Arabs in Turkey

Arabs in Turkey
Türkiye'deki Araplar
اتراك عرب
Total population

1,500,000[1] (Arab minority only)

4,000,000[2][3] (including recent Syrian refugees) (1,500,000[1])
Regions with significant populations
Mainly Southeastern Anatolia Region
Languages
Arabic, Turkish, Kurdish[4]
Religion
Mainly Sunni Muslims and Alawites,
Christian minority of 18,000[5]

Arabs in Turkey (Arabic: العرب في تركيا‎‎, Turkish: Türkiye'deki Araplar) refers to citizens and residents of Turkey who are ethnically Arab.

Background

Traditional settlement areas

Beside the large expat and dispora communities in Istanbul and other larger cities, south and southeastern provinces have a significant Arab community.[6]

Turkish Arabs are mostly Muslims living along the southeastern border with Syria and Iraq in the following provinces: Batman, Bitlis, Gaziantep, Hatay, Mardin, Muş, Siirt, Şırnak, Şanlıurfa, Mersin and Adana. The Arabs in eastern part of the border consist of many Bedouin tribes in addition to other Arabs who settled there before Turkic tribes came to Anatolia from Central Asia in the 11th century. Many of these Arabs have blood ties to Arabs living in Syria, especially in the city of Ar Raqqah. The Arab society in Turkey is well integrated into the Turkish population, yet some speak Arabic in addition to Turkish. The Treaty of Lausanne ceded to Turkey large areas that belonged to Ottoman Syria, especially within Aleppo Vilayet.[7]

Map from 1911 showing the ethnic composition of Turkey and the Levant area

Besides a significant Shafi'i sunni part, about 300.000 to 350.000 belong to Alawism[8] however with no close connection to the Turkish variant. About 18.000 Arab Christians (Nasrani)[9] belong mostly to the Greek Orthodox Church of Antioch.

Number of Turkish Arabs

The population of Arabs in Turkey varies according to different sources. A Turkish study estimates the Arab population to be between 1.1 and 2.4%.[10] An earlier American estimate from 1995 puts the numbers between 800,000 and 1 million.[1] According to Ethnologue, in 1992 there were 500,000 people with Arabic as their mother language in Turkey.[11] According to a Turkish study based on a large survey in 2006, 0,7% of the total population in Turkey were ethnically Arab.[12]

See also

References

  1. 1 2 3 Helen Chapin Metz, ed. Turkey: A Country Study. Washington: GPO for the Library of Congress, 1995.
  2. ↑ "UNHCR Syria Regional Refugee Response/ Turkey". UNHCR. 31 December 2015. Retrieved 17 January 2016.
  3. ↑ http://cadmus.eui.eu/handle/1814/11298 The Iraqi Refugee Crisis and Turkey: a Legal Outlook
  4. ↑ Lahdo, Ablahad (2009). "The Arabic Dialect of Tillo in the Region of Siirt" (PDF). Uppsala Universitet, Department of African and Asian Languages.
  5. ↑ Christen in der islamischen Welt – Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte (APuZ 26/2008)
  6. ↑ Die Bevölkerungsgruppen in Istanbul (türkisch) Archived February 3, 2012, at the Wayback Machine.
  7. ↑ Translation of the Treaty of Lausanne (1923). The original text was in French.
  8. ↑ Die Nusairier weltweit und in der Türkei (türkisch)
  9. ↑ Christen in der islamischen Welt – Aus Politik und Zeitgeschichte (APuZ 26/2008)
  10. ↑ Ali Tayyar Önder: Türkiye'nin etnik yapısı: Halkımızın kökenleri ve gerçekler. Kripto Kitaplar, Istanbul 2008, ISBN 605-4125-03-6, S. 103. (in Turkish)
  11. ↑ Tu. Turkey: Languages. Accessed on 19 September 2013.
  12. ↑ "Toplumsal yapı araştırması 2006" (PDF). KONDA Research and Consultancy. 2006. pp. 15–16. Retrieved May 10, 2012. .(Turkish)

Further Reading

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