POPULATION & PEOPLE
Turkey has a population approaching 60
million, the great majority being Sunni Muslim Turkish.
Turks
The Turkic peoples originated in central Asia,
where they were a presence to be reckoned with as early as the 4th century AD. The Chinese
called them Tu-küe, which is perhaps the root of our word `Turk'. They were related to
the Hiung-nu, or Huns.
The normally nomadic Turks ruled several vast
empires in central Asia before being pushed westward by the Mongols. Various tribes of the
Oğuz Turkic group settled in Azerbaijan, northern Iran and Anatolia.
At first they were shamanist, but at one time
or another these early Turks followed each of the great religions of the region including
Buddhism, Nestorian Christianity, Manichaeism and Judaism. During their western migrations
they became more familiar with Islam, and it stuck.
Kurds
Turkey has a significant Kurdish minority
estimated at 10 million. Some ethnologists believe that the Kurds, who speak an
IndoEuropean language, are closely related to the Persians, and that they migrated here
from northern Europe centuries before Christ.
Turkey's sparsely populated eastern and
south-eastern regions are home to perhaps six million Kurds and minorities of Turks,
Armenians and others. Four million Kurds live elsewhere throughout the country, more or
less integrated into greater Turkish society.
Though virtually all of Turkey's Kurds are
Muslims and physically similar to the Turks, they jealously guard their language, culture
and family traditions.
Separatism
Since the collapse of fMe Ottoman Empire, the
Kurds have periodir`` cally aspired to their own ethnic nation-state with revolts. Some
dream of a Greater Kurdistan encompassing the millions of Kurds in neighbouring regions of
Iran, Iraq and Syria. Fearing that Kurdish separatism could tear the country apart, the
government in Ankara pursued a policy of assimilation. Officially, there were no `Kurds',
only `mountain Turks', and all were equal citizens of the republic. The Kurdish language
and other overt signs of Kurdish life were outlawed.
Jews
The small Jewish community of about 24,000
people is centred in İstanbul(20,000), with smaller communities in Ankara, Bursa, İzmir
and other cities. The Turkish Jewish community is the reınnant of a great influx which
took place in the l6th century when the Jews of Spain (Sephardim) were forced by the
Spanish Inquisition to flee their homes. They were welcomed into the Ottoman Empire, and
brought with them knowledge of many recent European scientific and economic discoveries
and advancements. In 1992 they celebrated 500 years of peaceful life among the Turks.
Armenians
The Armenians are thought by some to be
descended from the Urartians(518-330 BC), but others think they arrived from the Caucasus
area after the Urartian state collapsed.
Armenians have lived in eastern Anatolia for
millennia, almost always as subjects of some greater state such as the Alexandrine empire,
or of the Romans, Byzantines, Persians, Seljuks or Ottomans. They lived with their Kurdish
and Turkish neighbours in relative peace and harmony under the Ottoman millet system of
distinct religious communities. But when this system gave way to modern ethnic
nationalism, they suffered one of the greatest tragedies in their history.
Rebellion
As ethnic groups on the fringes of the empire
rose in rebellion and won their independence, the Armenians followed. Unlike other
peoples, however, the Armenians lived in the Muslim heartland, where they were sometimes a
plurality but never a majority. (The tragic ethnic wars of the early 1990s in the former
Soviet Union and Yugo slavia arose from similarly confused ethnic situations.)
Other Christian Peoples
As for Christian Turkish citizens, ethnic
Greeks number fewer than 100,000 and live mostly in İstanbul. Assyrian Orthodox
Christians, sometimes called Jacobites, trace their roots to the church founded by Jacob
Baradeus, the 6th-century bishop of Edessa (today called Şanlıurfa). Their small
community has its centre south of Diyarbakır, in and around Mardin and the Tur Abdin.
EDUCATION
The Turkish Republic provides five years of
compulsory primary (Ilkokul) and middleschool (Ortaokul) education for all children aged
from seven to 12 years. Secondary, lise (high school, lycee), and vocational or technical
education is available at no cost to those who decide to continue. Specialised schools are
available for the blind, the deaf, the mentally retarded, orphans and the very poor. There
are also numerous licensed pıivate schools, kolej (colleges, like high schools) and
universities which charge tuition fees.
Turkey has 29 government-funded universities
to which students are admitted through a central placement system. At Ankara's Middle East
Technical University and Bilkent University, and at İstanbul's Boğaziçi (Bosphorus)
University, English is the language of instruction.
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