Balkan Turks

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French ethnographic map of "European Turkey and its vassals" from 1861 (the Turks in red)
Rumelia in the European part of the Ottoman Empire

Balkan Turks or Rumelia Turks ( Turkish Rumeli Türkleri , also Balkan Türkleri ) have settled in Rumelia , i.e. in the European part of the Ottoman Empire , since the 14th century .

Although many Turks emigrated or were expelled to Asia Minor and Eastern Thrace when Ottoman rule was pushed back from south-eastern Europe in the course of the 19th and the beginning of the 20th century , some of them stayed in their settlement areas in the Balkans . In some south-east European countries they still form larger national minorities.

history

Soon after the Ottoman expansion expanded into south-eastern Europe, Turkish immigration to the Balkans began in the late 14th century.

In simplified terms, these settlers can be divided into two groups:

  1. Ottoman officials and soldiers who were needed to rule the conquered countries settled in all the larger cities . Muslim clergymen came to the cities to look after them, and they also had to ensure the spread of Islam among the long-established population. Merchants who got involved in Balkan trade and craftsmen who hoped for an economic rise in the new provinces soon followed . The chances of this were good because as Muslims they were given legal and tax preferential treatment.
  2. In the Romanian core countries of Thrace and Macedonia , Turks also settled in large numbers in the countryside. On the one hand, nomads came from Asia Minor who made their living from livestock farming, and the number of Turkish farmers who settled in the countries on the northern edge of the Aegean was even greater . Turkish farmers also settled in Dobruja .

In the multi-ethnic Ottoman Empire there was no separation of the different population groups according to ethnic and linguistic criteria. The most important distinguishing criterion was religion. There was no clear separation between the Turks and the rest of the Muslims until the awakening of modern nationalism . Many inhabitants of the Balkans used several languages ​​anyway. The educated Muslims, regardless of their origin, naturally mastered the administrative language Turkish , the cult language Arabic , the respective national language and often Persian .

In the areas where large parts of the population converted to Islam, the Turks quickly mingled with the long-established population. In Bosnia and Albania in particular, there was a Slavic or Albanian-speaking Muslim population as early as the beginning of the 16th century, but only very few Turks. In Greece and Serbia , where most of the residents remained Christians, the Turks in the cities largely kept to themselves. The Turkish quarters existed until the 19th century when these countries gained independence. The same was true of the Turkish peasant population in Thrace and parts of Macedonia . When these areas were incorporated into the south-east European nation-states, most of the Turkish farmers stayed there. Immediately before World War I , Bulgaria , Greece and Serbia (in Vardar-Macedonia and Kosovo ) had large Turkish minorities within their borders.

Most of the Balkan Turks were expelled from Greece between 1913 and 1922. In the course of the Treaty of Lausanne it was only stipulated that the Turks living in the Greek western Thrace were allowed to stay in the country. Neither in Greece, nor in Bulgaria nor in Serbian-dominated Yugoslavia, the Turks were granted minority rights during the interwar period. Everywhere they were second-class citizens who were seen as foreign bodies in the new nation-states. The Christian majorities often referred to all Muslims in their countries as Turks , although this attribution was meant derogatory, because the Turks were considered arch enemies of the Christian Balkan peoples in the era of nationalism. Overall, around 27% of Muslims died in all Balkan states between 1914 and 1925, and over 60% emigrated to Turkey or were expelled there.

Even after the Second World War , the Turkish minorities in Greece, Yugoslavia and Bulgaria were more or less strongly suppressed. For this reason and also because of the poor economic situation, emigration to Turkey and later to Western Europe has never come to a complete standstill. Balkan Turks less connected to Islam assimilated themselves to the majority population at the same time, so that the Turkish proportion of the population in the Balkan states is declining everywhere.

Cultural influence of the Turks in the Balkans

The centuries-long rule of the Ottomans has led to a profound cultural change in south-eastern Europe that affected almost all areas of life. The Turks made the Islamic religion at home in the Balkans; see the article: Islam in Europe . In the wake of the new religion, legal institutions from the Islamic cultural area also spread in the Balkans, for example: Vakuf and Esnaf . Numerous foreign words have been adopted from the Turkish language in the Balkan idioms, and the literatures of Southeast Europe have also taken up motifs and themes from the Islamic culture that the Turks conveyed. Ottoman architecture shaped the image of the south-east European cities with mosques , madrasas , baths , bridges and more. As a rule, Ottoman architecture , which itself was partly based on Byzantine models, entered into a fruitful symbiosis with local traditions. The Turks rarely founded new cities in the Balkans, for example: Sarajevo and Elbasan . The Ottomans also enriched agriculture in the Balkans with new cultures, for example: Expansion of rice cultivation in Thrace and Macedonia. The influence of Turkish culinary art is still very strong today among all Balkan peoples.

Language and dialects

The Balkan Turks have always been part of the Turkish language community and speak various dialects of the Ottoman-Turkish language , while the written language is modern Turkish.

Modern Turkish has a very strong influence on the dialects spoken by the Balkan Turks, with the language influencing the modern media such as television or radio, but also the newspapers. The mother tongue lessons in the minority schools are also based on the modern written Turkish language and thus contribute to leveling the linguistic differences. The major dialects of the Turks in the Balkans were:

  1. Danube Turkish (Danubija)
  2. Rumelia Turkish (Rumelija)
  3. Yörük Turkish (Yörük Türkçesi)
  4. various partial dialects of Gagauz (not of Ottoman origin; see Gagauz )

Turkish minorities today

Balkan Turks mainly settle in the following countries:

  1. BulgariaBulgaria Bulgaria : 588,000 (2011 census)
  2. GreeceGreece Greece : 80,000-120,000
  3. North MacedoniaNorth Macedonia North Macedonia : 77,959 (according to 2002 census in Macedonia)
  4. RomaniaRomania Romania : 35,000
  5. KosovoKosovo Kosovo : 18,738 (2011 census, but higher estimates)

Bulgaria

About 8.8% percent of the total Bulgarian population are Turks. They make up the majority in numerous cities and districts, for example in Razgrad Oblast (north) and Kardzhali (south). The largest mosque in Bulgaria is located in the northeastern Bulgarian town of Shumen and is also one of the largest mosques in the entire Balkans. The best-known Bulgarian Turk was the Young Turkish Grand Vizier Talat Pascha , and several other Turkish Grand Viziers came from Rustschuk . The Turkish minority in Bulgaria has also produced several internationally outstanding athletes, especially weightlifters and wrestlers.

After the collapse of Ottoman rule in 1878 to emigrate to Turkey began what was repeated under communist rule, when hundreds of thousands Turks and Pomaks before the state-imposed Bulgarisierung fled. In three waves of emigration 1950/51: 155,000, 1968–1978: 130,000 and 1989: 370,000 (of which 154,000 returned) they left the country for Turkey. Nevertheless, the share of the Turkish population has remained roughly the same due to the higher birth rate. Nevertheless, the number of Turks living in Bulgaria rose from 531,240 in 1900 to 746,664 in 2001. It reached its highest level in 1992 with 800,052.

The demographic development of the Turkish minority - as well as that of the majority population - has been characterized by strong emigration for economic reasons over the past ten years. Turkey, but also Germany, are frequent destinations of these emigrants, who often start out as seasonal workers before finally moving their center of life from Bulgaria. In addition, due to higher education and a better standard of living, the birth rate is getting closer to that of the majority population. Against this background and in line with the general population decline in the country, the number of ethnic Turks in Bulgaria fell from 747,000 in 2001 to only 588,000 in 2011.

After the collapse of communism, the Turkish minority has been represented in parliament with its own party ( Movement for Civil Rights and Freedoms , DPS - Dwischenie sa Prawa i Swobodi, ДПС) since 1991 , although ethnic parties according to the Bulgarian constitution (Article 11, para. 4) are forbidden. In addition, there are other parties, mostly spin-offs from the DPS, which have not yet been able to enter parliament. The DPS has held local power in many of the ethnically mixed areas since the late 1990s and has considerable economic influence there. From 2001 to 2009 she was involved with several ministers in two of the country's governments. On the one hand, the DPS has made a significant contribution to ethnic stability in Bulgaria and defused the conflicts from the communist era; on the other hand, allegations of election manipulation (election tourism, buying votes) and neo-patrimonial structures, including corruption, are often raised against them. Since it was founded in 1990, the party has long been chaired by the prominent and controversial politician Ahmed Dogan .

Turks form the largest group of Muslims in Bulgaria, including the Slavic-speaking Pomaks and Muslim Roma .

In contrast to the Pomaks, the Turks are recognized as an ethnic minority ; many Pomaks and Muslim Roma also consider themselves to be Turks today. Pomaks tend to identify as Turks, especially in areas where the majority of the population is Bulgarian. In predominantly Turkish-populated areas, it is exactly the opposite, which is interpreted by science as a sign of its fear of assimilation and appropriation. Roma show exactly the opposite pattern. Fearing pervasive discrimination, they prefer to belong to the local majority population and often identify accordingly.

On January 11, 2012, the Bulgarian parliament unanimously passed a declaration against the assimilation policy of the former totalitarian regime towards the Muslim minority . The statement was submitted by the chairman of the conservative Blue Coalition Ivan Kostov .

Romania

Only two areas of today's Romania had been under direct Ottoman-Turkish rule: 1393–1878 the Dobrudscha in the far east of Romania and 1551–1718 the Banat in the far west of the country. While Turks and Tatars still live in Dobruja, all Turks were expelled from the Banat after the Austrian conquest. Another Turkish community until 1971 was Ada Kaleh , an island on the Danube on the border with Yugoslavia .

In the “stronghold”, the Constanța district , only 6% of the population are Turkish or Tatar Muslims. In addition, there is one representative each of the “Democratic Union of Turkish-Islamic Tatars of Romania” ( Uniunea Democrată a Tătarilor Turco-Musulmani din România ) and the “Turkish Democratic Union of Romania” ( Uniunea Democrată Turcă din România ) in parliament.

The number of the Turkic-speaking population in North Dobruja at different times:

Survey year Turks Tatars
1880 18,624 (13%) 29,476 (21%)
1899 12,146 (4%) 28,670 (11%)
1913 20,092 (5.3%) 21,350 (5.6%)
1930 21,748 (5%) 15,546 (3.6%)
1956 11,994 (2%) 20,239 (3.4%)
1966 16,209 (2.3%) 21,939 (3.1%)
1977 21,666 (2.5%) 22,875 (2.65%)
1992 27,685 (2.7%) 24,185 (2.4%)
2002 27,643 (2.85%) 23,404 (2.4%)

In addition, around 2500 Gagauz , a Christian Turkic people , live in northern Dobruja.

Moldova

Mustafa Bairaktar , who was Ottoman Grand Vizier until his death in 1808 , was born in Chotyn , which once belonged to the Romanian Principality of Moldova and then directly to the Ottoman Empire . Two other Turkish grand viziers who held office between 1821 and 1828 came from the Moldovan town of Bender .

A Christian Turkic people are the Gagauz , who have an autonomous republic ( Gagauzia ) in the south of today's Moldova, but have also lived in the neighboring areas of Romania ( North Dobruja ), Bulgaria ( South Dobruja ) and the Ukraine ( Budschak ) since the 13th century .

Greece (Western Thrace)

The Turkish minority of Greece, the Western Thrace Turks ( Batı Trakya Türkleri ), are the only group of Balkan Turks whose minority rights have been negotiated with Turkey (see Treaty of Lausanne ). The Western Thrace Turks are also the only group of the Balkan Turks today that is not recognized as a Turkish minority . Together with all other citizens of Western Thrace Muslim faith, the Western Thrace Turks are recognized as a Muslim minority (official name: Muslim inhabitants of Western Thrace ). The Muslim minority is the only minority in the country recognized by Greece.

The greater part of the Western Thrace Turks now live in the diaspora . According to the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe, the number of emigrated Western Thrace Turks and their descendants today is as follows: 700,000 live in Turkey , 15,000 in Germany , 1,000 in Australia , 700 in the Netherlands , 700 in Belgium , 400 in the USA and 300 in the UK .

However, the numbers mentioned refer to three groups that are generally referred to as Western Thrace Turks, sometimes also Muslim Greeks:

  • ethnic Turks who settled in the area around Komotini, Xanthi and Alexandroupolis of the then Ottoman Empire since the late 14th century ;
  • the Slavic Pomaks, who lived in this region before the Ottoman Empire;
  • Roma who were originally Christian immigrants and who adopted the Muslim faith during the time of the Ottoman Empire.

Human Rights Watch states that approximately 300,000 to 400,000 Turks have left their homeland in western Thrace since 1920. The numbers of the Federation of Western Thrace Turks in Europe also include their descendants.

In addition, there are a small number of Turks in Greece in the Dodecanese , especially in Rhodes and Kos. Since these islands were under the sovereignty of Italy and not Greece at the time of the population exchange in 1923, the Turks there were also not covered by the forced relocation agreement between Turkey and Greece.

North Macedonia

A notable Turkish minority still lives in North Macedonia today. According to the 2002 census in Macedonia, 77,959 inhabitants identified themselves as Turks, that is 3.9% of the total population. In cities like Tetovo , Bitola, Veles, Debar , Skopje , Kičevo , Struga , Štip , Ohrid and especially in Gostivar, there are larger Turkish communities alongside Albanian and Macedonian communities.

In North Macedonia there are three parties of Macedonians of Turkish origin. With three MPs, only one of them is currently represented in the Macedonian parliament - the Turkish Democratic Party ( Turkish : Turk democrat partisi ). The chairman of the Turkish Democratic Party is Dr. Kenan Hasip . There are also several Turkish-speaking schools.

Kosovo

Population share of Turks in Kosovo (as of 2005)

With the conquest of the Balkans, Turkish settlers also came to Kosovo . They usually settled in cities and formed the middle and upper classes of society during Ottoman rule. After the conquest of Kosovo by Serbia and in the era of the Yugoslav kingdom between the world wars, many of them fled to the mother country or were resettled.

There are currently 18,738 ethnic Turks living in Kosovo according to the 2011 census, but estimates suggest a higher number. The centers of the Turkish community are the cities of Mamuša and Prizren . The Turks have their own party, the Kosova Demokratie Türk Partisi (Democratic Turkish Party of Kosovo) , with three seats in the Kosovo parliament. In addition to the official languages ​​Albanian and Serbian, Turkish is officially permitted in some of the predominantly Turkish-populated communities.

In Prizren there is the radio station Yeni Dönem , it broadcasts mainly in Turkish, plus one hour a day in Albanian, Bosnian and Romani. The Turkish newspaper of the same name, Yeni Dönem, appears once a week. According to the OSCE, the Turkish minority in the city of Prizren enjoys a comparatively high degree of influence and reputation, and even many Albanians in Prizren are therefore able to speak Turkish.

Well-known representatives of the Turkish minority

From today's Bulgaria

From today's Greece

Others

literature

1. Turks in Bulgaria

  • Petar-Emil Mitev: From Neighborhood to Citizenship. The Bulgarians and the Turkish minority. (= Current analyzes of the Federal Institute for Eastern and International Studies. No. 10/2000). Cologne 2000.
  • Valeri Stojanov: The Turkish minority in Bulgaria until the end of the Second World War. In: Österreichische Osthefte. 36: 279-294 (1994).
  • James W. Warhola: The Turkish minority in contemporary Bulgaria. In: Nationalities papers. 31 (2003), pp. 225-280.
  • Ömer Turan: The Turkish minority in Bulgaria (1878–1908). Ankara 1998. ISBN 975-16-0955-0
  • Ali Eminov: Turkish and other Muslim minorities in Bulgaria. London 1997. ISBN 1-85065-319-4
  • Vassil Vassilev: Nationalism under the Red Star: Prehistory, implementation and effects of the name change campaign 1984-89 against the Turkish minority in Bulgaria, LIT, Münster 2008, ISBN 978-3825812966

2. Turks in Western Thrace (Greece)

  • Michael Ackermann: The Turkish minority in Western Thrace. History and present. (= Southeast Study Series. Vol. 5). Ulm 2000. ISBN 3-87336-001-2
  • News magazine Focus: Trouble with Greece - Political explosives: The Turkish minority in Western Thrace chose Germany as a protest platform , issue of April 29, 1995
  • News magazine Focus: Muslims or Turks? - Trouble with Greece , May 22nd 1995 edition
  • Olga Maya Demetriou: Divisive visions. A study of minority identities among Turkish speakers in Komotini, northern Greece. Diss. London 2002.

3. Turks in the Republic of Macedonia

  • Виолета Ачкоска: Иселувањето на Турците од НР Македонија по Втората светска војна (1945–1960). [The emigration of the Turks from the VR Macedonia after the Second World War (1945–1960)]. In: ИСТОРИЈА 38 (2002), pp. 89-102.
  • Thede Kahl: Ethnic Groups in the Republic of Macedonia and their Demographic Characteristics. In: Schubert, Gabriella (Ed.): Makedonien. Imprints and perspectives. Wiesbaden, pp. 57-80.

4. Turks in ex-Yugoslavia

  • Charles NO Bartlett: The Turkish minority in Yugoslavia. [Bradford, West Yorkshire] 1980.
  • Илија Јосифовски: Македонското, албанското и турското население на село во Полог. Социолошка студија. [The Macedonian, Albanian and Turkish people in the village of Polog. Sociological Study] . Скопје 1974.
  • Vladimir Stojancevic: T ursko stanovnistvo u Srbiji pred prvi Srpski Ustanak. [The Turkish people in Serbia before the first Serbian uprising]. In: Zbornik za Drustvene Nauke. 13/14 (1956), pp. 127-134

Web links

1 General

2. Turks in Bulgaria

3. Turks in Western Thrace (Greece)

4. Turks in the Republic of Macedonia

5. Tatars and Turks in Romania

Individual evidence

  1. ^ David Nicolle : The Ottomans - 600 Years of the Islamic World Empire, page 184. Vienna 2008.
  2. ↑ Wolfgang Höpken: Between cultural conflict and repression. The Turkish minority in Bulgaria 1944–1991. In: Valeria Heuberger (Ed.): Nations, Nationalities, Minorities. Problems of nationalism in Yugoslavia, Hungary, Romania, Czechoslovakia, Bulgaria, Poland, Ukraine, Italy and Austria 1945–1990. Verlag für Geschichte und Politik, Vienna 1994, ISBN 3-7028-0326-2 , pp. 179–202, here: p. 179.
  3. ↑ Population in Bulgaria by ethnicity (Bulgarian) National Statistics Office.
  4. ↑ Marinov, Boris, 2011: The position of minorities in the political system of Bulgaria, in: Half-year publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics, vol. 23, no. 1–2, pp. 27–48, ISSN  0939-3420 .
  5. ↑ Marinov, Boris, 2011: The position of minorities in the political system of Bulgaria, in: Half-year publication for Southeast European history, literature and politics, vol. 23, no. 1–2, pp. 27–48, ISSN  0939-3420 .
  6. ↑ Eminov, Ali, 1997: Turkish and other Muslim minorities in Bulgaria . London. ISBN 1-85065-319-4 .
  7. ↑ Sofia condemns previous oppression of the Turkish minority
  8. ↑ Bulgarian Parliament passes a declaration against the assimilation policy of the former totalitarian regime towards the Muslim minority . mediapool.bg, January 11, 2012, accessed October 8, 2012 (Bulgarian).
  9. ↑ G. Danescu, Dobrogea (La Dobroudja). Étude de Géographie physique et ethnographique
  10. ↑ G. Danescu, Dobrogea (La Dobroudja). Étude de Géographie physique et ethnographique
  11. ↑ Nicolae Iorga. La population de la Dobrogea. D'apres le recensement du 1913
  12. ↑ Sabin Mănuilă. The population of the Dobroudja. Institute Central de Statistique. Bucharest
  13. ↑ Populaţia după etnie la recensămintele din perioada 1930–2002 (PDF; 1 MB)
  14. ↑ Populaţia după etnie la recensămintele din perioada 1930–2002 (PDF; 1 MB)
  15. ↑ Populaţia după etnie la recensămintele din perioada 1930–2002 (PDF; 1 MB)
  16. ↑ Populaţia după etnie la recensămintele din perioada 1930–2002 (PDF; 1 MB)
  17. ↑ Archive link ( Memento of the original from October 6, 2008 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.recensamant.ro
  18. ^ Minority Communities in the 2011 Kosovo Census Results: Analysis and Recommendations. ( Memento of the original from January 3, 2014 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. European Center for Minority Issues Kosovo, accessed February 10  @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / www.ecmikosovo.org