Turkish people

For other uses of "Turkish", see Turkish (disambiguation).

For the broader concept of Turkic-speaking ethnic groups, see Turkic peoples.

Turkish people
Türkler

Dosya:Famous Turkish people 4 rows.png
1st row: Ertuğrul Gazi  • Mihrimah Sultana  • Suleiman the Magnificent  • Huerrem Sultan  • Mehmed II  • Durru Shevar  • Mahmud II 2nd row: Leyla Gencer  • Aydın Sayılı  • Halide Edip Adıvar  • Mimar Kemaleddin Bey  • Feriha Tevfik  • İbrahim Şinasi  • Fatma Aliye Topuz 3rd row: Namık Kemal  • Cahide Sonku  • Mustafa Kemal Atatürk  • Sabiha Gökçen  • Besim Ömer Akalın  • Nigâr Hanım  • Tevfik Fikret 4th row: Hadise Açıkgöz  • Kıvanç Tatlıtuğ  • Elif Şafak  • Hedo Türkoğlu  • Sertab Erener  • Orhan Pamuk  • Azra Akın
Total population
70+ millionNot including those with Turkish ancestry (see also Turkish population & Turkish diaspora)
Regions with significant populations
Turkey 55,485,000-58,000,000 Şablon:Country data Germany 3,500,000 a Şablon:Country data Iraq 500,000-3,000,000 Şablon:Country data Syria 750,000-1,500,000 Şablon:Country data Bulgaria 750,000-1,000,000 Şablon:Country data France 500,000 Şablon:Country data United Kingdom 500,000 b Şablon:Country data United States 190,000 - 500,000 c Şablon:Country data Netherlands 400,000-500,000 d Şablon:Country data Austria 300,000-350,000 Şablon:Country data Northern Cyprus 260,000 e Şablon:Country data Belgium 200,000 Şablon:Country data Republic of Macedonia 77,959 - 200,000 Şablon:Country data Saudi Arabia 200,000 f Şablon:Country data Australia 60,000-150,000 g Şablon:Country data Greece 80,000-150,000 h Şablon:Country data Kazakhstan 150,000 i Şablon:Country data Azerbaijan 110,000 i Şablon:Country data Switzerland 100,000 f Şablon:Country data Russia 100,000 i Şablon:Country data Sweden 70,000 j Şablon:Country data Denmark 70,000 Şablon:Country data Romania 55,000 Şablon:Country data Canada 50,000 k Şablon:Country data Kosovo 50,000 Şablon:Country data Kyrgyzstan 50,000 i Şablon:Country data Lebanon 30,000 l Şablon:Country data Italy 17,650 f Şablon:Country data Norway 16,000 f Şablon:Country data Uzbekistan 15,000 i
Languages
Turkish
Religion
Predominantly Islam
Related ethnic groups
Turkic peoples  · Anatolian peoples
Footnotes
a Estimates suggest there are now over 4 million people of Turkish descent living in Germany. However, close to 500,000 are ethnic Kurds from Turkey. b This includes Turkish Cypriots c Government immigration figures on the number of Turks in the US estimates a total of 190,000 persons; however, these statistics are not fully reliable because a considerable number of Turks were born in the Balkans and USSR. d 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. e This includes Turkish settlers. A further 2,000 Turkish Cypriots currently reside in the southern part of the island. f 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. g A further 25,000 to 40,000 Turkish Cypriots live in Australia. h This figure only includes Turks of Western Thrace. A further 5,000 live in the Rhodes and Kos. In addition to this, 8,297 immigrants live in Greece. i These figures only includes Meskhetian Turks. j A further 30,000 Turks from Bulgaria live in Sweden. k An estimated 100,000-140,000 claim Turkish descent. l This includes 10,000 Cretan Turks.

Turkish people, also known as the "Turks" (Turkish: singular: Türk, plural: Türkler), are a subethnic group of the Turkic peoples, primarily living in Turkey and in the former lands of the Ottoman Empire where Turkish minorities had been established in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Georgia, Greece, Iraq, Kosovo, Macedonia, Romania and Syria. In addition, due to migration, a large Turkish community has been established in Western Europe (particularly in Germany, France, the United Kingdom, the Netherlands, Austria, Belgium and Liechtenstein), as well as in Australia, the Middle East, North America and the former Soviet Union.

Etymology

The name Turk (Old Turkic: Dosya:Old Turkic letter UK.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter R2.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter U.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter T2.svg Türük or Dosya:Old Turkic letter UK.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter R2.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter U.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter T2.svg Dosya:Old Turkic letter K.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter U.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter UK.svg Kök Türük or Dosya:Old Turkic letter K.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter R2.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter U.svgDosya:Old Turkic letter T2.svg Türük, Şablon:Lang-zh, Pinyin: Tūjué, Wade-Giles: T'u-chüeh, Middle Chinese (Guangyun): Şablon:IPA-ltc) was first applied to a clan of tribal chieftains (known as Ashina) who overthrew the ruling Rouran Khaganate, and founded the nomadic Göktürk Khaganate ("Celestial Turks") These nomads roamed in the Altai Mountains (and thus are known as Altaic peoples) in northern Mongolia and on the steppes of Central Asia. Türks name refers to two distinct entities both the confederation of medieval Inner Asia, Kok Turks and the Turks of modern Turkey.

The name Türk spread as a political designation during the period of Göktürk imperial hegemony to their subject Turkic and non-Turkic peoples. Subsequently, it was adopted as a generic ethnonym designating most if not all of the Turkish-speaking tribes in Central Asia by the Muslim peoples with whom they came into contact. The imperial era also provided a legacy of political and social organisation (with deep roots in pre-Türk Inner Asia) that in its Türk form became the common inheritance of the Turkic groupings of Central Asia.

History

Origins

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The Göktürk Empire in 600.

Turkic people originated in the vicinity of Altai in Central Asia. The first nomadic empire founded in present day Mongolia was Xiongnu. Some academic scholars argue that ruling class of Xiongnu Empire was proto-Turkic. Xiongnu is sometimes considered related to Huns who were Turkic-speaking peoples according to Richard Frucht. The Kök Türk (or simply Turks) formed the first khanate which uses the word Turk in state name. Kök Türk khan Bilge Khan, his brother Kül Tegin and his prime minister Tonyukuk, immortalized their accomplishments with inscriptions in the Old Turkic script, the oldest known Turkish writings.

The migration of Turks to the country now called Turkey occurred during the main Turkic migration. In the migration period, Turkic language, confined in the sixth century AD to a small region exploded over a vast region including most parts of Central Asia, Turkestan, north of Black Sea, Anatolia, Iran between the sixth and thirteenth centuries. Oghuz Turks who were called Turkomen after becoming Muslim were the main source for Turkic migration to Anatolia. The process was accelerated after the Battle of Manzikert victory of Seljuks against the Byzantines; Anatolia would be called Turchia in the West as early as the 12th century. The Mongols invaded Transoxiana, Iran, Azerbaijan and Anatolia; this caused Turkomens to move further to Western Anatolia. 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. The Turkish ethnicity emerged gradually during the process of settlement of the Turcomens in Turkey; Turkomens were designated Turks later.

Seljuk era

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The Seljuk Empire at its zenith upon the death of Malik Shah I in 1092.

The Seljuks (Turkish Selçuklular; Persian: سلجوقيان Ṣaljūqīyān; Arabic سلجوق Saljūq, or السلاجقة al-Salājiqa) were a Turkish tribe from Central Asia. In 1037, they entered Persia and established their first powerful state, called by historians the Empire of the Great Seljuks. They captured Baghdad in 1055 and a relatively small contingent of warriors (around 5,000 by some estimates) moved into eastern Anatolia. In 1071, the Seljuks engaged the armies of the Byzantine Empire at Manzikert (Malazgirt), north of Lake Van. The Byzantines experienced minor casualties despite the fact that Emperor Romanus IV Diogenes was captured. With no potent Byzantine force to stop them, the Seljuks took control of most of Eastern and Central Anatolia. They established their capital at Konya and ruled what would be known as the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum. The success of the Seljuk Turks stimulated a response from Latin Europe in the form of the First Crusade. A counteroffensive launched in 1097 by the Byzantines with the aid of the Crusaders dealt the Seljuks a decisive defeat. Konya fell to the Crusaders, and after a few years of campaigning, Byzantine rule was restored in the western third of Anatolia. Although a Turkish revival in the 1140s nullified much of the Christian gains, greater damage was done to Byzantine security by dynastic strife in Constantinople in which the largely French contingents of the Fourth Crusade and their Venetian allies intervened. In 1204, these Crusaders conquered Constantinople and installed Count Baldwin of Flanders in the Byzantine capital as emperor of the so-called Latin Empire of Constantinople, dismembering the old realm into tributary states where West European feudal institutions were transplanted intact. Independent Greek kingdoms were established at Nicaea (present-day Iznik), Trebizond (present-day Trabzon), and Epirus from remnant Byzantine provinces. Turks allied with Greeks in Anatolia against the Latins, and Greeks with Turks against the Mongols. In 1261, Michael Palaeologus of Nicaea drove the Latins from Constantinople and restored the Byzantine Empire. Seljuk Rum survived in the late 13th century as a vassal state of the Mongol Empire, who had already subjugated the Abbasid Caliphate at Baghdad. Mongol influence in the region had disappeared by the 1330s, leaving behind gazi emirates competing for supremacy. From the chaotic conditions that prevailed throughout the Middle East, however, a new power was to emerge in Anatolia, the Ottoman Turks.

Ilkhanate rule and Beyliks era

Anatolian Beyliks (Turkish: Anadolu Beylikleri, Ottoman Turkish: Tevâif-i mülûk) were small Turkish principalities governed by Beys, which were founded across Anatolia at the end of the 11th century. The Seljuk Sultanate of Rum collapsed after Mongol invasion and Anatolia was administered by Mongol military governors after Mongol conquest. However, Anatolia was separated into several small regions under the domination of different beyliks (principalities) from the 14th century to the beginning of the 16th century. Eventually, the Ottoman principality which was established in Eskişehir, Bilecik and Bursa areas, subjugated other principalities and restored political unity over a large part of Anatolia.

Ottoman era

Dosya:Sultan Mahmud II.jpg

Mahmud II effectively started the modernization of the Ottoman Empire and paved the way for the Tanzimat reforms which also influenced the modern Republic of Turkey.

The Ottoman Empire (Old Ottoman Turkish: دولت عالیه عثمانیه Devlet-i Âliye-yi Osmâniyye, Late Ottoman and Modern Turkish: Osmanlı Devleti or Osmanlı İmparatorluğu) was known as the Turkish Empire or Turkey by its contemporaries. (See the other names of the Ottoman State.) Starting as a small tribe whose territory bordered on the Byzantine frontier, the Ottoman Turks built an empire that was at the height of its power in the 16th century. The empire spanned three continents, controlling much of Southeastern Europe, the Middle East and North Africa.

As the power of the Seljuk Sultanate of Rum weakened in the late 13th century, warrior chieftains claimed the lands of Northwestern Anatolia, along the Byzantine Empire's borders. Ertuğrul gazi ruled the lands around Söğüt, a town between Bursa and Eskisehir. Upon his death in 1281, his son, Osman, from whom the Ottoman dynasty and the Empire took its name, expanded the territory to 16,000 square kilometers. Osman I, who was given the nickname "Kara" (Turkish for black) for his courage, extended the frontiers of Ottoman settlement towards the edge of the Byzantine Empire. He shaped the early political development of the state and moved the Ottoman capital to Bursa.

Dosya:OttomanEmpireIn1683.png

The Ottoman Empire 1299 – 1923

By 1452 the Ottomans controlled almost all of the former Byzantine lands except Constantinople. On May 29, 1453, Mehmed the Conqueror captured Constantinople after a 53-day siege and proclaimed that the city was now the new capital of his Ottoman Empire. Sultan Mehmed's first duty was to rejuvenate the city economically, creating the Grand Bazaar and inviting the fleeing Orthodox and Catholic inhabitants to return. Captured prisoners were freed to settle in the city whilst provincial governors in Rumelia and Anatolia were ordered to send four thousand families to settle in the city, whether Muslim, Christian or Jew, to form a unique cosmopolitan society.

During the growth of the Ottoman Empire (also known as the Pax Ottomana), Selim I extended Ottoman sovereignty southward, conquering Syria, Palestine, and Egypt. He also gained recognition as guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina; he accepted pious the title of The Servant of The Two Holy Shrines.

Suleiman I was known in the West as "Suleiman the Magnificent" and in the East, as "the Lawgiver" (in Turkish Kanuni; Arapça: القانونى‎, al‐Qānūnī), for his complete restructuring of the Ottoman legal system. The reign of Suleiman the Magnificent is known as the "Ottoman golden age".

In the 17th century, the Ottoman Empire was as powerful as European states but it was superior no more. Reformist Sultans such as Mahmud II modernized the Empire. However, they were unable to stop decline. Eventually, after World War I, the Ottoman Empire came to an end.

The Republic of Turkey

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Mustafa Kemal Atatürk visits the reorganized Istanbul University on December 15, 1930.

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Eighteen female MPs joined the Turkish Parliament in 1935, at a time when women in a significant number of other European countries had no voting rights.

The Republic of Turkey was born from the disastrous World War I defeat of the Ottoman Empire. The Ottoman war hero, Mustafa Kemal Pasha (who was later given the surname Atatürk by the Turkish Parliament with the Surname Law of 1934), sailed from Istanbul to Samsun in May 1919 to start the Turkish liberation movement; he organized an effective fighting force in Anatolia, and rallied the people to the nationalist cause. Under the leadership of Mustafa Kemal Pasha, a military commander who had distinguished himself during the Battle of Gallipoli, the Turkish War of Independence was waged with the aim of revoking the terms of the Treaty of Sèvres. By 1923 the nationalist government had driven out the invading armies; replaced the Treaty of Sèvres with the Treaty of Lausanne and abolished the Ottoman State; promulgated a republican constitution; and established Turkey's new capital in Ankara.

During a meeting in the early days of the new republic, Atatürk proclaimed:

	« To the women: Win for us the battle of education and you will do yet more for your country than we have been able to do. It is to you that I appeal. To the men: If henceforward the women do not share in the social life of the nation, we shall never attain to our full development. We shall remain irremediably backward, incapable of treating on equal terms with the civilizations of the West. »
	(Mustafa Kemal)

Genetics

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Genetic kinships of European nations. Turks are in dark green (TR)

It is difficult to understand the complex cultural and demographic dynamics of the Turkic speaking groups that have shaped the Anatolian landscape for the last millennium. During the Bronze Age the population of Anatolia expanded, reaching an estimated level of 12 million during the late Byzantine Empire period. Such a large pre-existing Anatolian population would have reduced the impact by the subsequent arrival of Turkic speaking groups from Seljuk Persia, whose ethno-linguistic roots could be traced back to the eastern coast of the Caspian Sea basin in Central Asia. The Seljuk Turks were the main Turkic people who moved into Anatolia, starting from the Battle of Manzikert in 1071. Around 2,000,000 Turkic migrants settled in Anatolia during the 12th and 13th centuries.

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 studies. It is concluded that aboriginal Anatolian groups may have given rise to the present-day Turkish population. DNA analysis research studies suggest that the Anatolians do not significantly differ from other Mediterraneans, indicating that while the Seljuk Turks carried out a permanent territorial conquest with strong cultural, linguistic and religious significance, it is barely genetically detectable.

Geographic distribution

See also: Turkish population and Turkish diaspora

Turks primarily live in Turkey; however, when the borders of the Ottoman Empire became smaller after World War I and the new Turkish Republic was founded, many Turks chose to stay outside of Turkey's borders. Since then, some of them have migrated to Turkey but there are still significant minorities of Turks living in different countries such as in Northern Cyprus (Turkish Cypriots), Greece, Bulgaria, Albania, Bosnia and Herzegovina, the Republic of Macedonia, the Dobruja region of Romania, Pakistan, Kosovo, Syria, India, China, Central Asia, and Iraq.

Turks in Turkey

See also: Regions of Turkey, Provinces of Turkey, Districts of Turkey, and List of cities in Turkey

People who identify themselves as ethnic Turks comprise 80% of Turkey's population. Regions of Turkey with the largest populations are İstanbul (+12 million), Ankara (+4.4 million), İzmir (+3.7 million), Bursa (+2.4 million), Adana (+2.0 million) and Konya (+1.9 million).

The biggest city and the former capital İstanbul is the financial, economic and cultural heart of the country. Other important cities include capital city Ankara, İzmir, Bursa, Adana, Trabzon, Malatya, Gaziantep, Erzurum, Kayseri, Kocaeli, Konya, Mersin, Eskişehir, Diyarbakır, Kahramanmaraş, Antalya and Samsun. An estimated 70.5% of the Turkish population live in urban centers. In all, 18 provinces have populations that exceed 1 million inhabitants, and 21 provinces have populations between 1 million and 500,000 inhabitants. Only two provinces have populations less than 100,000.

Turks in Europe

See also: Turks in Europe

As a legacy of the Ottoman Turkish Empire, there are significant Turkish minorities in Europe such as the Turks in Bulgaria, Cyprus, Greece, Kosovo and the Republic of Macedonia.

The post-World War II migration of Turks to Europe began with ‘guest workers’ who arrived under the terms of a Labour Export Agreement with Germany in October 1961, followed by a similar agreement with the Netherlands, Belgium and Austria in 1964; France in 1965 and Sweden in 1967. As one Turkish observer noted, ‘it has now been over 40 years and a Turk who went to Europe at the age of 25 has nearly reached the age of 70. His children have reached the age of 45 and their children have reached the age of 20’.

Despite the United Kingdom not being part of the Labour Export Agreement, it is still a major hub for Turkish emigrants, and with a population of half a million Turks (an estimated 100,000 Turkish nationals and 130,000 nationals of the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus currently live in the UK. These figures, however, do not include the much larger numbers of Turkish speakers who have been born or have obtained British nationality), it is home to Europe's third largest Turkish community. High immigration has resulted in the Turkish language being the seventh most commonly spoken language in the United Kingdom.

Due to the high rate of Turks in Europe, the Turkish language is also now home to one of the largest group of pupils after German-speakers, and the largest non-European language spoken in the European Union. Turkish in Germany is often used not only by members of its own community but also by people with a non-Turkish background. Especially in urban areas, it functions as a peer group vernacular for children and adolescents.

Turks in the Americas

Anglo-America

The US Census reported in 2006 that approximately 170,000 Americans identify as having at least partial Turkish ancestry, while the Encyclopedia of Cleveland History states that there is an estimated 500,000 Turks living in the United States; the largest Turkish communities are found in Paterson, New York City (i.e. Brooklyn and Staten Island), Long Island, Cleveland, Chicago, Houston, Miami, Washington D.C. (mostly in Northern Virginia), Boston (esp. the suburb of Watertown), Philadelphia, Los Angeles and San Francisco. Since the 1970s, the number of Turkish immigrants has risen to more than 4,000 per year. There is also a growing Turkish population in Canada, Turkish immigrants have settled mainly in Montreal and Toronto, although there are small Turkish communities in Calgary, Edmonton, London, Ottawa, and Vancouver. The population of Turkish Canadians in Metropolitan Toronto may be as large as 5,000.

Latin America

Turkish immigrants can be found in smaller numbers in Latin America, limited to Chile (about 1,000), Brazil (estimated at 5,000) and Mexico (fewer than 2,000). They are not to be confused with heavily numerous Christian Arab immigrants called "Turcos", an inaccurate name for Lebanese and Syrian refugees, due to the nickname came from their "Turkish" nationality passports on arrival, whom fled the World War I. in the Ottoman Empire in the 1910s and 1920s. Both ethnic Turk and smaller "Turco" Arab communities can be found in South America, Central America and the Caribbean.

Culture

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Traditional Turkish coffee is ubiquitous in Turkish homes

Turkish people have a very diverse culture that is a blend of various elements of the Oğuz Turkic and Anatolian, Ottoman, and Western culture and traditions since the start of Westernization of the Ottoman Empire. Turkish culture is mixed with those of the peoples inhabiting the areas of their migration from Central Asia to West.

Architecture

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Safranbolu was added to the list of UNESCO World Heritage Sites in 1994 due to its well-preserved Ottoman era houses and architecture.

Turkish architecture reached its peak during the Ottoman period. Ottoman architecture, influenced by Seljuk, Byzantine and Islamic architecture, came to develop a style all of its own. Overall, Ottoman architecture has been described as a synthesis of the architectural traditions of the Mediterranean and the Middle East.

During the zenith of the Sultanate of Rum, Seljuk architects undertook extensive public works projects. Using the abundant Anatolian stone and clay, they built mosques, medreses, and türbes. To safeguard their profitable trade in silks, spices and to provide rest for merchants, the Seljuk’s built over 100 kervansarays along Anatolian highways, each spaced a day’s ride away from the next. These rest stops featured mosques, storage rooms, stables, coffeehouses, hamams, private rooms and dormitories. The most impressive of its kind is the Sultan Han outside Kayseri. Seljuk buildings were characterised by their elaborate stone carvings. In addition to carvings, the Seljuk’s enhanced their mosques with glazed earthenware (faience) which was used to cover walls and minarets with the best examples at Konya in the Karatay Medrese.

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Traditional waterfront houses, called yalı, on the Bosporus

The first Ottoman capital, Bursa, is a museum of 14th and 15th century Ottoman architecture. With the capital of Istanbul in 1453, Ottoman architects were challenged to exceed the vaults and pendentives of the Hagia Sophia's dome. Ottoman architecture reached its peak under the unprecedented benefaction of Suleiman the Magnificent. During his rule alone, over 80 major mosques and hundreds of other buildings were constructed. Divan Yolu, Istanbul’s processional avenue, boasts a collection of these structural wonders. The master architect, Mimar Sinan served Suleyman and his sons as Chief Court Architect from 1538–1588, during which time he created a unified style for all Istanbul and for much of the empire.

Many Ottoman mosques stand at the centre of a ‘külliye’ (complex) designed to serve all of a community’s needs. Külliyes often included a school, markets, soup kitchens and a medical centre, all integrated architecturally into a single whole. The most impressive külliyes are those of the Süleymaniye Mosque in Istanbul, and the Bayezid II Mosque and Hospital in Edirne. Most külliyes were established as charitable foundations, although economic instability has jeopardised these institutions financially, many of them still function today.

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Typical Mediterranean sessional houses in Çeşme

Arts and calligraphy

Şablon:Main articles

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The tughra of Sultan Mahmud II.

A transition from Islamic artistic traditions under the Ottoman Empire to a more secular, Western orientation has taken place in Turkey. Turkish painters today are striving to find their own art forms, free from Western influence. Sculpture is less developed, and public monuments are usually heroic representations of Atatürk and events from the war of independence. Literature is considered the most advanced of contemporary Turkish arts. The reign of the early Ottoman Turks in the 16th and early 17th centuries introduced the Turkish form of Islamic calligraphy. This art form reached the height of its popularity during the reign of Suleiman the Magnificent (1520–66). As decorative as it was communicative, Diwani was distinguished by the complexity of the line within the letter and the close juxtaposition of the letters within the word.

Music

See also: Turkish music (style)

The roots of traditional music in Turkey span centuries to a time when the Seljuk Turks colonized Anatolia and Persia in the 11th century and contains elements of both Turkic and pre-Turkic influences. Much of its modern popular music can trace its roots to the emergence in the early 1930s drive for Westernization.

Traditional music in Turkey falls into two main genres; classical art music and folk music. Turkish classical music is characterized by an Ottoman elite culture and influenced lyrically by neighbouring regions and Ottoman provinces. Earlier forms are sometimes termed as saray music in Turkish, meaning royal court music, indicating the source of the genre comes from Ottoman royalty as patronage and composer. Neo-classical or postmodern versions of this traditional genre are termed as art music or sanat musikisi, though often it is unofficially termed as alla turca. In addition, from the saray or royal courts came the Ottoman military band, Mehter takımı in Turkish, considered to be the oldest type of military marching band in the world. It was also the forefather of modern Western percussion bands and has been described as the father of Western military music.

Turkish folk music is the music of Turkish-speaking rural communities of Anatolia, the Balkans, and Middle East. While Turkish folk music contains definitive traces of the Central Asian Turkic cultures, it has also strongly influenced and been influenced by many other indigenous cultures. Religious music in Turkey is sometimes grouped with folk music due to the tradition of the wandering minstrel or aşık (pronounced ashuk), but its influences on Sufism due to the spritiual Mevlevi sect arguably grants it special status. It has been suggested the distinction between the two major genres comes during the Tanzîmat period of Ottoman era, when Turkish classical music was the music played in the Ottoman palaces and folk music was played in the villages.

Musical relations between the Turks and Europe can be traced back many centuries, and the first type of musical Orientalism was the Turkish Style. European classical composers in the 18th century were fascinated by Turkish music, particularly the strong role given to the brass and percussion instruments in Janissary bands. Joseph Haydn wrote his Military Symphony to include Turkish instruments, as well as some of his operas. Turkish instruments were also included in Ludwig van Beethoven's Symphony Number 9. Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart wrote the "Ronda alla turca" in his Sonata in A major and also used Turkish themes in his operas, such as the Chorus of Janissaries from his Die Entführung aus dem Serail (1782). This Turkish influence introduced the cymbals, bass drum, and bells into the symphony orchestra, where they remain. Jazz musician Dave Brubeck wrote his "Blue Rondo á la Turk" as a tribute to Mozart and Turkish music.

Literature

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Sait Faik Abasıyanık

The literature of the Turkish Republic emerged largely from the pre-independence National Literature movement, with its roots simultaneously in the Turkish folk tradition and in the Western notion of progress. One important change to Turkish literature was enacted in 1928, when Mustafa Kemal initiated the creation and dissemination of a modified version of the Latin alphabet to replace the Arabic alphabet based Ottoman script. Over time, this change, together with changes in Turkey's system of education, would lead to more widespread literacy in the country.

Language

Atatürk introducing the new Turkish alphabet to the people of Sivas. September 20, 1928. (Cover of the French L'Illustration magazine)

The Turkish language is a member of the ancient Oghuz subdivision of Turkic languages, which in turn is a branch of the proposed Altaic language family. About 40% of Turkic language speakers are Turkish speakers.

With the Turkic expansion during Early Middle Ages (c. 6th–11th centuries), peoples speaking Turkic languages spread across Central Asia, covering a vast geographical region stretching from Siberia to Europe and the Mediterranean. The Seljuqs of the Oghuz Turks, in particular, brought their language, Oghuz Turkic—the direct ancestor of today's Turkish language—into Anatolia during the 11th century. Also during the 11th century, an early linguist of the Turkic languages, Mahmud al-Kashgari from the Kara-Khanid Khanate, published the first comprehensive Turkic language dictionary and map of the geographical distribution of Turkic speakers in the Compendium of the Turkic Dialects (Arabic: Dīwānu'l-Luġat at-Turk). In 1277 Karamanoğlu Mehmet Bey declared Turkish as the sole official language of the Karamanoğlu Beylik in Anatolia.

After the foundation of the Republic of Turkey and the script reform, the Turkish Language Association (TDK) was established in 1932 under the patronage of Mustafa Kemal Atatürk, with the aim of conducting research on Turkish. One of the tasks of the newly-established association was to initiate a language reform to replace loanwords of Arabic and Persian origin with Turkish equivalents. By banning the usage of imported words in the press, the association succeeded in removing several hundred foreign words from the language. While most of the words introduced to the language by the TDK were newly derived from Turkic roots, it also opted for reviving Old Turkish words which had not been used for centuries.

Istanbul Turkish is established as the official standard language of Turkey. 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 Republic of Macedonia, depending on the concentration of Turkish-speaking local population.

Religion

Secularism in Turkey was introduced with the Turkish Constitution of 1924, and later Atatürk's Reforms set the administrative and political requirements to create a modern, secular state aligned with the Kemalist ideology. Thirteen years after its introduction, laïcité (February 5, 1937) was explicitly stated as a property of the State in the second article of the Turkish constitution. Therefore the current Turkish constitution neither recognizes an official religion nor promotes any while majority of citizens subscribe to Islam.

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• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0275976092..
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0646477838..
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 9004121013..
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 9004133224..
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 978-90-5130-587-6.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0313345600..
• Şablon:Cite document
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0761418547..
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 906704153X..
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 1844720284..
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0521835666..
• Şablon:Cite document
• Şablon:Cite document
• Özkaya, Abdi Noyan (2007). "Suriye Kürtleri: Siyasi Etkisizlik ve Suriye Devleti’nin Politikaları". Review of International Law and Politics 2 (8). http://www.usak.org.tr/dosyalar/dergi/IdZgitj2V2vbuyxGGkzJnS8yvQqpT5.pdf. Retrieved 2010-09-10Şablon:İnconsistent citations 
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0415382971..
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 1903403782..
• Şablon:Cite document
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0199241198..
• Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (2008), İnsan Haklarını İnceleme Komisyonu'num Hollanda Ziyareti (16-21 Haziran 2008), http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/: Grand National Assembly of Turkey 
• Türkiye Büyük Millet Meclisi (2009), İnsan Haklarını İnceleme Komisyonu: Fransa Raporu, http://www.tbmm.gov.tr/: Grand National Assembly of Turkey 
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0306477572..
• Şablon:Cite document
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0306477572..

Further reading

Şablon:Col-break

Turkish people

• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 1417947063.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 1585676152.
• McCarthy, Justin & McCarthy Carolyn (2003). "Who Are The Turks?" (PDF). The American Forum For Global Education. http://www.ataturk.com/public_files/WhoAreTheTurksebook.pdf. Retrieved 2008-07-11. 

History

• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 978-0971235342.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 978-0099539506.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0195177266.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0688030939.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 1585670111.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 1406772720. OCLC 784228.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0521291631.

Demographics

• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0415348315.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 1853595098.
• Turkish Statistical Institute (2000). "2000 Census, population by provinces and districts" (XLS). Turkish Statistical Institute. http://www.die.gov.tr/nufus_sayimi/2000tablo5.xls. Retrieved 2006-12-11. 

Şablon:Col-break

Language

• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0-19-517726-6.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 978-0415250047.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0-19-870036-9.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0-19-925669-1.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 975-418-868-4.(Türkçe)
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 9755181407.(Türkçe)
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 978-0521651691.

Arts & Culture

• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0-2....
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0571087817.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0-691-09120-X.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0500274290.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 0853238987.
• {{{başlık}}}. ISBN 1-85828-636-0.

External links

Dosya:Commons-logo.svg

Wikimedia Commons'ta

Turkish people ile ilgili çoklu ortam belgeleri bulunur.

General profiles

• By the BBC News
• By the CIA Factbook
• By the Council of Europe
• By the Economist
• By the US Department of State

People

Şablon:Turkish diaspora Şablon:Turkic topics

ar:أتراك an:Turcos anatolians arc:ܥܡܐ ܛܘܪܩܝܐ az:Anadolu türkləri be:Туркі be-x-old:Туркі bg:Турци ca:Turcs cv:Турккăсем cs:Turci cy:Tyrciaid de:Türken et:Türklased eo:Turkoj fa:مردم ترک (ترکیه) fr:Turcs (peuple) ko:터키인 hr:Turci id:Bangsa Turki os:Туркаг адæм ka:თურქები ky:Түрктөр ku:Tirk la:Turcae lv:Turki lt:Turkai hu:Törökök mk:Турци ms:Suku Turki mn:Түрэг nl:Turken ja:トルコ人 uz:Turklar pnb:ترک لوک pl:Turcy pt:Turcos ru:Турки sq:Turqit sk:Turci sl:Turki sr:Турци fi:Turkkilaiset tt:Төрекләр tr:Türkler uk:Турки