The Turks (Turkish: Türkler), or the Turkish people (Türk Halkı), are a nation (millet) in the meaning an ethnos (Halk in Turkish), defined more by a sense of sharing a common Turkish culture and having a Turkish mother tongue, than by citizenship, religion or by being subjects to any particular country. In a historic context the word Turk or Turkish has also a wider meaning, because—especially in the past—it referred to all Muslim inhabitants of the Ottoman Empire irrespective of their ethnicity. Today, the word is primarily used for the inhabitants of Turkey, but may also refer to the members of sizeable Turkish-speaking populations in Bulgaria, Cyprus and other lands of the former Ottoman Empire, as well as parts of Central Asia and the ex-Soviet Union. Large Turkish communities have also been established in Western Europe (particularly in Germany), North America and Australia.
Etymology
The term Turkish people has several usages. In the most common form it refers to the people of Turkey. It may also be used to refer to those people with Turkish ancestry outside of Turkey. Turkish citizens who have been naturalized as a citizen of other countries may also be referred to as "Turkish".
Türk, which means "strong" in Old Turkic and usually signifying the inhabitants of Turkey or a member of the Turkish or Turkic peoples,[23] a later form of "tu-kin", name given by the Chinese to the people living south of the Altay Mountains of Central Asia as early as 177 BC;[24] and the abstract suffix -iye, which means "owner" or "related to". The term "Türk" or "Türük" was first used as an autonym in the Orkhon inscriptions of the Göktürks (Sky Turks) of Central Asia. The English word "Turkey" is derived from the Medieval Latin "Turchia" (c.1369).[24]
The term Turk had negative connotations in Europe that were established during the Crusades and the period of Ottoman expansion. In medieval Christian European circles, it was used interchangeably with the term Muslim and generally had such derogatory connotations as infidel and savage.[25][26][27][28] It is a neutral term related to ethnicity in Turkic languages.
The Turkish term, Türk, can also be used with several meanings. In official use, it generally refers to Turkish citizens. Colloquially, it is often used to refer to Turkish ethnicity. The inability or unwillingness to distinguish between the two meanings is a cause of much friction in Turkish society. In Turkish, the word Türk can also mean "Turkish" as, for example, in ''Türk müziği: "Turkish music". The word Türki is used to refer to Turkic elements present in a larger geography, and Türkmen, in Turkey, is not only the name given to brethren in the Caucasus, Middle East and Central Asia, but also, within the borders of Turkey, to those parts of the population, usually rural, who have preserved some kind of attachment with the former semi-nomadic lifestyle (yörüks that live through folklore and traditions, in arts like carpet-weaving, with the continued habit of keeping a yayla house for the summers, sometimes in relation to the Alevi community etc.).
History
The name "Turk" first appeared in history in the 6th century CE in Central Asia.[29][30] The Göktürks chose Ötüken, as a base and established khanates. The new state called the Göktürk Empire was founded at the foot of the Altay Mountains. Later they spread out and became an empire.
Throughout history, the Turks have established numerous states in various geographical regions on the continents of Asia, Europe and Africa. Turks brought their culture to the places to which they had migrated or invaded and were also affected by the existing cultures of these regions.
Anatolia, the landmass that is now Turkey, had been a cradle to a wide variety of civilizations and kingdoms in antiquity. Major civilizations and peoples that have settled in or invaded Anatolia include the Amazons, Arabs, Armenians, Assyrians, Byzantines , Celts, Cimmerians, Colchians, Etruscans, Galatians, Goths, Greeks, Hattians, Hittites, Ionians, Kurds, Luwians, Lydians, Meshechs, Mongols, Pelasgians, Persians, Phrygians, Romans, Tabals, Troyans, ancient Turks and Urartians.
The Oğuz were the main Turkic people who moved into Anatolia after 1072 CE. Small bands of Turks began their migration following the victory of the Seljuks, led by Alp Arslan, against the Byzantines at the Battle of Manzikert and this paved the way for Turkish dominance in Anatolia. This also marked the beginning of the decline of the Byzantine empire. In the centuries after Manzikert, the relatively small number of Turkic immigrants began to assimilate local populations as their numbers grew. Anatolia was an ethnic mosaic, a region with a wide variety of peoples, but dominated by the Byzantine Greeks and other prominent regional groups such as Armenians, Kurds, and others.
Over time, as word spread regarding the victory of the Turks in Anatolia, more Turkic ghazis arrived from the Caucasus, Persia and Central Asia. These groups in turn merged with the local inhabitants as a slow process of conversion to Islam took place, thanks in large measure to the efforts of the sufis, that helped to bolster the Turkish-speaking population. Many Sufi orders sprang up and quickly became very popular by means of the numerous Sufi lodges throughout the region. Many people were attracted to this form of Islam (which incorporated local customs and rites) and as a result many people converted to the faith. Adoption of the Turkish language, culture and customs often followed conversion to Islam.
It is to be noted that the Ottoman Empire was erected from Oghuz Turk ethicity in the beginning based at Söğüt, west region of Turkey. But there were many non-Turkic speaking Muslims in the Ottoman Empire particularly in areas outside the core Anatolian and southern Balkan regions. Following the Balkan Wars and the Russian conquest of the Caucasus and annexation of Crimea, many Turkic speaking Muslims in the North Caucasus, Balkans and Crimea emigrated to the territory of present day Turkey. After the fall of the Ottoman Empire and formation of the Republic of Turkey, these various cultures and languages melded into one supra identity and culture. Therefore modern Turks constitute a melting pot of all peoples in the Ottoman Empire.
By the late 19th century, Turks were relatively evenly spread throughout Anatolia and the Balkans. But territorial losses in the Balkans sparked a large scale exodus from that region. This was finalised by a population exchange between Greece and Turkey in the aftermath of World War One involving the transfer of a substantial number of ethnic Greeks in Turkey to Greece and vice versa, ethnic Turks in Greece to Turkey.
These migrations and later populations movements would continue to impact the modern Turkish people as the rise of the Ottoman Empire made Turkey into a world power and a focal point for a wide variety of peoples.
The modern Turks
The Turks of Turkey can be broken down into a variety of segments and the majority of self-identifying Turks include four main groupings: Balkan Turks who are mostly of Hunnic/Avar origin, Anatolian Turks who compose the bulk of ethnic Turks found in Anatolia, traces of many ancient civilizations including Celts, (see history section) Central Asian Turks (Oghuz Turks) who remain a sizable segment of the population that has been migrating to Turkey for the last millennium and Eurasian Turks(Kipchak Turks)that has been migrating to Turkey for the last two millenniums from Russia and the Caucasus such as the Kipchak Turks, Tatars and Azerbaijani Turks who have more recent ties with Caucasian Turkic peoples. All These Turks share same language and cultures, slightly different dialects.
Turkish phenotypes and diversity
While the majority of Turks do bear a common Euroasian appearance similar to Europeans, Mediterreneans and Central Asians, there are large visible exceptions that are a testament to the legacy of population movements into the region. People walking in a Turkish street or watching a Turkish movie can see Turks of most physical types prevalent in the country, from the blond haired and-blue-eyed European looking to Asian looking individuals. Turkey was a home to many other vast former civilizations, there is no country in the world that this many civilizations have lived and called as a bridge from east to west, west to east.
Proving the difficulty of classifying ethnicities living in Turkey, there are as many classifications as the number of scientific attempts to make these classifications. Turkey is not a unique example for that and many European countries (e.g. France, Germany) bear a similar ethnic diversity. So, the immense variety observed in the published figures for the percentages of Turkish people living in Turkey (ranging from 75 to 97%) totally depends on the method used to classify the ethnicities. Complicating the matter even more is the fact that the last official and country-wide classification of spoken languages (which do not exactly coincide with ethnic groups) in Turkey was performed in 1965, and many of the figures published after that time remain static estimates.
It is necessary to take into account all these difficulties and be cautious while evaluating the ethnic identity of the Turks.
Possible Genetic Links
A 2003 genetic study shows that some Turkish Anatolian tribes may have some ancestors who originated in an area called Turkestan at the end of the Xiongnu period (3rd century BCE to the 2nd century CE). According to the study, modern Anatolian Turks appear to have some common genetic markers with the remains found at the Xiongnu period graves in Turkestan:
Interestingly, this paternal lineage has been, at least in part (6 of 7 STRs), found in a present-day Turkish individual (Henke et al. 2001). Moreover, the mtDNA(female link) sequence shared by four of these paternal relatives (from graves 46, 52, 54, and 57) were also found in Turkish individuals (Comas et al. 1996), suggesting a possible Turkish origin of these ancient specimens. Two other individuals buried in the B sector (graves 61 and 90) were characterized by mtDNA(female link) sequences found in Turkish people (Calafell 1996; Richards et al. 2000).[31][32]
Geographic distribution
Turks primarily live in Turkey. Significant minorities of Turks live in neighboring Bulgaria (see Turks in Bulgaria), Cyprus (see Turkish Cypriots), the Western Thrace region of Greece, Republic of Macedonia, the Dobruja region of Romania and Kosovo (especially in Prizren).
Immigration in the 20th century has resulted in large Turkish communities in Germany, America and Australia. Sizable populations are (note that these are figures for Turkish nationals) also found in France (400,000[33]), the Netherlands (350,000[34]), the United Kingdom (300,000[35]), Austria (250,000[36]), Belgium (120,000[37]), Saudi Arabia (120,000[38]), Switzerland (80,000[39]), Denmark (35,000-50,000[40][41]), Sweden (35,000)[42] Italy (11.077)[43]) and Liechtenstein (884)[44]).
In the United States, the largest Turkish communities are found in New York City, Chicago, Miami, and Los Angeles.
Culture
The culture of Turkey is a diverse one, derived from various elements of the Ottoman Empire, European, and the Islamic traditions.
Because of the different historical factors playing an important role in defining a Turkish identity, the culture of Turkey is an interesting combination of clear efforts to be "modern" and Western, alongside a desire to maintain traditional religious and historical values.
Language
The Turkish language is a member of the Oghuz subdivision of Turkic languages, which in turn is a branch of the proposed Altaic language family.[45][46][47] Turkish is for the most part, mutually intelligible with other Oghuz languages like Azeri, Crimean Tatar, Gagauz, Turkmen and Urum, and to a lesser extent with other Turkic languages.
Modern Turkish differs greatly from the Ottoman Turkish language, the administrative and literary language of the Ottoman Empire, which was influenced heavily by Arabic and Persian. During the Ottoman period, the language was essentially a mixture of Turkish, Persian, and Arabic, differing considerably from the everyday language spoken by the empire's Turkish subjects, to the point that they had to hire arzıhâlcis (request-writers) to communicate with the state. After the proclamation of the Turkish Republic in early 20th century, many of the foreign borrowings in the language were replaced with Turkic equivalents in a language reform by the newly founded Turkish Language Association. Almost all government documents and literature from the Ottoman period and the early years of the Republic are thus unintelligible to today's Turkish-speaker without translation.
Historically, there were many dialects of Turkish that were spoken throughout Anatolia and the Balkans that differed significantly from each other. After the proclamation of the Republic, the Istanbul dialect was adopted as the standard. There is no official effort to protect regional dialects, and some are currently under threat of disappearing as they face the standard language used in the media and educational system.
Music
Turkey is a country in Southeast Europe and on the eastern shore of the Mediterranean Sea, and is a crossroads of cultures from across Europe, North Africa, the Middle East, the Caucasus and South and Central Asia. The music of Turkey includes elements of Central Asian folk music, Arabic, Persian classical music, ancient Greco-Roman music and modern European and American popular music. Turkey, rich in musical heritage, has developed this art in two areas, Turkish classical music (similar to Greco- Roman) and Turkish folk music (Similar to Central Asian). The biggest Turkish pop star of the 20th century was probably Sezen Aksu, known for overseeing the Turkish contribution to the Eurovision Song Contest and was known for her light pop music.
European classical composers in the 18th century were fascinated by Turkish music, particularly the strong role given to the brass and percussion instruments in Ottoman Janissary bands called Mehter who were the fist marching military band in History. 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. Mozart wrote the "Ronda alla turca" in his Sonata in A major and also used Turkish themes in his operas. Although this Turkish influence was a fad, it 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.
Turkish pop music boasts numerous mainstream artists with wide followance since the 1960s like Ajda Pekkan and Sezen Aksu, and younger pop stars like Sertab Erener, Tarkan and Mustafa Sandal. Underground music and the genres of electronica, hip-hop, rap and dance music saw an increased demand and activity following the 1990s.
Turkish rock music, sometimes referred to as Anatolian rock, initiated during the 1960s by individuals like Cem Karaca, Barış Manço, and Erkin Koray, has seen wide-range success and has grown a considerable fan base. A few of the more mainstream Turkish rock bands include Mor ve Ötesi, Duman, and maNga. Individual rock performers like Şebnem Ferah, Özlem Tekin, and Teoman have substantial fan-bases. Turkey also boasts numerous large-scale rock festivals and events. Annually held rock festivals include Barışarock, H2000 Music Festival, Rock'n Coke, and RockIstanbul, during many of which internationally renowned bands / artists frequently take the stage together with Turkish artists.
In 2003, a Turkish singer Sertab Erener won the Eurovision Song Contest with her song Everyway That I Can.
Literature
The history of Turkish literature is traced back to Orkhon inscriptions. Most of the Turkish literature before the adaptation of Islam was verbal literature. With the adaptation of Islam, Turks were influenced with Persian culture and they developed literature using the Persian structures, such as mesnevi, gazel etc. With the 19th century and tanzimat period, artists began to use western structures. The republican period is dominated with western forms of literature.
Poetry
Prose
The backgrounds of current novelists can be traced back to "Young Pens" (Genç Kalemler) journal in Ottoman period. Young Pens was published in Selanik under the Ömer Seyfettin, Ziya Gökalp ve Ali Canip Yontem. They covered the social and political concepts of their time with the nationalistic perspective. They became the core of a movement which will be called national literature.
With the declaration of republic, Turkish literature becomes interested in folkloric styles. This was also the first time the literature was escaping from the western influence and begin to mix western forms with other forms. During the 1930s Yakup Kadri Karaosmanoglu ve Vedat Nedim Tor begin to publish KADRO. KADRO was revolutionary in its look at the life.
Orhan Pamuk is a leading Turkish novelist of post-modern literature. He is hugely popular in his homeland, but also with a growing readership around the globe. As one of Europe's most prominent novelists, his work has been translated into more than twenty languages. He is the recipient of major Turkish and international literary awards. The most recent of his novels is "Snow." Pamuk is the winner of Nobel Prize for Literature in 2006, with his melancholic point of view to various cultures in Istanbul. However, a big debate is goning on in Turkey about Pamuk's winning; many Turks think that he won the prize by his political ideas.
Religion
The vast majority of Turks are at least in a nominal sense, Muslim. The most popular sect is Sunnism of the Hanafite school, which was the type that was officially espoused by the Ottoman Empire. There are also however, a significant number who adhere to Alevism (estimated at 15-20%). Historically Sufism has been a significant influence on Turkish culture (notably the Mevlevi and Nakshbandi orders) and played a large role in the conversion of Turks to Islam. Today, secularization and other modern influences mean that religious identity often tends to be based more on cultural tradition and heritage more than actual belief in religious dogma. Despite this, many Turks acknowledge Islam's tremendous role in shaping Turkish history and it's not uncommon for a person with privately Atheistic or Agnostic beliefs to associate with the religion.
See also
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Notes
- ^ CIA - The World Factbook - Turkey
- ^ US Library of Congress Country Studies: Turkey-Linguistic and Ethnic Groups
- ^ DeutscheWelle - New rules for Muslims in German state
- ^ a b c d e f g h Citation needed.
- ^ 2005 (see Demographics of the Netherlands)
- ^ ATCA news:National census held on 01/05/06 records a population of 264,172
- ^ Ethnologue report for Uzbekistan
- ^ Statistik Austria report, page 75 (2001)
- ^ 2000 US Census - Ancestry report
- ^ Turkish Forum - Turkish Americans
- ^ 2002 Russian census - Nationality report
- ^ Statistik Schweiz - Wohnbevölkerung nach Nationalität (2000)
- ^ 2002 Macedonian census
- ^ 2002 Romanian census
- ^ 2001 Australian census - Ancestry report
- ^ Australian Turks wait anxiously for earthquake news
- ^ Athens Panteion University announcement (2002) - latest (2001) census, Greek citizens of Turkish origin; the Muslim minority of Thrace, consists of 114.000 people (including Rom and Pomaks)
- ^ Beginner's guide to the Balkans
- ^ Minority Within a Minority-- For Ethnic Turks, Serbian War is Another Chapter in a 600 Year Old Story
- ^ 1999 Azerbaijani census
- ^ 2001 Canadian census - Ancestry report
- ^ Federation of Canadian Turkish Associations - representing 50,000 Turkish Canadians
- ^ American Heritage Dictionary (2000). "The American Heritage® Dictionary of the English Language: Fourth Edition - "Turk"". Houghton Mifflin Company. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
- ^ a b Douglas Harper (2001). "Online Etymology Dictionary - "Turk"". Online Etymology Dictionary. Retrieved 2006-12-27.
- ^ DavidWarrenOnline - "The infidel Turk", November 22, 2003
- ^ BBC News - "Russia and Serbia: an instinct for melancholy", June 24, 1998
- ^ All about Turkey - "The Ottomans and their dynasty"
- ^ The Observer - "How I learned to love Greece again", March 20, 2005
- ^ Encyclopædia Britannica
- ^ Columbia Encyclopedia
- ^ Christine Keyser-Tracqui, Eric Crubézy, and Bertrand Ludes. [http://www.journals.uchicago.edu/AJHG/journal/issues/v73n2/35013/35013.web.pdf Nuclear and Mitochondrial DNA Analysis of a 2,000-Year-Old Necropolis in the Egyin Gol Valley of Mongolia]. American Journal of Human Genetics 73:247–260, 2003.
- ^ Nancy Touchette. Ancient DNA Tells Tales from the Grave, Genome News Network.
- ^ French Turks Cling To Homeland Traditions, Turks.US Daily News. October 25 2004
- ^ EU debate on Turkey talks continues. Turks.US Daily News. November 11 2004.
- ^ Sedat LAÇİNER. Armenian Diaspora in Britain and the Armenian Question. The Journal of Turkish Weekly. 26 May 2005.
- ^ Turkey begins membership talks with European Union. Pravda, 5 October 2005.
- ^ [1]
- ^ Gerald Robbins. Fostering an Islamic Reformation. American Outlook. Spring 2002.
- ^ [2]
- ^ Germany: Turks. Migration News Vol. 6 No. 4, September 1999.
- ^ Demographics of Denmark.
- ^ Demographics of Sweden.
- ^ [3]
- ^ Liechtenstein – Turkey: A comparison
- ^ Georg, S., Michalove, P.A., Manaster Ramer, A., Sidwell, P.J.: "Telling general linguists about Altaic", Journal of Linguistics 35 (1999): 65-98 Online abstract and link to free pdf
- ^ Altaic Family Tree
- ^ Linguistic Lineage for Turkish
References
- Bosworth, Clifford E. The History of the Seljuq Turks: From the Jami al-Tawarikh.
- Findley, Carter Vaughn. The Turks in World History.
- Petkova, Lilia. The Ethnic Turks in Bulgaria: Social Integration and Impact on Bulgaria-Turkish Relations, 1947-2000.
- Shaw, George Stanford. History of the Ottoman Empire and Modern Turkey.
- Ethnologue report for the Turkish language
- DNA Diversity in Turkey
- Germany's Second Doubts Abouts its Turkish population
- Mitochondrial DNA sequence variation in the Anatolian Peninsula (Turkey)
- Excavating Y-chromosome haplotype strata in Anatolia
- The NGM Study "Who were the Phoenicians" and the Return of the Phoenicians (includes links of modern Turks and some ties to the Ancient Phoenicians)
- Turkey: Country Studies from the US Library of Congress
- BBC News Country Profile for Turkey
- Cultural Exchange Programs in Turkey
- Council of Europe's Turkey Page