 Turkish Canadians at theVictoria Day Parade in 2005 | |
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| 76,745 (by ancestry,2021 Census)[1] Over 100,000 Turkish Canadians (2018 estimate by Canadian Ambassador Chris Cooter)[2] | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Languages | |
| Religion | |
| PredominantlySunni Islam MinorityAlevism, Other religions, orIrreligious |
| Part ofa series of articles on |
| Turkish people |
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Traditional Areas of Turkish Settlement Turkish majorities:
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Turkish Canadians (Turkish:Türk asıllı Kanadalılar; literally "Turkish-originating Canadians"), also calledCanadian Turks (Turkish:Kanadalı Türkler), areCanadians ofTurkish descent. The majority descend from theRepublic of Turkey andminorities from other post-Ottoman Empire states, including theBalkans (Bulgaria,Greece,Kosovo,North Macedonia andRomania), the island ofCyprus, the Levant (Iraq,Lebanon andSyria) andNorth Africa (especiallyEgypt).[3][4]
Turkish people first began to immigrate toCanada in small numbers from theOttoman Empire, and significantly in the late 1950s and early 1960s when theTurkish government encouraged student education abroad.[5] There have also been Turks fleeing from unrest and oppression inBulgaria andCyprus who arrived in Canada aspolitical andeconomicrefugees.[5]
In 1901, Canada had between 300–400Muslim residents, equally divided betweenTurks andSyrian Arabs.[6] By 1911, the size of the Muslim community had increased to about 1,500, of whom 1,000 were ofTurkish origin and the remainder wereArabs.[6] During the pre-World War I period, Turks were to be found inmining andlogging camps across Canada.[7] Due to poor relations between the Ottomans andAllied Powers of WWI, further migration was made difficult for the Turks and the Canadian government discouraged "Asian" immigration.[7] Thus, by the onset of World War I, Canada witnessed the return of many Turkish immigrants who were then classified as "enemy aliens".[6] Another reason for the return-migration of Ottoman Turks was because for the majority of Turks, the founding of the new republic of Turkey in 1923 was a greater incentive to stay at home.[7]
With the Canadian Immigration Act of 1910, immigrating to the country was banned. This policy wasn't changed until 1978. The reason behind thisxenophobic act was the government’s claim that immigrants were hard toassimilate.[8] The 1919, 14 March Act banned people ofGerman,Hungarian,Bulgarian,Austrian and Turkish backgrounds from immigrating to Canada, except if the Minister of Immigration didn't give special permission. This prohibition was strictly racial and wasn’t related to Enemy Alien prohibition.[8][9] This nativism lasted four years till the ban was lifted because the Canadian economy needed cheapimmigrant labour.[10]
The Ottoman Empire declaredwar on Britain in November 5, 1914. Only five days later, on November 10, 1914, 98 Turks were deported and settled inKingston and then inKapuskasing. Their number increased over time.[11] They weren’t the only “enemy aliens” subjected to internment. More than 8,500 people were placed in 24 camps during the war. Of them 205 were Turks.[12][13][14] Most were from theEastern Anatolia region'sHarput.[15] Many foreigners have been interned for wanting to leave Canada, which in the eyes of the government posed a threat. Others were sent to the camps because they had suspicious activities.[12] The number of these foreigners was not small at all — they numbered 393,320. 3,880 of them were from the Ottoman Empire.[10]
According to the newspapers, the reason for the detention of the Turks was the government's desire to protect 400Armenians living inBrantford, where the majority of the Turkish population was concentrated. The Armenians were worried that the Turks would attack them.[16] It is possible that a letter from the Armenian missionary of Brantford, Armen Amirkhanian, influenced the city council. He wrote to Brantford City Council, claiming that Armenians were loyal to Britain, and that they were not ethnic Turks. He also mentionedthe massacres that took place, and that the Armenians suffered a lot because of the Turks. His letter showed results and news of Armenians loyal to Britain that appearеd in the newspapers.[17] According to other newspapers, Turks in the city had tried to bomb a newly created post office. The truth of this statement is debatable, as many Turks in Canada couldn't even read or write.[16]
Apart from ethnic Armenians, other Ottoman citizens, such as the OrthodoxMacedonians andGreeks were also not deported.[11][18] Also, many of these Turks left Eastern Anatolia to earn enough money to buy land in their homeland and live in their native places.[19] Despite these misunderstandings, the Armenian community, also from Harput, tried to help these Turks.[15] Even theTurks in America,Massachusetts, hired two lawyers to bring the Canadian Turks to America, but their attempts were unsuccessful.[15] Although Turkey, as soon as it learned of what was happening, tried to help its compatriots, its attempts were unsuccessful, especially after the Turks were banned from sending letters to the Ottoman Empire, even to their families, on November 25.[18]
At least three of those detained died, two went insane,[11] six returned to Turkey and 43 remained in Canada. Another part immigrated to America,Michigan, where they worked in the Ford factory. The name of one of the dead is Alex Hassan, whose real name is most likely Ali Hassan, but the Canadians changed his name for easier pronunciation.[20][16] They served in the construction of the camp in which they remained. But some of them were later released, with the obligation to work, as during the war, the economy of factories increased and the government needed manpower.[15] The names ofsome of 16 Muslims in Mount Hope Cemetery are believed to belong to them. Five of them died in 1916 and 1918.[21] In 2014, the Turkish consul of Canada visited the cemetery. Some people, especially the Canadian-Armenian community had claimed that it is a political act and createdonline petition to “stop the fake monument”.
The Muslim plot of the Mount Hope cemetery exists since 1912 and seven names belong to men that died before the 1914 events. Many added that before a century, everyone in the Ottoman empire was known as “Turk”. Seven of the graves belonged to men that died before the 1914 events. These actions tried to prevent a memorial plaque describing the events of 1914 from being erected on the site. According to an Armenian, “identifying (those buried in the plot) with Turkey and the Turkish government would be an injustice.” He also claimed that the buried people are actuallyAlevi Muslims, “the idea of having a monument endorsed by the Turkish government that incorrectly labels Alevi as though they were Turks is a “real injustice”,[22] For many this was aTurcophobic act. There were claims that this was similar to theArmenian genocide denial. Barçın Yinanç wrote "it would have been much wiser to come and attend the ceremony and perhaps give messages or letters to the Turkish ambassador, asking the Turkish state to show the same sensitivity to the thousands of dead Armenians".[13]
In the late 1950s and early 1960s, the government ofTurkey encouraged and financially supported Turkish students to study in Canada.[5] Thus, the early 1960s consisted primarily of students and professionals, especially doctors and engineers.[23] Significant Turkish immigration began during the 1960s and 1970s; most Turks went to Canada for educational and economic opportunities.[23] According to the 1972 Canada census there were 9,342 Turkish-born persons living in Canada.
In the 1980sTurkish Bulgarians were fleeing from theBulgarisation policies, known as the so-called "Revival Process", which targeted the Turkish minority group; consequently, many arrived in Canada as refugees.[7] In addition, Turkish Bulgarian refugees who had originally settled inSweden and then returned to Bulgaria in the 1990s were forced to flee again and sought life in Western countries such as Canada,England, theUnited States,Turkey andGermany.[24]
There have been several waves of migration from theTurkish minority of Western Thrace to Canada.[25] The first wave of Turkish Western Thracian migration started in the 1960s and intensified between 1970-2010 due to political and economic reasons; this was followed by a significantly larger wave in 2010-18 due to theGreek government-debt crisis.[25][26]
According to Dr Eleanor Bujea, the early history of Turkish Romanians in Canada (which began in the 1910s) is similar to that of Jewish Romanians. Many initially homesteaded and raised their families on farms whilst some went into the grocery businesses or opened street carts. After theFirst World War, many of these people moved to large cities where some intermarried and assimilated.[27]
During the 1950s,Turkish Cypriots started to leaveCyprus for political reasons when theGreek Cypriots held a referendum in which 95.7% of Greek Cypriots supportedenosis, the union of Cyprus withGreece. By 1963, inter-ethnic fighting broke out inCyprus, withTurkish Cypriots bearing the heavier cost in terms of casualties and some 25,000 Turkish Cypriots became internally displaced accounting to about a fifth of their population.[28] Tension continued to grow by the late 1960s and approximately 60,000 Turkish Cypriots left their homes and moved into enclaves due to intercommunal violence, fearing their safety as the minority on the island..[29] This resulted in anexodus of more Turkish Cypriots from the island, many migrating toCanada.[30]
In 2010 there was approximately 1,000Iraqi Turks living in Canada.[31]
SinceJustin Trudeau was elected asPrime Minister of Canada in 2015, over 25,000 Syrianrefugees have settled in Canada; these have included Arabs,Syrian Kurds andSyrian Turks as well as other minority groups.[32][33]
The following is the number of people who have voluntarily declared their ethnicity as "Turkish" in official censuses. The actual number of Turkish Canadians is believed to be considerably higher.[4]
| Rank | Provinces/territories | Population (2001 census)[34] | Population (2006 census)[35] | Population (2016 census)[36] |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1 |  Ontario | 14,580 | 23,425 | 34,165 |
| 2 |  Quebec | 5,680 | 11,390 | 15,060 |
| 3 |  British Columbia | 2,395 | 4,250 | 6,355 |
| 4 |  Alberta | 1,515 | 2,970 | 5,745 |
| 5 |  Nova Scotia | 190 | 425 | 690 |
| 6 |  Saskatchewan | 105 | 400 | 860 |
| 7 |  Manitoba | 275 | 345 | 655 |
| 8 |  New Brunswick | 125 | 275 | 235 |
| 9 |  Newfoundland and Labrador | 35 | 135 | 100 |
| 10 |  Northwest Territories | 10 | 65 | 15 |
| 11 |  Yukon | 0 | 10 | 30 |
| 12 |  Nunavut | 0 (10 Multiple responses) | 0 | 15 |
| 13 |  Prince Edward Island | 0 | 0 | 35 |
| Total |  Canada | 24,910 | 43,700 | 63,955 |
| (Source: 2001, 2006 and 2016 Canadian Census') | ||||
In 2018 the Canadian Ambassador, Chris Cooter, said that there was approximately 100,000 Turkish Canadians living in the country, as well as several thousand Turkish students:
We have a growingTurkish diaspora and they’re doing very well in Canada. We think it’s 100,000, largely inToronto. We have several thousand Turkish students in Canada as well. We are trying to make sure that two-way relationship is growing. – Canadian Ambassador Chris Cooter (2018)[2]
In 2019 the "Federation of Chinese Canadians in Markham" also reported that there was over 100,000 Turkish Canadians in the country.[37]
The majority of Turkish Canadians areSunnis with minorities beingAlevis and people generally do not have any religious affiliation. Prior to 1980, Turkish Canadian immigrants were fromurban areas andsecular backgrounds.[38] Religion remained an affair of the private conscience.[38] In May 1983, the Canadian Turkish Islamic Heritage Association (Kanada Türk İslam Kültür Derneği) was established, followed by the Canadian Turkish Islamic Trust (Kanada Türk İslam Vakfı) in April 1987.[38]
Turkish Canadians are generally fluent inTurkish, but may speak anAnglicizeddialect,slang, or version, informally called "Türkilizce". This unofficial, informal dialect is common among younger Canadian Turks, and is characterized by the addition of English loanwords to otherwise completely Turkish conversations (for example, the Turkish translation of "to schedule" would be "tarih belirlemek", but a Türkilizce speaker would say "schedule etmek").[40][41][42][43]
Since 2005,Nile Academy, a private, secular school[55] run by Turkish administration linked to a nonprofit organization called Canadian Turkish Friendship Community,[56] has grown exponentially over the years. Within eleven years, they managed to open their 3rd[57] school within Ontario. They have also opened a dormitory located near Jane Street and Eglinton Avenue West, Toronto. Throughout the years,Nile Academy has competed in Turkish Language Olympiads and many wrestling tournaments in Ontario.[58]
In the mid 2010s,Nile Academy closed its main dormitory, and merged its three campuses into a single one, located in theHumber Summit neighbourhood of Toronto.[59]
Nile Academy is also linked with the Islamic cleric, author, and scholar,Fethullah Gülen as well as theGülen Movement.[60] They have had many notable alumni[61] since they opened in 2005.
Since the 1960s, many community organizations have appeared representing various groups ofTurkish immigrants. The various associations acrossCanada are currently represented by the "Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations", an umbrella organization founded in the mid-1980s.[62] The federation serves as a referral and communications centre for news ofTurkey, local events, business and governmental inquiries, and intergroup relations. More recently, a similar Turkish Cypriot umbrella group, the "Federation of Turkish Cypriot Associations of Canada", was established; the "Canadian Association for Solidarity of Turks from Bulgaria" also forms part of the federation.[62]
The Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations is an umbrella organization representing 17 member associations from Victoria to Quebec, which include approximately 50,000 Canadians of Turkish origin. The federation was established in 1985 and is a non-profit organization with no political affiliations. It supports and encourages activities that deal with important cultural, economic, educational, historical, social and religious issues that relate to the Turkish community in Canada.
Turkish diaspora of some 100,000 Turks largely in Toronto is growing, says Canadian Ambassador Chris Cooter ... We have a growing Turkish diaspora and they're doing very well in Canada. We think it's 100,000, largely in Toronto. We have several thousand Turkish students in Canada as well.
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{{cite journal}}:Cite journal requires|journal= (help){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link){{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)De flesta av flyktingarna tvingades återvända men få av dem finns i dag kvar i Bulgarien. De har istället flytt på nytt och sökt ett liv i västländer som Kanada, England, USA, Turkiet eller Tyskland.
Avustralya ve Amerika Birleşik Devletleri, Kanada gibi uzak ülkelerin dışında aralarında Hollanda, İngiltere, İsveç, Fransa, Belçika ve Avusturya gibi ülkelerde de sayısı yadsınamayacak bir Batı Trakyalı Türk kitlesi yaşamaktadır.
Kerkük Vakfı Genel Sekreteri Prof. Dr. Suphi Saatçi'nin verdiği rakamlara göre, yaklaşık olarak Kanada'da 1000, Danimarka'da 2000, Hollanda'da ise 4000'e yakın Türkmen'in yaşadığı ve Türkiye üzerinden bu ülkelere göç ettiği bilinmektedir..
With over 100,000 Turkish Canadians in Canada,...
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