Arabs in Turkey

They are the descendants of the Arabs who lived in Asia Minor before the formation of the Ottoman Empire . Not officially recognized as a national minority . By religion - Sunni Muslims and Shiites ( Alawites ), there are Christians - Orthodox and Greek Catholics . ^[3] Most of the autochthonous Arabs-townspeople now speak Turkish , which pushed aside the Arabic language , especially in large cities such as Antakya , where the Ottoman language established itself as the lingua franca at the end of the eighteenth century, although in neighboring Aleppo , even north and also for a long time ruled by the Ottomans, the Turkish-Ottoman language never played any significant role in urban life. A significant role in this process is played by mixed marriages between Turks and representatives of the indigenous Arab community. Due to the massive influx of refugees after the beginning of the Arab Spring, the number of Arabs in Turkey by 2019 reached about 8 million people ^[4] .

Turkish Arabs who profess Islam live along the southeastern border of Turkey with Syria and Iraq in the provinces of Betman , Bitlis , Gaziantep , Hatay , Mardin , Mush , Siirt , Shirnak , Shanliurfa , Mersin and Adana . Their neighbors here are usually Kurds , not Turks . They are descendants of both Arabs who lived in these places before the Turks came to Anatolia from Central Asia in the 11th century , and settled here during the Ottoman Empire . Many of the Arabs have relatives living in Syria, mainly in the city ​​of Al Raqqa .

The Ottoman Turks themselves, a significant part of whom led a semi-nomadic lifestyle for a long time, also often settled in small groups of Arabs who followed them, including in the European part of the empire. For example, Orkhan-gazi personally brought a group of so-called Kara-Arabs to a settlement in Rumelia in the middle of the 14th century ^[5] . In 1834 , Hassan Pasha settled several dozen Arab families from Ottoman Syria in the arid central Dobrudja that existed here until the beginning of the 20th century, when Dobrudja was at the epicenter of the struggle between independent Bulgaria and Romania.

Under the Lausanne Treaty of 1923, most of Ottoman Syria, especially the Aleppo province, where the vast majority of the population were Arabs, went to Turkey . ^[6] Nomadic and semi-nomadic Bedouins traditionally lived in the eastern part of vilayet.

In 1938, the French colonial authorities actually ceded the Republic of Hatay to Kemalist Turkey along with the city of Antakya ( Antioch ), where a large number of Arabic-speaking (32.5%) of various religious denominations lived (22.5% - Arabs - Alawites , 5% - Arabs - Sunnis , 5% - Arabs - Orthodox ). Hatay's Arabic-speaking population is almost completely settled.

In 1995 , according to some estimates, the number of Turkish Arabs ranged from 800,000 to 1,000,000. ^[7] According to other estimates, their number is 1,600,000, or less than 2% of the Turkish population. ^{[8] [7] [9]}

• Emine Erdogan is the first lady of the Republic of Turkey.
• Murat Yildirim is an actor, an Arab by mother.