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 theOttoman 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 differentmillet ("nations").^[3]

Following the end ofWorld War I and thedissolution of the Ottoman Empire, all Ottoman Muslims were made part of the modern citizenry or theTurkish nation as thenewly foundedRepublic of Turkey was constituted as a Muslimnation state. WhileTurkish nationalist policy viewed allMuslims in Turkey asTurks without exception, non-Muslim minority groups, such as Jews and Christians, were designated as "foreign nations" (dhimmi).^[4] Conversely,Turk (term for Muslims) was used to denote all groups in the region who had beenIslamized under Ottoman rule, especially MuslimAlbanians and Slavic Muslims.^[3]

The 1923Treaty of Lausanne specifiedArmenians,Greeks andJews andChristians in general asethnic minorities (dhimmi). This legal status was not granted to Muslim minorities, such as theKurds, which constituted the largest minority by a wide margin, nor any of the other minorities in the country. In modernTurkey, data on the ethnic makeup of the country is not officially collected, although various estimates exist. All Muslim citizens are still regarded asTurks by law, regardless of their ethnicity or language, in contrast to non-Muslim minorities, who are still grouped as "non-Turks"; the largest ethnic minority, the Kurds, who are predominantly Muslim, are therefore still classified as simply "Turks".^{[4][5][6][7][8]}Bulgarians are also an officially recognized minority by theTurkey-Bulgaria Friendship Treaty (Türkiye ve Bulgaristan Arasındaki Dostluk Antlaşması) of 18 October 1925 but in the present day there are only a few hundred Bulgarians in Turkey.^[7][9][10] On 18 June 2013, the Ankara 13th Circuit Administrative Court unanimously ruled that the Assyrians were included as beneficiaries of the Lausanne Treaty,^[11][b] so that Assyrians were allowed to open the first school teaching in their mother tongue.^[12][13]

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 includeArabs,Albanians,Bosniaks,Circassians,Chechens,Abkhazians,Crimean Tatars,Laz,Hemshin Armenians, Kurds,Pomaks,Turkish Roma, andPontic Greeks, among other smaller groups likeDom,Lom,Vallahades,Greek Muslims,Cretan Muslims,Nantinets,Imerkhevians. Many of the non-Turkish Muslim minorities are descendants of Muslims (muhajirs) who were expelled from the lands lost by the shrinking Ottoman Empire, like the Balkans and Caucasus Mountains.^[14][15][16] 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 thePomaks.Turkification and often aggressiveTurkish nationalist policies strengthen these trends.^{[citation needed]}

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Groups of nomadic and semi-nomadic itinerants found mainly in central and westernAnatolia. They speak anargot of their own and areAlevis.^[20]

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 theWar in Afghanistan. In 2005, refugees from Afghanistan numbered 300 and made a sizeable proportion of Turkey's registered migrants.^[21] Most of them were spread out over satellite cities withVan andAğrı being the most specific locations.^[22] 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.^[23] As of January 2010, Afghans consisted one-sixth of the 26,000 remaining refugees and asylum seekers.^[24] By the end 2011, their numbers are expected to surge up to 10,000, making them the largest population and surpass other groups.

Beginning several centuries ago, a number of Africans, usually viaZanzibar asZanj and from places such asNiger,Saudi Arabia,Libya,Kenya andSudan,^[25] came to theOttoman Empire settled by theDalaman,Menderes andGediz valleys,Manavgat, andÇukurova. African quarters of 19th-centuryİzmir, including Sabırtaşı, Dolapkuyu, Tamaşalık, İkiçeşmelik, and Ballıkuyu, are mentioned in contemporary records.^[26] Due to theslave trade in theOttoman Empire that had flourished in theBalkans, the coastal town ofUlcinj inMontenegro had its own black community.^[27] As a consequence of the slave trade andprivateer activity, it is told how until 1878 in Ulcinj 100 black people lived.^[28] TheOttoman Army also deployed an estimated 30,000 Black African troops and cavalrymen to its expedition inHungary during theAustro-Turkish War of 1716–18.^[29]

A 2008 report from theTurkish 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.^[30]

However, these assumptions of the Turkish government are contested by many scholars who claim they are without any basis.^{[31][need quotation to verify]}

Arabs in Turkey number around 2 million, and they mostly live in provinces near the Syrian border, particularly theHatay region, where they made up two fifths of the population in 1936.^[32]

However, including recent Syrian refugees, they make up to 5.3%^{[citation needed]} of the population. Most of them areSunni Muslims.^{[citation needed]} However, there is a small group ofAlawis, and another one ofArab Christians (mostly inHatay Province) in communion with theAntiochian Orthodox Church.^{[citation needed]}

Turkey experienced a large influx of Iraqis between the years of 1988 and 1991 due to both theIran–Iraq War and the firstGulf War,^[33] with around 50,000 to 460,000 Iraqis entering the country.^[34]

Syrians in Turkey include migrants fromSyria toTurkey, as well as their descendants. The number of Syrians in Turkey is estimated at over 3.58 million people as of April 2018,^[35] and consists mainly ofrefugees of the Syrian Civil War.

Armenians are indigenous to theArmenian Highlands which correspond to the eastern half of modern-day Turkey, the Republic of Armenia, southern Georgia, western Azerbaijan, and northwestern Iran. Although the wordArmenia was banned from being used in the press, schoolbooks, and governmental establishments in Turkey in 1880 and although it was subsequently replaced with words like eastern Anatolia or northern Kurdistan, Armenians had maintained much of their cultural heritage.^{[36][37][38][39][40]} The Armenian population of Turkey was greatly reduced following theHamidian massacres and theArmenian genocide, when over one and a half million Armenians, virtually the entire Armenian population of Anatolia, were massacred. Prior to the start of the Genocide in 1915, the Armenian population of Turkey numbered about 1,914,620.^[41][42] The Armenian community of the Ottoman Empire before the Armenian genocide had an estimated 2,300 churches and 700 schools (with 82,000 students).^[43] This figure excludes churches and schools which belonged to the Protestant and Catholic Armenian parishes because the only churches and schools which were counted were the churches and schools which were under the jurisdiction of the Istanbul Armenian Patriarchate and the Apostolic Church.^[43] After the Armenian genocide however, it is estimated that 200,000 Armenians remained in Turkey.^[44] Today there are an estimated 40,000 to 70,000 Armenians in Turkey, not including theHamshenis.^[45][46]

During the Turkish Republican era, Armenians were subjected to many policies which were designed to abolish Armenian cultural heritage such as theTurkification of last names,Islamification,geographical name changes,confiscation of properties,change of animal names,^[47] changes of the names of Armenian historical figures (i.e. the name of the prominentBalyan family were concealed under an identity of a superficial Italian family called Baliani),^[48][49] and the change and distortion of Armenian historical events.^[50]

Today, the Armenians are mostly concentrated aroundIstanbul. TheArmenians support their own newspapers and schools. The majority belong to theArmenian Apostolic faith, with much smaller numbers ofArmenian Catholics andArmenian Evangelicals. The community currently functions 34,^{[clarification needed]} 18 schools, and 2 hospitals.^[43]

Assyrians were once a large ethnic minority in theOttoman Empire, but following the early 20th centuryAssyrian genocide, many were murdered, deported, or ended up emigrating. Those that remain live in small numbers in theirindigenous South Eastern Turkey (although in larger numbers than other groups murdered inArmenian orGreek genocides) and Istanbul. They number around 30,000 and are part of theSyriac Orthodox Church,Chaldean Catholic Church andChurch of the East.

There are as many as 12,000 Australians in Turkey.^[51] Of these, the overwhelming majority are in the capitalAnkara (roughly 10,000) while the remaining are inIstanbul. Australian expatriates in Turkey form one of the largest overseas Australian groups inEurope andAsia. The vast majority of Australian nationals in Turkey areTurkish Australians.

It is hard to determine how many ethnicAzeris currently reside in Turkey because ethnicity is a rather fluid concept in this country.^[52] Up to 300,000 of Azeris who reside in Turkey are citizens ofAzerbaijan.^[53] In theEastern Anatolia region, Azeris are sometimes referred to asacem (seeAjam) ortat.^[54] They currently are the largest ethnic group in the city ofIğdır^[55] and second largest ethnic group inKars.^[56]

Today, the existence ofBosniaks in the country is evident everywhere. In cities like Istanbul, Eskişehir, Ankara, İzmir, or Adana, one can easily find districts, streets, shops or restaurants with names such as Bosna, Yenibosna, Mostar, or Novi Pazar.^[57] However, it is extremely difficult to estimate how many Bosniaks live in this country. Some Bosnian researchers believe that the number of Bosniaks in Turkey is about two million.^[58]

There are at least 34,000 Britons in Turkey.^[59] They consist mainly ofBritish citizens married toTurkish spouses,British Turks who have moved back into the country, students and families of long-term expatriates employed predominately in white-collar industry.^[60]

People identifying asBulgarian include a large number of thePomak and a small number of Orthodox Bulgarians.^{[61][62][63][64][65]} According toEthnologue at present 300,000 Pomaks inEuropean Turkey speak Bulgarian as their mother tongue.^[66]It is very hard to estimate the number of Pomaks along with theTurkified Pomaks who live in Turkey, as they have blended into the Turkish society and have been often linguistically and culturally dissimilated.^[67] According toMilliyet andTurkish Daily News reports, the number of Pomaks along with the Turkified Pomaks in the country is about 600,000.^[68][67] According to the Bulgarian Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the BulgarianOrthodox Christian community in Turkey stands at 500 members.^[69]

Turkey received refugees from among the Pakistan-based Kazakhs, Turkmen, Kirghiz, and Uzbeks numbering 3,800 originally from Afghanistan during theSoviet–Afghan War.^[70] Kayseri, Van, Amasra, Cicekdag, Gaziantep, Tokat, Urfa, and Serinvol received via Adana the Pakistan-based Kazakh, Turkmen, Kirghiz, and Uzbek refugees numbering 3,800 with UNHCR assistance.^[71]

Chechens in Turkey areTurkish citizens ofChechen descent and Chechen refugees living inTurkey.Chechens andIngush live in the provinces ofIstanbul,Kahramanmaraş,Mardin,Sivas, andMuş.^{[citation needed]}

According to Milliyet, there are approximately 2.5 millionCircassians in Turkey.^[68] According to theEU reports there are three to five million Circassians in Turkey.^[72] The closely related ethnic groupsAbazins (10,000^[73]) andAbkhazians (39,000^[74]) are also often counted among them. Circassians are aCaucasian immigrant people, and although the Circassians in Turkey were forced to forget their language and assimilate into Turkish, a small minority still speak their nativeCircassian languages as it is still spoken in many Circassian villages, and the group that preserved their language the best are theKabardians.^[75] With the rise ofCircassian nationalism in the 21st century, Circassians in Turkey, especially the young, have started to study and learn their language. The Circassians in Turkey are mostlySunniMuslims ofHanafimadh'hab.^[76] The largest association of Circassians in Turkey,^[77]KAFFED, is the founding member of the International Circassian Association (ICA).^[78]

Before the 20th century, Crimean Tatars had immigrated from Crimea to Turkey in three waves: First, after the Russian annexation of Crimea in 1783; second, after theCrimean War of 1853–56; third, after theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–78.^[79] The official number^{[citation needed]} ofCrimean Tatars is 150,000 (in the center of Eskişehir) but the real population (in the whole of Turkey) may around 6 million. They mostly live inEskişehir Province^[80] and Kazan-Ankara.

Various ethnic groups from Dagestan are present in Turkey. Dagestani peoples live in villages in the provinces likeBalıkesir,Tokat and also scattered in other parts of the country. A majority among them areNogais;Lezgins andAvars are other significant ethnic groups.Kumyks are also present.^{[citation needed]}

TheDom people, live mostly in Eastern Anatolia Region, also from Syria Dom Refugees came to Turkey.

Approximately 15,000Dutch live in Turkey.^[81]

There were 5,500 Filipinos in Turkey as of 2008, according to estimates by theCommission on Filipinos Overseas and thePhilippine embassy in Ankara.^[82] Out of those, most are recorded as maids and "overseas workers" employed in households of diplomatic communities and elite Turkish families.^[83] Moreover, ten percent or approximately 500 Filipinos inTurkey are skilled workers and professionals working as engineers, architects, doctors and teachers.^[83] Most of the Filipinos reside inIstanbul, Ankara, Izmir, Antalya and nearby surrounding areas.^[82]

There are approximately 1 million people of Georgian ancestry in Turkey according to the newspaperMilliyet.^[68] Georgians in Turkey are mostlySunni Muslims ofHanafimadh'hab. Immigrant Georgians are called "Chveneburi", but autochthonous Muslim Georgians use this term as well. Muslim Georgians form the majority in parts ofArtvin Province east of theÇoruh River. Immigrant Muslim groups of Georgian origin, found scattered in Turkey, are known asChveneburi. The smallest Georgian group areCatholics living inIstanbul.

There are over 50,000Germans living inTurkey, primarily Germans married to Turkish spouses, employees, retirees and long-term tourists who buy properties across the Turkish coastline, often spending most of the year in the country.^[84] In addition, manyTurkish Germans have also returned and settled.

The Greeks constitute a population ofGreek andGreek-speakingEastern OrthodoxChristians who mostly live inIstanbul, including its districtPrinces' Islands, as well as on the two islands of the western entrance to theDardanelles:Imbros andTenedos (Turkish:Gökçeada andBozcaada). Some Greek-speaking Byzantine Christians have been assimilated over the course of the last one thousand years.

They are the remnants of the estimated 200,000 Greeks who were permitted under the provisions of theTreaty of Lausanne to remain in Turkey following the1923 population exchange,^[85] which involved the forcible resettlement of approximately 1.5 million Greeks fromAnatolia andEast Thrace and of half a millionTurks from all of Greece except forWestern Thrace. After years of persecution (e.g. theVarlık Vergisi and theIstanbul Pogrom),emigration ofethnic Greeks from the Istanbul region greatly accelerated, reducing the 119,822^[86] -strong Greek minority before the attack to about 7,000 by 1978.^[87] The 2008 figures released by theTurkish Foreign Ministry places the current number of Turkish citizens of Greek descent at the 3,000–4,000 mark.^[88]According to Milliyet there are 15,000 Greeks in Turkey,^[68] while according toHuman Rights Watch the Greek population in Turkey was estimated at 2,500 in 2006.^[89] According to the same source, the Greek population in Turkey was collapsing as the community was by then far too small to sustain itself demographically, due toemigration, much higher death rates than birth rates and continuing discrimination.^[89] In recent years however, most notably since the economic crisis in Greece, the trend has reversed. A few hundred to over a thousand Greeks now migrate to Turkey yearly for employment or educational purposes.^[90][91]Christian Greeks were forced to migrate as per the1923 population exchange agreement.Muslim Greeks live in Turkey today. They live in cities ofTrabzon andRize. Pontic Greeks haveGreek ancestry and speak thePontic Greek dialect, a distinct form of the standardGreek language which, due to the remoteness of Pontus, has undergonelinguistic evolution distinct from that of the rest of the Greek world. The Pontic Greeks had a continuous presence in the region of Pontus (modern-day northeastern Turkey), Georgia, andEastern Anatolia from at least 700 BC until 1922.

Since 1924, the status of the Greek minority in Turkey has been ambiguous. Beginning in the 1930s, the government instituted repressive policies forcing many Greeks to emigrate. Examples are thelabour battalions drafted among non-Muslims during World War II as well as the Fortune Tax levied mostly on non-Muslims during the same period. These resulted in financial ruination and death for many Greeks. The exodus was given greater impetus with the Istanbul Pogrom of September 1955 which led to thousands of Greeks fleeing the city, eventually reducing the Christian Greek population to about 7,000 by 1978 and to about 2,500 by 2006 before beginning to increase again after 2008.

There are 3000 so calledHindis in Turkey, ca. 1,850 in and around Istanbul and 250 in Ankara. The rest are spread all over the country. They are the descendants of Indian, Afghan, Uzbek - Sufi-Dervish travelers who settled in the 14th to 19th centuries in Ottoman Empire and established there several Sufi Lodges.^{[92][93][94][95][96][97]}

Shireen Hunter noted in a 2010 publication that there were 500,000Iranians residing in Turkey.^[98]

There have beenJewish communities in Asia Minor since at least the 5th century BC and manySpanish and Portuguese Jewsexpelled from Spain came to the Ottoman Empire (including regions part of modern Turkey) in the late 15th century. Despiteemigration during the 20th century, modern-day Turkey continues to have a small Jewish population of about 20,000.^[68]

Karachay people live in villages concentrated inKonya andEskişehir.

There are about 30,000Kazakh people living inZeytinburnu-Istanbul. It is known that there are Kazakh people in other parts of Turkey, for instance Manisa, Konya. In 1969 and 1954 Kazakhs migrated into Anatolia's Salihli, Develi and Altay regions.^[99] Turkey became home to refugee Kazakhs.^[100] The Kazakh Turks Foundation (Kazak Türkleri Vakfı) is an organization of Kazakhs in Turkey.^[101] Kazakhs in Turkey came via Pakistan and Afghanistan.^[102]Kazak Kültür Derneği (Kazakh Culture Associration) is a Kazakh diaspora organization in Turkey.^[103]

EthnicKurds are the largest minority in Turkey, composing around 20% of the population according to Milliyet, 19% of the total populace or c. 14 million people according to theCIA World Factbook, and as much as 23% according to Kurdologist David McDowall.^[1][105] Unlike the Turks, the Kurds speak anIranian language. There are Kurds living all over Turkey, but most live to the east and southeast of the country, from where they originate.

In the 1930s, Turkish government policy aimed to forcibly assimilate andTurkify local Kurds. Since 1984, Kurdish resistance movements included both peaceful political activities for basic civil rights for Kurds within Turkey, and violent armed rebellion for a separate Kurdish state.^[106]

Turkey'sLake Van area is the home ofKyrgyz refugees from Afghanistan.^[107] Turkey became a destination forKyrgyz refugees due to theSoviet–Afghan War from Afghanistan's Wakhan area^[108] 500 remained and did not go to Turkey with the others.^[109]Friendship and Culture Society of Kyrgyzstan (Кыргызстан Достук жана Маданият Коому) (Kırgızistan Kültür ve Dostluk Derneği Resmi Sitesi) is a Kyrgyz diaspora organization in Turkey.^[110]

They were airlifted in 1982 from Pakistan where they had sought refugee after theSoviet invasion of Afghanistan at the end of 1979. Their original home was at the eastern end of theWakhan Corridor, in thePamirs, bordering on China. It is not known how many Kyrgyz still live in Van and how many have moved on to other parts of Turkey.

Most Laz people today live in Turkey, but the Laz minority group has no official status in Turkey. The Laz areSunni Muslims. Only a minority are bilingual in Turkish and their nativeLaz language which belongs to theKartvelian group. The number of the Laz speakers is decreasing, and is now limited chiefly to theRize andArtvin areas. The historical termLazistan — formerly referring to a narrow tract of land along theBlack Sea inhabited by the Laz as well as by several other ethnic groups — has been banned from official use and replaced withDoğu Karadeniz (which also includesTrabzon). During theRusso-Turkish War of 1877–1878, theMuslim population of Russia near the war zones was subjected to ethnic cleansing; many Lazes living inBatumi fled to the Ottoman Empire, settling along the southern Black Sea coast to the east ofSamsun.

Levantines continue to live inIstanbul (mostly in the districts ofGalata,Beyoğlu andNişantaşı), İzmir (mostly in the districts ofKarşıyaka,Bornova andBuca), and the lesser port cityMersin where they had been influential for creating and reviving a tradition ofopera.^[111] Famous people of the present-day Levantine community in Turkey include Maria Rita Epik, Franco-LevantineCaroline Giraud Koç and Italo-LevantineGiovanni Scognamillo.

TheLom people live in the Black sea Region, and in Kars, Ardahan, and Artvin. They are also named as Poşa, they speakLomavren .

Around 5,000 MuslimMegleno-Romanians live in Turkey.^[112]

There is a community ofMeskhetian Turks (Ahiska Turks) in Turkey.^[113]

Ossetians emigrated fromNorth Ossetia since the second half of the 19th century, end ofCaucasian War. Today, the majority of them live in Ankara and Istanbul. There are 24 Ossetian villages in central and eastern Anatolia. The Ossetians in Turkey are divided into three major groups, depending on their history of immigration and ensuing events: those living inKars (Sarıkamış) andErzurum, those inSivas,Tokat andYozgat and those inMuş andBitlis.^[114]

There are only 4,000 ethnicPoles in Turkey who have been assimilated^{[citation needed]} into the main Turkish culture. The immigration did start during thePartitions of the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth.Józef Bem was one of the first immigrants and PrinceAdam Jerzy Czartoryski foundedPolonezköy in 1842. Most Poles in Turkey live in Polonezköy,Istanbul.

TheRoma in Turkey number approximately 700,000 according to Milliyet.^[68]Sulukule is the oldest Roma settlement in Europe. By different Turkish and Non-Turkish estimates the number of Romani is up to 4 or 5 million^[115][116] while according to a Turkish source, they are only 0.05% of Turkey's population (or roughly persons).^[117] The descendants of the Ottoman Roma today are known asXoraxane Roma and are of theIslamic faith.^[118]

Russians inTurkey number about 50,000 citizens.^[119] Russians began migrating to Turkey during the first half of the 1990s. Most were fleeing the economic problems prevalent after the dissolution of theSoviet Union. During this period, many Russian immigrants intermarried and assimilated with Turkish locals, giving rise to a rapid increase in mixed marriages.^[119] There is a Russian Association of Education, Culture and Cooperation which aims to expand Russian language andculture in Turkey as well as promote the interests of the community.

In the 1965 Census 6,599 Turkish citizen spokeSerbian as a first language and another 58,802 spokeSerbian as a second language.^[120]

Turkish Cypriots or Cypriot Turks are a group of Turks that arrived in Turkey in different waves from 1878 to the current. Currently theTurkish Cypriot population is estimated to be between the 300,000 to over 650,000.

Turkey is home to 50,000 Uyghurs.^[121] A community of Uyghurs live in Turkey.^[122][123]Kayseri received Uyghurs numbering close to 360 via the UNHCR in 1966–1967 from Pakistan.^[124] The Turkey-based Uyghur diaspora had a number of family members among Saudi Arabia, Afghanistan, India, and Pakistan based Uyghurs who stayed behind while the UNHCR and government of Turkey had Kayseri receive 75 Uyghurs in 1967 and 230 Uyghurs in 1965 and a number in 1964 under Alptekin and Bughra.^[125]We never call each other Uyghur, but only refer to ourselves as East Turkestanis, or Kashgarlik, Turpanli, or even Turks.- according to some Uyghurs born in Turkey.^[126][127]

A community of Uyghurs live in Istanbul.^{[citation needed]} Tuzla and Zeytinburnu mosques are used by the Uyghurs in Istanbul.^[128][129] Piety is a characteristic of among Turkey dwelling Uyghurs.^[130][131]

Istanbul's districts ofKüçükçekmece,Sefaköy andZeytinburnu are home to Uyghur communities.^[132] Eastern Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association is located in Turkey.^[133] Abdurahmon Abdulahad of the East Turkistan Education Association supported Uzbek Islamists who protested against Russia and Islam Karimov's Uzbekistan government.^[134] Uyghurs are employed in Küçükçekmece and Zeytinburnu restaurants.^[135][136]East Turkistan Immigration Association,^[137]East Turkistan Culture and Solidarity Association,^[138] andEastern Turkistan Education and Solidarity Association are Uyghur diaspora organizations in Turkey.^[139]

Turkey is home to 45,000 Uzbeks.^[140] In the 1800s Konya's north Bogrudelik was settled by TatarBukharlyks. In 1981Afghan Turkestan refugees in Pakistan moved to Turkey to join the existing Kayseri, Izmir, Ankara, and Zeytinburnu based communities.^[99] Turkish based Uzbeks have established links to Saudi-based Uzbeks.^[141]

The Patriyotlar inTurkey are ethnicMacedonians (Greeks) ofBektashi Order.^[142]., they converted to Islam during the time of theOttoman Empire, once lived in theSanjak of Serfiğe. Because of their pro-Turkish attitude, at theGreco-Turkish War (1919–1922), this Group ofVallahades were called Patriyotlar (Vatanseverler), sometimes called as "Rumyöz". At thePopulation exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923, they moved to Turkey and settled inEdirne,Lüleburgaz,Çorlu andBüyükçekmece inEast Thrace andSamsun andManisa inAnatolia.^[143] The first Generation only speak Greek and not Turkish, yet their descendants speak Turkish.^[144]

The Zazas are a people in easternTurkey who natively speak theZaza language.^[145] Their heartland, theDersim region, consists ofTunceli,Bingöl provinces and parts ofElazığ,Erzincan andDiyarbakır provinces.^[146][147] Their languageZazaki is a language spoken in eastern Anatolia between the rivers Euphrates and Tigris. It belongs to the northwest-Iranian group of the Iranian language branch of the Indo-European language family. The Zaza language is related to Kurdish, Persian and Balōchi. An exact indication of the number of Zaza speakers is unknown. Internal Zaza sources estimate the total number of Zaza speakers at 3 to 6 million.^[148][149]

In Turkey, atheism is the biggest group after Islam. The percentage of atheists according to polls apparently rose from about 2% in 2012^[150] to approximately 3% in 2018 KONDA Survey.^[151]

The Turkish cities ofEdirne andIstanbul are holy in theBahá’í Faith. The estimated Bahá'í population of Turkey is 10,000 (2008)^[152]

Christianity has a long history in Anatolia which, nowadays part of theRepublic of Turkey's territory, was the birthplace of numerous ChristianApostles andSaints, such asApostle Paul ofTarsus,Timothy,St. Nicholas ofMyra,St. Polycarp ofSmyrna and many others. Two out of the five centers (Patriarchates) of the ancientPentarchy were located in present-day Turkey:Constantinople (Istanbul) andAntioch (Antakya). All of thefirst seven Ecumenical Councils which are recognized by both the Western and Eastern churches were held in present-day Turkey. Of these, theNicene Creed, declared with theFirst Council of Nicaea (İznik) in 325, is of utmost importance and has provided the essential definitions of present-day Christianity.

In 2022, Christians were seen as being 0.2% of the population. Estimates included 90,000Armenian Orthodox, 25,000Roman Catholics, 25,000Syrian Orthodox, 150,000Eastern Orthodox (largely due to an influx of an estimated 60,000 Russians and 40,000 Ukrainians), 2,000-3,500 Armenian Catholics, fewer than 3,000 Chaldean Christians, 7,000 to 10,000 members ofProtestant and evangelical Christian, fewer than 2,500Greek Orthodox and small groups ofBulgarian Orthodox andGeorgian Orthodox Christians.^[153]

Orthodox Christianity forms a tiny minority in Turkey, comprising far less than one tenth of one percent of the entire population. The provinces ofIstanbul andHatay, which includes Antakya, are the main centres of Turkish Christianity, with comparatively dense Christian populations, though they are very small minorities. The main variant of Christianity present in Turkey is theEastern Orthodox branch, focused mainly in theGreek Orthodox Church.

There are around 35,000 Catholics,^[153] constituting 0.05% of the population. The faithful are of theLatin Church,Melkite Greek Catholic Church,Armenian Catholic Church,Syriac Catholic Church, andChaldean Catholic Church. Most Latin Catholics areLevantines of mainly Italian or French background, although a few are ethnic Turks (who are usually converts via marriage to Levantines or other non-Turkish Catholics). Byzantine, Armenian, Syriac, and Chaldean Catholics are generally members of the Greek (and Syrian), Armenian, Syrian, and Assyrian minority groups respectively. Turkey's Catholics are concentrated in Istanbul.^{[citation needed]}

In February 2006, Catholic priestAndrea Santoro, an Italian missionary working in Turkey for 10 years, was shot twice at his church near the Black Sea.^[154] He had written a letter to the Pope asking him to visit Turkey.^[155]Pope Benedict XVI visited Turkey in November 2006.^[156] Relations had been rocky since Pope Benedict XVI had stated his opposition to Turkey joining theEuropean Union.^[157]The Council of Catholic Bishops met with the Turkish prime minister in 2004 to discuss restrictions and difficulties such as property issues.^[158] More recently, BishopLuigi Padovese, on June 6, 2010, the Vicar Apostolic of Turkey, was killed.

Protestants comprise far less than one tenth of one percent of the population of Turkey, or less than 10,000 people.^[153] Even so, there is an Alliance of Protestant Churches in Turkey.^[159][160] Theconstitution of Turkey recognizes freedom of religion for individuals. The Armenian Protestants own three Istanbul Churches from the 19th century.^[160]On 4 November 2006, a Protestant place of worship was attacked with sixMolotov cocktails.^[161] Turkish media have criticized Christian missionary activity intensely.^[162]

There is an ethnicTurkish Protestant Christian community most of them came from recent Muslim Turkish backgrounds, rather than from ethnic minorities.^{[163][164][165][166]}

Jewish communities have lived in Asia Minor since at least the 5th century BC and manySpanish and Portuguese Jewswho were expelled from Spain were allowed to settle in the Ottoman Empire (including regions which were located in parts of modern Turkey) in the late 15th century. Despiteemigration during the 20th century, modern-day Turkey continues to have a small Jewish population.There is a smallKaraite Jewish population which numbers around 100. Karaite Jews are not considered Jews by the TurkishHakham Bashi.

The exact number ofAlawites in Turkey is unknown, but there were 185 000 Alawites in 1970.^[167] AsMuslims, they are not recorded separately from Sunnis in ID registration. In the1965 census (the last Turkish census where informants were asked theirmother tongue), 180,000 people in the three provinces declared their mother tongue asArabic. However, Arabic-speaking Sunni and Christian people are also included in this figure.

Alawites traditionally speak the same dialect ofLevantine Arabic withSyrian Alawites. Arabic is best preserved in rural communities and Samandağ. Younger people inÇukurova cities and (to a lesser extent) in İskenderun tend to speak Turkish. Turkish spoken by Alawites is distinguished by Alawites and non-Alawites alike with its particular accents and vocabulary. Knowledge ofArabic alphabet is confined to religious leaders and men who had worked or studied inArab countries.

Alevis are the biggest religious minority in Turkey. Nearly 15%^[168]-25% of all Turkish population is in this group. They are mainly Turk but there are significant Kurd andZaza populations who are Alevi^[169]

Twelver Shia population of Turkey is nearly 3 million and most of them are Azeris. Half million ofJa'faris live in Istanbul.^[170]

Yazidis in Turkey is in the area of theYazidi homeland, along with Syria and Iraq. The Yazidi population in Turkey was estimated at around 22.000 in 1984.^[171] Earlier figures are difficult to obtain and verify, but some estimate there were about 100.000 Yazidi in Turkey in the early years of the 20th century.^[172]

Most Yazidis left the country and went abroad in the 1980s and 1990s, mostly to Germany and other European countries where they got asylum due to the persecution as an ethnic and religious minority in Turkey. The area they resided was in the south eastern area of Turkey, an area that had/has heavyPKK fighting. Now a few hundred Yazidi are believed to be left in Turkey.

In intellectual circles in Turkey, more and more Turkish people are turning toTengrism. As an example, a lawyer who possessed an ID card which states that Tengrism is a religion won a court case.^{[173][174][175]}

• Demographics of Turkey
• Languages of Turkey
• Geographical name changes in Turkey
• Human rights in Turkey
• Racism and discrimination in Turkey
• Religion in Turkey
• Freedom of religion in Turkey
• Turkish Kurdistan
• Western Armenia
• Turkish minorities in the former Ottoman Empire
• Black people in the Ottoman Empire
• Turks in the former Soviet Union
• Black people in Turkey
• Afghans in Turkey
• Albanians in Turkey
• Arabs in Turkey
• Armenians in Turkey
• Assyrians in Turkey
• Azerbaijanis in Turkey
• Australians in Turkey
• Britons in Turkey
• Canadians in Turkey
• Chinese people in Turkey
• Greeks in Turkey
• Iraqis in Turkey
• Japanese people in Turkey
• Laz people in Turkey
• Russians in Turkey
• Yörüks

• "Freedom of religion and non-Muslim minorities in Turkey"(PDF).Beylunioğlu, Anna Maria. Turkish Policy Quarterly 13.4 (2015): 139-147. Archived fromthe original(PDF) on 18 August 2019.
• Bardakci, Mehmet, et al. Religious minorities in Turkey: Alevi, Armenians, and Syriacs and the struggle to desecuritize religious freedom. Springer, 2017.

• Ethnic groups in Turkey
• Ethnic minorities

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