The Turks in Europe (sometimes called Euro-Turks; or Avrupa'da yaşayan Türkler or Avrupa Türkleri) refers to Turkish people living in Europe.
Generally, "Euro-Turks" refers to the large Turkish diasporas within Europe. When the term "Euro-Turks" is taken in its most literal sense, Turkish people living in the European portion of Turkey are also included in the term. Even more broadly, the Turkish Cypriot community for people living in Cyprus, which is located in Asia, has also been defined under the term "Euro-Turks" since the island joined the European Union.
It is less frequently applied to Turkic groups speaking a variety of Turkic languages that have lived in Europe before the Ottoman conquest, such as the Gagauz, Crimean Karaites and Urum Greeks, the Krymchaks, and the Dobrujan Tatars.
Turks have had a long history in Europe, dating back to when the Ottoman Empire began to conquer and migrate during the establishment of Ottoman territories in Europe ("Rumelia"), which created significant Turkish communities in Bulgaria (Bulgarian Turks), Greece (Cretan Turks, Dodecanese Turks and Western Thrace Turks), North Macedonia (Turks in North Macedonia), Kosovo (Kosovan Turks), Romania (Romanian Turks), Hungary (Hungarian Turks), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian Turks) and Serbia (Turks in Serbia).
In the first half of the 20th century, immigration of Turks to Western Europe began with Turkish Cypriots migrating to the United Kingdom in the early 1910s, when the British Empire annexed Cyprus in 1914 and the residents of Cyprus became British subjects. However, Turkish Cypriot migration increased significantly in the 1940s and 1950s due to the Cyprus conflict. Similarly, Turkish Algerians and Turkish Tunisians mainly emigrated to France after Algeria and Tunisia came under French colonial rule. Conversely, in 1944, Turks who were forcefully deported from Meskheti in Georgia during the World War II settled in other parts of the Soviet Union, especially in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and Ukraine.
In the second half of the 20th century, Turkish migration from Turkey to Western and Northern Europe increased significantly when in 1961 Turkish "Gastarbeiter" began to arrive under a "Labour Export Agreement" with West Germany, followed in 1964 by similar agreements with the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria; France in 1965; and Sweden in 1967.... Furthermore, many Balkan Turks also arrived in these countries under similar labour agreements, thus, since the 1960s there has also been a substantial Turkish Macedonian community in Sweden; Turkish Bulgarian and Turkish Western Thracian communities in Germany, etc.
More recently, in the 21st century, Turkish Bulgarians, Turkish Cypriots, Turkish Western Thracians, and Turkish Romanians have used their right as EU nationals to migrate throughout Western Europe. Furthermore, Iraqi and Syrian Turkmen have come to Europe mostly as refugees since the Iraq and Syrian civil war – especially since the 2015 European migrant crisis.
History As early as the 13th century Turkic slaves (Oghuz and Kipchak Mameluks), from Central Asia and the Pontic Steppe, had been sold to Northern Italian city states by Arab traders.Iris Origo, The Domestic Enemy: The Eastern Slaves in Tuscany in the Fourteenth and Fifteenth Centuries Speculum:A Journal of Mediaeval Studies 30 Some of the slaves were bought free and mixed in with the local Italian population.
Ottoman migration
During the rule of the Ottoman Empire (1299–1923), Turkish settlers began to move into territories in Europe as part of the Turkish expansion. Because these communities migrated to these countries during the Ottoman rule, they are not considered part of the modern Turkish diaspora. However, these populations, which have different nationalities, still share the same ethnic, linguistic, cultural and religious origins as today's Turkish nationals.
Balkan Turks The conquest of the Balkans by the Ottomans set in motion important population movements of Turks brought over from Anatolia to Rumelia, establishing a firm Turkish base for further conquests in Europe.. Thus, the Ottomans used colonization as a very effective method to consolidate their position and power in the Balkans. The colonizers that were brought to the Balkans consisted of soldiers, nomads, farmers, artisans and merchants, dervishes, preachers and other religious functionaries, and administrative personnel. Densely populated Turkish colonies were established in the frontier regions of Thrace in the valleys of the Maritsa and Tundzha. In addition to voluntary migrations, throughout the fourteenth, fifteenth, and sixteenth centuries, the Ottoman authorities also used mass deportations () as a method of control over potentially rebellious individuals..
One of the greatest impacts of the Ottoman colonization process of the Balkans was felt in the urban centres, many towns became major centres for Turkish control and administration, with most Christians gradually withdrawing to the mountains. The Ottomans embarked on creating new towns and repopulating older towns that had suffered significant population decline and economic dislocation during the wars preceding the Ottoman conquests. Major Balkan towns, especially those on or near transportation and communication routes, were the focal point of Ottoman colonization in the Balkans. Most urban centres in the Balkans, especially in Thrace, Macedonia, Thessaly, and Moesia, achieved Muslim/Turkish majorities or substantial minorities soon after the completion of the conquest and remained overwhelmingly Muslim in composition into the eighteenth century, and in some areas such as Macedonia and Bulgaria well into the nineteenth century..
However, in the course of the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, many Turks were displaced and ethnically cleansed, most of them fleeing to Anatolia and East Thrace. At present, there are still significant Turkish minorities living in Bulgaria, the province of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece, Kosovo, North Macedonia, and Romania..
Meskhetian Turks
The Meskhetian Turks, also known as Ahiska Turks, reside or used to reside in Meskheti, which is in the southwestern region of Georgia. The region came under Ottoman rule in the sixteenth century up until 1829. Today, approximately 600 to 1000 Meskhetian Turks are still living in Georgia.. The population drastically decreased in 1944, when Joseph Stalin deported approximately 100,000 of these Turks to Eastern Europe and Central Asia..
Turkish Cypriots
The Ottoman Turks conquered Cyprus in 1571 when they began a campaign which led to the fall of Nicosia in September 1570 and of Famagusta in August 1571.. By 1571, about 30,000 Turkish settlers, which included soldiers who were involved in the conquest and their families, or agricultural colonizers, particularly from Konya, were given land on the island.. Additionally, many of the islanders converted to Islam during the early years of Ottoman rule due to significant advantages to being Muslim (i.e. taxation). Thus, a strong Turkish element was formed in Cyprus' population, which was later reinforced by immigration from Asia Minor.
Turkish Roma
With the expansion of the Ottoman Empire, Turkish-speaking Muslim Roma settled in Rumelia (southeastern Europe) under Ottoman rule. The Ottoman Archives of the 18th century and 19th century told from so-called Türkmen Kıpti (, who spoke Turkish only with few Romani words, as a separate group from other Roma in Rumelia. Turkish Roma have adopted the Turkish language to establish a Turkish identity and to be more recognized by their host population. The majority Turkish-speaking Muslim Roma in Bulgaria, Dobruja-Romania, Western Thrace-Greece, Northern Cyprus and Turkey declare themselves to be Turks, not Romani people. Gene flow from the Ottoman Turks spilled over in the Balkan Roma and established a higher frequency of the human Y-chromosome DNA haplogroups J and E-M215 Horahane means Turks (term for Muslims) in Romani language.
Some Turkish citizens who came as Gastarbeiter from Turkey to Europe have Roma backgrounds and are fully assimilated into Turkish European communities. The second wave of Turkish Roma to Western Europe began when Bulgaria and Romania became a member of the EU; many Turkish Roma from Bulgaria and Romania (Dobruja) went to Western Europe.
Early Western European Turks as traders in Western Europe At least from the 16th century onwards Ottoman traders settled in western European trading capitals such as Antwerp, AmsterdamHistory of Relations from NLTR400, Ministry of Foreign Affairs, the Netherlands. and London.Gilliat-Ray, Sophie (2010), Muslims in Britain: An Introduction, Cambridge University Press. Turkish traders in the Netherlands had at least two mosques in Amsterdam in the early 17th century.Rather Turkish than Papist Historian Herman Pleij on Turkish-Dutch relations in 'dit is de dag', EO, Radio 1)
Modern migration
According to an estimate in the European Union there are 3,7 million ethnic Turks.
Turkish Cypriot migration to Great Britain (1920s-present)
Turkish Cypriots started to immigrate from Cyprus to the United Kingdom in the early 1910s when the British Empire annexed Cyprus in 1914 and the residents of Cyprus became subjects of the Crown. Many Turkish Cypriots went to the United Kingdom as students and tourists whilst others left the island due to the harsh economic and political life during the British Colony of Cyprus. Emigration to the United Kingdom continued to increase when the Great Depression of 1929 brought economic depression to Cyprus, with unemployment and low wages being a significant issue. During the Second World War, the number of Turkish run businesses increased which created a demand for more Turkish Cypriot workers. Thus, throughout the 1950s, Turkish Cypriots emigrated to the United Kingdom for economic reasons and by 1958 the number of Turkish Cypriots was estimated to be 8,500. Their numbers increased each year as rumours about immigration restrictions appeared in much of the Cypriot media.
Furthermore, the 1950s saw the arrival of many more Turkish Cypriots to the United Kingdom who felt vulnerable as they had cause for concern about the political future of the island. This was first evident when the Greek Cypriots held a referendum in 1950 in which 95.7% of eligible Greek Cypriot voters cast their ballots in supporting a fight aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece. Hence, Turkish Cypriots fled to the United Kingdom due to the EOKA terrorists and its aim of Enosis. By the 1960s, inter-ethnic fighting broke out and by 1964 some 25,000 Turkish Cypriots became internally displaced, accounting to about a fifth of their population; furthermore, approximately 60,000 Turkish Cypriots were forcefully moved into Turkish Cypriot enclaves within Cyprus. This period in Cypriot history resulted in an exodus of more Turkish Cypriots to the United Kingdom. Other reasons for the continued migration to the United Kingdom was because of the economic gap which was widening in Cyprus. The Greek Cypriots were increasingly taking control of the country's major institutions causing the Turkish Cypriots to become economically disadvantaged. Thus, the political and economic unrest in Cyprus after 1964 sharply increased the number of Turkish Cypriot immigrants to the United Kingdom. Many of these early migrants worked in the clothing industry in London, where both men and women could work together- sewing was a skill which the community had already acquired in Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots were concentrated mainly in the north-east of London and specialised in the heavy-wear sector, such as coats and tailored garments. This sector offered work opportunities where poor knowledge of the English language was not a problem and where self-employment was a possibility.