A | B | C | D | E | F | G | H | CH | I | J | K | L | M | N | O | P | Q | R | S | T | U | V | W | X | Y | Z | 0 | 1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9
 | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Bulgaria | 508,375 (2021 census)[1] |
 Turkey | 326,000 (2005)[2] |
 Netherlands | 10,000–30,000[3][4] |
 Sweden | 500[5] |
 Northern Cyprus | 2,000 – 10,000[6][7] |
 Belgium | 4,807[8] |
 Austria | 1,000[9] |
| Languages | |
| Turkish · Bulgarian | |
| Religion | |
| |
| Part of a series of articles on |
| Turkish people |
|---|
 |
.JPG)
Bulgarian Turks (Bulgarian: български турци; Turkish: Bulgaristan Türkleri) are ethnic Turks from Bulgaria. According to the 2021 census, there were 508,375 Bulgarians of Turkish descent, roughly 8.4% of the population,[1] making them the country's largest ethnic minority. Bulgarian Turks also comprise the largest single population of Turks in the Balkans. They primarily live in the southern province of Kardzhali and the northeastern provinces of Shumen, Silistra, Razgrad and Targovishte. There is also a diaspora outside Bulgaria in countries such as Turkey, Austria, the Netherlands, Sweden, Norway and Romania, the most significant of which are the Bulgarian Turks in Turkey.
Bulgarian Turks are the descendants of Turkish settlers who entered the region after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, as well as Bulgarian converts to Islam who became Turkified during the centuries of Ottoman rule.[14][15] However, it has also been suggested that some Turks living today in Bulgaria may be direct ethnic descendants of earlier medieval Pecheneg, Oghuz, and Cuman Turkic tribes.[16][17][18][19] According to local tradition, following a resettlement policy Karamanid Turks (mainly from the Konya Vilayet, Nevşehir Vilayet and Niğde Vilayet of the Karaman Province) were settled mainly in the Kardzhali area by the sultans Mehmed the Conqueror, Selim and Mahmud II.[20] The Turkish community became an ethnic minority when the Principality of Bulgaria was established after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877–78. This community is of Turkish ethnic consciousness and differs from the majority Bulgarian ethnicity and the rest of the Bulgarian nation by its own language, religion, culture, customs, and traditions.
Genetic origins
DNA research investigating the three largest population groups in Bulgaria: Bulgarians, Turks and Roma confirms with Y-chromosomal analysis on STR that there are significant differences between the three ethnic groups. The study revealed a high number of population-specific haplotypes, 54 haplotypes among 63 tested Turkish males from the Bulgarian DNA bank and fathers from routine paternity cases born in various geographical regions of Bulgaria.[21] The haplotypes of the Turks from Bulgaria as converted to haplogroups make up the following frequencies: J2 (18%), I2 (13%), E (13%), H (11%), R1a (10%), R1b (8%), I1 (6%), J1 (6%), G (6%), N (5%), Q (3%).[22]
A Y-DNA genetic study on Slavic peoples and some of their neighbours published two statistical distributions of distance because of the volume of details studied, based on pairwise FST values, the Turks from Bulgaria are most related to Anatolian Turks, thereafter to Italians, Bulgarians and others; while according to the RST values, the Turks from Bulgaria are most related to Bulgarians, thereafter to Macedonians, Anatolian Turks, Serbs and the rest, while Balts and North Slavs remain most unrelated according to them both. The study claims that the FST genetic distances reflect interpopulation relationships between the compared populations much better than their stepwise-based analogues, but that at the same time the genetic variation was more profoundly calculated by RST.[23] FST and RST calculate allele (haplotype or microsatellite) frequencies among populations and the distribution of evolutionary distances among alleles. RST is based on the number of repeat differences between alleles at each microsatellite locus and is proposed to be better for most typical sample sizes, when data consist of variation at microsatellite loci or of nucleotide sequence (haplotype) information, the method may be unreliable unless a large number of loci are used. A nonsignificant test suggests that FST should be preferred or when there is high gene flow within populations, FST calculations are based on allele identity, it is likely to perform better than counterparts based on allele size information, the method depends on mutation rate, sometimes can likely provide biased estimate, but RST will not perform necessarily better. A Bulgarian and other population studies observed concluded that when there is not much differentiation, both statistical means show similar results, otherwise RST is often superior to the FST. However, no procedure has been developed to date for testing whether single-locus RST and FST estimates are significantly different.[24][25]
Summary
 | This section is written like a personal reflection, personal essay, or argumentative essay that states a Wikipedia editor's personal feelings or presents an original argument about a topic. (February 2023) |
 | This section possibly contains original research. (February 2023) |
Turks settled in the territory of modern Bulgaria during and after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late 14th and early 15th centuries. Being the dominant group in the Ottoman Empire for the next five centuries, they played an important part in the economic and cultural life of the land. Waves of impoverished Turks settled fertile lands, while Bulgarian families left their strategic settlements and resettled in more remote places. According to the historian Halil Inalcik, the Ottomans ensured significant Turkish presence in forward urban outposts such as Nikopol, Kyustendil, Silistra, Trikala, Skopje and Vidin and their vicinity. Ottoman Muslims constituted the majority in and around strategic routes primarily in the southern Balkans leading from Thrace towards Macedonia and the Adriatic and again from the Maritsa and Tundzha valleys towards the Danube region.[26]
According to the 1831 Ottoman census, the male population in the Ottoman kazas that fall within the current borders of the Republic of Bulgaria stood at 496,744 people, including 296,769 Christians (59.7%), 181,455 Muslims (36.5%), 17,474 Romani (3.5%), 702 Jews (0.1%) and 344 Armenians (0.1%).[27][28] The census only covered healthy men over 15 years of age and suffered from numerous inconsistencies. Most notably, the Christian population in the kazas of Selvi (Sevlievo), Izladi (Zlatitsa), Etripolu (Etropole), Lofça (Lovech), Plevne (Pleven) and Rahova (Oryahovo) is missing as it was written in a different booklet, which was subsequently lost. The exact number of the Turkish population cannot be determined as the census followed the Ottoman millet system. Thus, "Islam Millet" or "Muslims" did not include only Turks, but all other Muslims, except Muslim Romani, who were counted separately.
After the Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) and the establishment of the Principality of Bulgaria and the autonomous province of Eastern Rumelia, the Turkish population in the Bulgarian lands started migrating to the Ottoman Empire and then to modern Turkey. The migration peaked in 1989, when 360,000 Turks left Bulgaria as a result of the Bulgarian communist regime's assimilation campaign against them, with some 150,000 returning between 1989 and 1990.
Today, the Turks of Bulgaria are concentrated in two rural areas, in the Northeast (Ludogorie/Deliorman) and the Southeast (the Eastern Rhodopes).[29] They form a majority in the province of Kardzhali (59.0% Turks vs. 26.5% Bulgarians) and a plurality in the province of Razgrad (47.8% Turks vs. 37.7% Bulgarians).[30] Even though they do not constitute the majority of the population in any provincial capital, according to the census, 38.4% of Bulgarian Turks live in urban settlements and 61.6% live in villages. According to the census, 13.8% of Turks are in the age bracket 0–14 years (12.0% for ethnic Bulgarians), 66.3% in the age bracket 15-64 (63.1% for ethnic Bulgarians) and 19.8% in the age bracket 65+ (25.0% for ethnic Bulgarians).[30] It is important to note, that it is difficult to establish accurately the number of the Turks and that it is likely that the census numbers are an overestimate because some Pomaks, Crimean Tatars, Circassians and Romani tend to identify themselves as Turks.[31][32] In Bulgaria there are also other Turkish-speaking communities such as the Gajal who could be found particularly in the Deliorman region.[33]
According to 2002 data, the poverty rate among Bulgarian Turks is 20.9%, compared to 5.6% among ethnic Bulgarians and of 61.8% among Romani.[34] In 2021, the share of Turks with university degree reached 8.1% (vs. 4.1% for 2011), while 35.9% (vs. 26% for 2011) had secondary education; by comparison, 29.2% and 50.5% of Bulgarians, respectively, held university degree and secondary school diplomas; the corresponding percentages for Romani are 0.8% and 14.4%.[30][35] Though the majority of Bulgarians have negative feelings towards Romani, it is estimated that just 15% of Bulgarians have negative feelings against Turks, though it is unclear how much this is against the Bulgarian Turks.[36]
Demographics
Distribution of the Bulgarian Turks by province, according to the 2021 Bulgarian census.[37][30]
| Provinces | Ethnic Turks (number) |
Ethnic Turks (percentage) |
Total provincial population |
|---|---|---|---|
| Kardzhali | 83,280 | 59.0% | 141,177 |
| Razgrad | 49,318 | 47.8% | 103,223 |
| Burgas | 47,286 | 12.4% | 380,286 |
| Shumen | 44,263 | 29.2% | 151,465 |
| Plovdiv | 39,585 | 6.2% | 634,497 |
| Targovishte | 34,729 | 35.4% | 98,144 |
| Silistra | 34,392 | 35.1% | 97,770 |
| Varna | 25,678 | 5.9% | 432,198 |
| Haskovo | 25,555 | 11.9% | 215,565 |
| Ruse | 23,958 | 12.4% | 193,483 |
| Dobrich | 18,835 | 12.5% | 150,146 |
| Blagoevgrad | 14,028 | 4.8% | 292,227 |
| Sliven | 13,217 | 7.7% | 172,690 |
| Stara Zagora | 12,170 | 4.1% | 296,507 |
| Veliko Tarnovo | 11,348 | 5.5% | 207,371 |
| Pazardzhik | 6,782 | 3.0% | 229,814 |
| Sofia City | 5,881 | 0.5% | 1,274,290 |
| Pleven | 5,367 | 2.4% | 226,120 |
| Gabrovo | 4,723 | 4.8% | 98,387 |
| Smolyan | 3,049 | 3.2% | 96,284 |
| Lovech | 2,789 | 2.4% | 116,394 |
| Yambol | 994 | 0.9% | 109,963 |
| Vratsa | 424 | 0.3% | 152,813 |
| Sofia Province | 342 | 0.1% | Zdroj:https://en.wikipedia.org?pojem=Turks_in_Bulgaria