The Turkish people, or the Turks, (Turkish: Türkler), are a Turkic ethnic group primarily living in Turkey, and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities have been established. The area now called Turkey has been inhabited since the paleolithic, and housed various Ancient Anatolian civilizations and peoples of Thrace during Antiquity. Modern Turkish people largely descend from these ancient indigenous Anatolian groups, but their ancestry includes neighboring peoples (e.g., Balkans and Caucasus) and Turkic peoples, albeit to a small degree. They speak a Turkic language (the Turkish language), which was adopted by the local populations who predominantly had spoken Indo-European languages prior to a cultural transformation that took place after the invasion of a Turkic-speaking minority from Central Asia. Turkic languages may date back to 600 BCE, and the first mention of the ethnonym "Turk" may date from Herodotus' reference to "Targitas" or from Classical Latin references to people in the forests north of the Sea of Azov. Chinese sources in the sixth century also use "Tujue" to refer to the Göktürks. However, the arrival of Seljuk Turks also brought the Turkish language and Islam into Anatolia in the 11th century, which started the Turkification of various peoples in the region. The Ottoman beylik united Anatolia, which had been previously divided among dozens of small Anatolian beyliks, starting from the late 13th century and created the Ottoman Empire. Turkish identity strengthened with the rise of nationalism under the Ottoman Empire, and the migration of some 7--9 million Turkish Muslim refugees from the lost territories of the Caucasus, Crimea, Balkans, and the Mediterranean islands into Anatolia and Eastern Thrace during the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish nationalism consolidated with the Turkish War of Independence and the subsequent proclamation of the Republic of Turkey. Turkey has a very diverse culture that is a blend of various elements of the Oghuz Turkic, indigenous Anatolian, Greek, Islamic, Ottoman, and Western cultures. Due to the Ottoman past, the Turkish minorities are the second largest ethnic groups in Bulgaria and Cyprus. In addition, as a result of modern migration, a Turkish diaspora has been established, particularly in Western Europe , where large communities have been formed in Austria, Belgium, France, Germany, Switzerland, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom. There are also significant Turkish communities living in Australia, the former Soviet Union and North America. The ethnonym "Turk" may be first mentioned in Herodotus' (c. 484--425 BCE) work "Targitas"; furthermore, during the first century CE., Pomponius Mela refers to the "Turcae" in the forests north of the Sea of Azov, and Pliny the Elder lists the "Tyrcae" among the people of the same area. The first definite reference to the "Turks" come mainly from Chinese sources in the sixth century. In these sources, "Turk" appears as "Tujue" (Chinese: 突厥; Wade--Giles: T'u-chüe), which referred to the Göktürks. Although "Turk" refers to Turkish people, it may also sometimes refer to the wider language group of Turkic peoples. In the 19th century, the word Türk only referred to Anatolian villagers. The Ottoman elite identified themselves as Ottomans, not usually as Turks. In the late 19th century, as the Ottoman elite adopted European ideas of nationalism—and as it became clear that the Turkish-speakers of Anatolia were the most loyal supporters of Ottoman rule—the term Türk took on a much more positive connotation. In Ottoman times, the millet system defined communities on a religious basis, and a residue of this remains in that Turkish villagers commonly consider as Turks only those who profess the Sunni faith, and consider Turkish-speaking Jews, Christians, or even Alevis non-Turks. On the other hand, Kurdish-speaking or Arabic-speaking Sunnis of eastern Anatolia are sometimes considered Turks. The imprecision of the appellation Türk can also be seen with other ethnic names, such as Kürt (Kurd), which is often applied by western Anatolians to anyone east of Adana, even those who speak only Turkish. In recent years, centrist Turkish politicians have attempted to redefine this category in a more multi-cultural way, emphasizing that a Türk is anyone who is a citizen of the Republic of Turkey. Currently, article 66 of the Turkish Constitution defines a "Turk" as anyone who is "bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship." Currently, a new constitution is being written, which may address citizenship and ethnicity issues Anatolia was first inhabited by hunter-gatherers during the Paleolithic era, and in antiquity was inhabited by various ancient Anatolian peoples. After Alexander the Great's conquest in 334 BC, the area was Hellenized, and -by the first century BC- it is generally thought that the native Anatolian languages had become extinct.

• published: 25 Jan 2014
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