time in history that the Ottoman Empire actually relinquished territory.^[113]

By the 19th century, the empire began to decline when ethno-nationalist uprisings occurred across the empire. Thus, the last quarter of the 19th and the early part of the 20th century saw some 7-9 million Turkish-Muslim refugees from the lost territories of the Caucasus, Crimea, Balkans, and the Mediterranean islands migrated to Anatolia and Eastern Thrace.^[114] When World War I broke out, the Turks scored some success with Mustafa Kemal Pasha's legendary defence of Gallipoli at the Battle of the Dardanelles in 1915. However, in 1918, the Turks, represented by the Committee of Union and Progress, agreed to an armistice with England and France. The Treaty of Sèvres was signed in 1920 by the government of Mehmet VI which dismantled the Ottoman Empire. The Turks, under Mustafa Kemal, refused to accept the conditions of the treaty and fought for the Turkish War of Independence, resulting in the abolition of the Sultanate; thus, the 623-year old Ottoman Empire had come to an end.^[115]

Modern era[link]

Following the defeat of the Ottoman Empire in World War I, Mustafa Kemal Atatürk led the Turkish national movement in the Turkish War of Independence. The Turkish identity became the unifying force when, in 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed and the newly founded Republic of Turkey was formally established. Atatürk then embarked upon a program of political, economic, and cultural reforms, seeking to transform the Turkish homeland into a modern, westernized and secular nation-state.

Once Mustafa Kemal Atatürk led the Turkish War of Independence against the Allied Forces which were occupying the former Ottoman Empire, Atatürk united the Turkish-Muslim majority and successfully led them from 1919-22 in throwing the occupying forces out of what was considered to be the Turkish homeland.^[116] The Turkish identity became the unifying force when, in 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed and the newly founded Republic of Turkey was formally established. Atatürk's 15-year rule was marked by a series of radical reforms in order to transform Turkey into a secular, modern republic.^[117] Throughout the 1920s and the 1930s, Turks, as well as other Muslims, from the Balkans, the Black Sea, the Aegean islands, the island of Cyprus, the Sanjak of Alexandretta (Hatay), the Middle East, and the Soviet Union arrived in Turkey.^[118] The bulk of these immigrants were the Balkan Turks who faced harassment and discrimination in their homelands.^[118] Nonetheless, there were still remnants of a Turkish population in many of these countries, which the Turks had previously ruled, because the Turkish government wanted to preserve the Turkish communities in these regions so that the Turkish character of these neighbouring territories could be maintained.^[119]

Traditional areas of Turkish settlement[link]

Turkey[link]

Ethnic Turks make up between 70% to 90% of Turkey's population.^[4][120]

Balkans[link]

Cyprus[link]

The Turkish Cypriots are the ethnic Turks whose Ottoman Turkish forbears colonised the island of Cyprus in 1571. About 30,000 Turkish soldiers were given land once they settled in Cyprus, which bequeathed a significant Turkish community. In 1960, a census was conducted by the new Republic's government which revealed that the Turkish Cypriots formed 18.2% of the islands population.^[136] However, once inter-communal fighting and ethnic tensions between 1963 and 1974 occurred between the Turkish and Greek Cypriots, known as the "Cyprus conflict", the Greek Cypriot government conducted a census in 1973, albeit without the Turkish Cypriot populace. A year later, in 1974, the Cypriot government’s Department of Statistics and Research estimated the Turkish Cypriot population to be 118,000 (or 18.4%).^[137] A coup d'état in Cyprus on 15 July 1974 by Greek and Greek Cypriots favouring union with Greece (also known as "Enosis") was followed by military intervention by Turkey whose troops established Turkish Cypriot control over the northern part of the island.^[138] Hence, census's conducted by the Republic of Cyprus have excluded the Turkish Cypriot population which had been settled in the unrecognised Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus.^[137] Between 1975 and 1981, Turkey encouraged its own citizens to settle in Northern Cyprus; a 2010 report by the International Crisis Group suggests that out of the 300,000 residents living in Northern Cyprus perhaps half were either born in Turkey or are children of such settlers.^[31]

Levant[link]

Meskhetia[link]

The Meskhetian Turks are the ethnic Turks formerly inhabiting the Meskheti region of Georgia, along the border with Turkey. The Turkish presence in Meskhetia began with the Ottoman invasion of 1578,^[151] although Turkic tribes had settled in the region as early as the eleventh and twelfth centuries.^[151] Today, the Meskhetian Turks are widely dispersed throughout the former Soviet Union (as well as in Turkey and the United States) due to forced deportations during World War II. At the time, the Soviet Union was preparing to launch a pressure campaign against Turkey and Joseph Stalin wanted to clear the strategic Turkish population in Meskheti who were likely to be hostile to Soviet intentions.^[152] In 1944, the Meskhetian Turks were accused of smuggling, banditry and espionage in collaboration with their kin across the Turkish border;^[153] nationalistic policies at the time encouraged the slogan: "Georgia for Georgians" and that the Meskhetian Turks should be sent to Turkey "where they belong".^[154][155] Approximately 115,000 Meskhetian Turks were deported to Central Asia and only a few hundred have been able to return to Georgia ever since.^[154]

North Africa[link]

Modern diaspora[link]

Europe[link]

Current estimates suggests that there is approximately 9 million Turks living in Europe, excluding those who live in Turkey.^[159] Modern immigration of Turks to Western Europe began with Turkish Cypriots migrating to the United Kingdom in the early 1920s when the British Empire annexed Cyprus in 1914 and the residents of Cyprus became subjects of the Crown. However, Turkish Cypriot migration increased significantly in the 1940s and 1950s due to the Cyprus conflict. Conversely, in 1944, Turks who were forcefully deported from Meskheti in Georgia during the Second World War, known as the Meskhetian Turks, settled in Eastern Europe (especially in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine). By the early 1960s, migration to Western and Northern Europe increased significantly from Turkey when Turkish "guest workers" arrived under a "Labour Export Agreement" with Germany in 1961, followed by a similar agreement with the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria in 1964; France in 1965; and Sweden in 1967.^{[160][161][162]} More recently, Bulgarian Turks, Romanian Turks, and Western Thrace Turks have also migrated to Western Europe.

North America[link]

Compared to Turkish immigration to Europe, migration to North America has been relatively small. According to the 2000 United States Census and the 2006 Canadian Census, 117,575 Americans^[163] and 43,700 Canadians^[164] claimed Turkish descent. However, the actual number of Turks in both countries is considerably larger, as a significant number of ethnic Turks have migrated to North America not just from Turkey but also from the Balkans (such as Bulgaria and Macedonia), Cyprus, and the former Soviet Union.^[73] Hence, the Turkish American community is currently estimated to number about 500,000^[23][21] whilst the Turkish Canadian community is believed to number between 50,000-100,000.^[55][56] The largest concentration of Turkish Americans are in New York City, and Rochester, New York; Washington, D.C.; and Detroit, Michigan. The majority of Turkish Canadians live in Ontario, mostly in Toronto, and there is also a sizable Turkish community in Montreal. With regards to the 2010 United States Census, the U.S government was determined to get an accurate count of the American population by reaching segments, such as the Turkish community, that are considered "hard to count", a good portion of which falls under the category of foreign-born immigrants.^[22] The Assembly of Turkish American Associations and the US Census Bureau formed a partnership to spearhead a national campaign to count people of Turkish origin with an organisation entitled "Census 2010 SayTurk" (which has a double meaning in Turkish, "Say" means "to count" and "to respect") to identify the estimated 500,000 Turks now living in the United States.^[22]

Oceania[link]

A notable scale of Turkish migration to Australia began in the late 1940s when Turkish Cypriots began to leave the island of Cyprus for economic reasons, and then, during the Cyprus conflict, for political reasons, marking the beginning of a Turkish Cypriot immigration trend to Australia.^[165] The Turkish Cypriot community were the only Muslims acceptable under the White Australia Policy;^[166] many of these early immigrants found jobs working in factories, out in the fields, or building national infrastructure.^[167] In 1967, the governments of Australia and Turkey signed an agreement to allow Turkish citizens to immigrate to Australia.^[168] Prior to this recruitment agreement, there were less than 3,000 people of Turkish origin in Australia.^[169] According to the Australian Bureau of Statistics, nearly 19,000 Turkish immigrants arrived from 1968-1974.^[168] They came largely from rural areas of Turkey, approximately 30% were skilled and 70% were unskilled workers.^[170] However, this changed in the 1980s when the number of skilled Turks applying to enter Australia had increased considerably.^[170] Over the next 35 years the Turkish population rose to almost 100,000.^[169] More than half of the Turkish community settled in Victoria, mostly in the north-western suburbs of Melbourne.^[169] According to the 2006 Australian Census, 59,402 people claimed Turkish ancestry;^[39] however, this does not show a true reflection of the Turkish Australian community as it is estimated that between 40,000 to 60,000 Turkish Cypriots^[76][77][78] and 150,000 to 200,000 mainland Turks^[171][172] live in Australia. Furthermore, there has also been ethnic Turks who have migrated to Australia from Bulgaria,^[173] Greece,^[174] Iraq,^[175] and the Republic of Macedonia.^[174]

Former Soviet Union[link]

On 15 November 1944, the then President of the Soviet Union, Joseph Stalin, ordered the deportation of over 115,000 Meskhetian Turks from their homeland,^[176] and were secretly driven from their homes and herded onto rail cars, thousands of which died of hunger, thirst and cold as a direct result of the deportations and the deprivations suffered in exile.^[177][178] As opposed to the other nationalities who had been deported during WWII, no reason was given for the deportation of the Meskhetian Turks, which remained secret until 1968.^[152] The Soviet government finally recognised that the Meskhetian Turks had been deported in 1968 and the reason for the deportation was because, in 1944, the Soviet Union was preparing to launch a pressure campaign against Turkey.^[152] In June 1945 Vyacheslav Molotov, who was then Minister of Foreign Affairs, presented a demand to the Turkish Ambassador in Moscow for the surrender of three Anatolia provinces (Kars, Ardahan and Artvin).^[152] As Moscow was also preparing to support Armenian claims to several other Anatolian provinces, war against Turkey seemed possible, and Joseph Stalin wanted to clear the strategic Georgian-Turkish border where the Meskhetian Turks were settled and who were likely to be hostile to such Soviet intentions.^[152] According to the 1989 Soviet Census, 106,000 Meskhetian Turks lived in Uzbekistan, 50,000 in Kazakhstan, and 21,000 in Kyrgyzstan.^[176] However, in 1989, the Meshetian Turks who had settled in Uzbekistan became the target of a pogrom in the Fergana valley, which was the principal destination for Meskhetian Turkish deportees, after an uprising of nationalism in Uzbekistan.^[176] The riots had left hundreds of Meskhetian Turks dead or injured and nearly 1,000 properties were destroyed and thousands of Meskhetian Turks were forced into renewed exile.^[176] The majority of Meskhetian Turks, about 70,000, went to Azerbaijan, whilst the remainder went to various regions of Russia (especially Krasnodar Krai), Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, and Ukraine.^[176][179] Soviet authorities recorded many Meskhetian Turks as belonging to other nationalities such as "Azeri", "Kazakh", "Kyrgyz", and "Uzbek".^[176][180] Hence, official census's have not shown a true reflection of the Turkish population; for example, according to the 2009 Azerbaijani census, there were 38,000 Turks living in the country;^[181] yet in 1999, the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees stated that there were 100,000 Meskhetian Turks living in the country.^[47] Furthermore, in 2001, the Baku Institute of Peace and Democracy suggested that there was between 90,000 to 110,000 Meskhetian Turks living in Azerbaijan.^[48]

Language[link]

The Turkish language is natively spoken by the Turkish people in Turkey, Bulgaria, the island of Cyprus, Greece (primarily in Western Thrace), Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, Meskhetia, Romania, and other areas of traditional settlement which were formerly (in whole or part) belonged to the Ottoman Empire. Turkish is the official language of Turkey and is one of the official languages of Cyprus. It also has official (but not primary) status in the Prizren District of Kosovo and several municipalities of the Republic of Macedonia, depending on the concentration of Turkish-speaking local population. Modern standard Turkish is based on the dialect of Istanbul.^[182] Nonetheless, dialectal variation persists, in spite of the levelling influence of the standard used in mass media and the Turkish education system since the 1930s.^[183] The terms ağız or şive are often used to refer to the different types of Turkish dialects (such as Cypriot Turkish).

Anatolian Turkish dialects[link]

There are three major Anatolian Turkish dialect groups spoken in Turkey: the West Anatolian dialect (roughly to the west of the Euphrates), the East Anatolian dialect (to the east of the Euphrates), and the North East Anatolian group, which comprises the dialects of the Eastern Black Sea coast, such as Trabzon, Rize, and the littoral districts of Artvin.^[184][185]

Balkan Turkish dialects[link]

The Turkish language was introduced to the Balkans by Turkish colonists during the rule of the Ottoman Empire.^[186] Today, Turkish is still spoken by the Turkish minorities who are still living in the region, especially in Bulgaria, Greece (mainly in Western Thrace), Kosovo, the Republic of Macedonia, and Romania.^[187] Despite some contact phenomena, especially in the lexicon, the Balkan Turkish dialects are considerably closer to standard Turkish and do not differ significantly from it.^[188]

Cypriot Turkish dialect[link]

The Turkish language was introduced to Cyprus with the Ottoman conquest in 1571 and became the politically dominant, prestigious language, of the administration.^[189] In the post-Ottoman period, Cypriot Turkish was relatively isolated from standard Turkish and had strong influences by the Cypriot Greek dialect. The condition of coexistence with the Greek Cypriots led to a certain bilingualism whereby Turkish Cypriots knowledge of Greek was important in areas where the two communities lived and worked together.^[190] The linguistic situation changed radically in 1974, when the island was divided into a Greek south and a Turkish north (Northern Cyprus). Today, the Cypriot Turkish dialect is being exposed to increasing standard Turkish through immigration from Turkey, new mass media, and new educational institutions.^[189]

Meskhetian Turkish dialect[link]

The Meskhetian Turks speak an Eastern Anatolian dialect of Turkish, which hails from the regions of Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin.^[191] The Meskhetian Turkish dialect has also borrowed from other languages (including Azerbaijani, Georgian, Kazakh, Kyrgyz, Russian, and Uzbek) which the Meskhetian Turks have been in contact with during the Russian and Soviet rule.^[191]

Turkish within the diaspora[link]

Due to a large Turkish diaspora, significant Turkish-speaking communities also reside in countries such as Australia, Austria, Azerbaijan, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, El Salvador, Finland, France, Germany, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, the Netherlands, Russia, Sweden, Switzerland, Ukraine, the United Arab Emirates, the United Kingdom, and the United States.^[192] However, because of cultural assimilation of Turkish immigrants and their descendants in host countries, not all ethnic Turks speak the Turkish language with native fluency.^[193]

Religion[link]

References and notes[link]