Albanians in Turkey

The Albanians in Turkey ( Albanian Shqiptarët në Turqi , Turkish Türkiye Arnavutları ) represent a large ethnic minority in Turkey with around one million people , which, however, is not officially recognized. About half of the Albanians emigrated after the Second World War in which Turkey one. A Çamen minority from the Greek Epirus is also part of the Albanian minority. The Albanians in Turkey are predominantly Sunni Muslims of the Hanafi direction or followers of the Bektashi order .

history

The majority of Albanians converted to Islam after their settlement areas became part of the Ottoman Empire . As members of the ruling religion, some of them were offered employment and career opportunities within the empire, for example in the army, in administration and in religious institutions. As part of these activities, they moved to various provinces and, in greater numbers, to the capital Constantinople . They quickly assimilated to the Turkish-speaking environment. Many of those who had only come from Albania in the second half of the 19th century retained their ethnic-Albanian consciousness in the age of nationalism. A part became active in the Albanian national movement. At the beginning of the 20th century, thousands of Albanians lived in Constantinople; there was also a significant Albanian community in Smyrna .

After large parts of the Albanian settlement area fell to Serbia and Greece as a result of the First Balkan War in 1912 , the new rulers put pressure on the Albanian population to leave the country. Many of them emigrated to Turkey between the world wars. The first wave of the Çamen Albanians left Greece as part of the Greek-Turkish population exchange of 1922.

After the communists came to power in Albania in 1944 under the leadership of Enver Hoxha , they began to persecute the members of the old intellectual and religious elites in particular. In the first few years after the war, several thousand opponents of the communists were able to leave the country and fled to Turkey, among other places. In Kosovo , the Albanians continued to be suppressed by the Yugoslav authorities. Tens of thousands of Muslim Albanians therefore emigrated to Turkey by the mid-1960s, which at that time was the only country to accept emigrants from Kosovo. Between 1944 and 1966, a total of 450,681 Albanians came to Turkey.

Since 1990 Turkey has also been a destination for migrant workers from Albania.

Settlement area

Albanians live mainly in Istanbul as well as in other large cities such as Ankara , Bursa , Izmir and Samsun . There are also villages populated by Albanians in the provinces of Bursa , Düzce , Edirne , Eskişehir , Kırklareli , Sakarya and Samsun ( Bafra ).

Çamen Albanians from Greece settled in the areas of Erenköy and Kartal in Istanbul as well as a certain number of cities in the vicinity of Bursa, especially Mudanya , from 1923 . After the Second World War they mainly settled in Izmir, Gemlik and Aydın .

Known Albanians

* = on paternal side of Albanian descent
** = on maternal side of Albanian descent

In the Ottoman Empire

Koçi Bey - Ottoman statesman and reformer
Namık Kemal ** - Ottoman poet and writer
Abdurrahman Abdi Pasha - Ottoman military commander and dignitary
Tepedelenli Ali Pasha - Ottoman Pasha in Janina and ruler of Epirus
Şemseddin Sami - Ottoman man of letters and important activist of the Albanian national movement

In the Republic of Turkey

Candan Erçetin - Turkish pop singer
Arif Erdem - Turkish soccer player
Mehmet Âkif Ersoy * - Turkish poet
Ahmet Piriştina - Turkish Member of Parliament and Mayor of Izmir
Yeşim Salkım - Turkish singer and actress
Ali Sami Yen - Turkish football coach and sports official
Hakan Şükür - Turkish soccer player

Web links

Commons : Albanians in Turkey - Collection of pictures, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

^ Ali Tayyar Önder: Türkiye'nin etnik yapısı: Halkımızın kökenleri ve gerçekler . Kripto Kitaplar, Istanbul 2008, ISBN 978-6-05412503-6 , p. 103 .
↑ Türkiye Ekonomik ve Sosyal Etüdler Vakfı (ed.): Türkiye'de azınlık hakları sorunu - vatandaşlık ve demokrasi eksenli bir yaklaşım . TESEV Yayınları, Istanbul 2006, ISBN 975-8112-72-4 , p. 35-40 .
↑ Kristin Fabbe: Defining Minorities and Identities - Religious Categorization and State-Making Strategies in Greece and Turkey. (PDF) Presentation at: The Graduate Student Pre-Conference in Turkish and Turkic Studies University of Washington, October 18, 2007, p. 49 , archived from the original on March 19, 2009 ; Retrieved December 19, 2012 .
^ Onur Yildirim: Diplomacy and Displacement: Reconsidering the Turco-Greek Exchange of Populations, 1922–1934 . Ed .: CRC Press. Istanbul 2006, ISBN 978-0-415-97982-5 , pp. 121 ( online version [accessed March 31, 2009]).
↑ Mal Berisha: Diaspora Shqiptare në Turqi . Ed .: ACCL Publishing. New York November 2000, p. 13 (Albanian).

[1] Ali Tayyar Önder: Türkiye'nin etnik yapısı: Halkımızın kökenleri ve gerçekler . Kripto Kitaplar, Istanbul 2008, ISBN 978-6-05412503-6 , p. 103 .

[alb-tr-2] Türkiye Ekonomik ve Sosyal Etüdler Vakfı (ed.): Türkiye'de azınlık hakları sorunu - vatandaşlık ve demokrasi eksenli bir yaklaşım . TESEV Yayınları, Istanbul 2006, ISBN 975-8112-72-4 , p. 35-40 .

[3] Kristin Fabbe: Defining Minorities and Identities - Religious Categorization and State-Making Strategies in Greece and Turkey. (PDF) Presentation at: The Graduate Student Pre-Conference in Turkish and Turkic Studies University of Washington, October 18, 2007, p. 49 , archived from the original on March 19, 2009 ; Retrieved December 19, 2012 .

[4] Onur Yildirim: Diplomacy and Displacement: Reconsidering the Turco-Greek Exchange of Populations, 1922–1934 . Ed .: CRC Press. Istanbul 2006, ISBN 978-0-415-97982-5 , pp. 121 ( online version [accessed March 31, 2009]).

[5] Mal Berisha: Diaspora Shqiptare në Turqi . Ed .: ACCL Publishing. New York November 2000, p. 13 (Albanian).