Greeks in Turkey

This article is about the Greek communities after the establishment of the Republic of Turkey, in 1923. For the pre-1923 Greek communities, see Ottoman Greeks.
See also: History of Anatolia § Classical Antiquity, Byzantine Greeks, Pontic Greeks, Pontic Greeks § Eastern Anatolia Greeks, and Caucasus Greeks
Greeks in Turkey
Έλληνες στην Τουρκία
Türkiye'deki Rumlar
Total population
2,000-3,500[1][2][3][4]
(not incl. Muslim Greeks[5][6] or Greek Muslims)
Regions with significant populations
Istanbul, İzmir, Çanakkale (Gökçeada and Bozcaada)
Languages
Greek (first language of the majority), Turkish (first language of the minority or second language)
Religion
Greek Orthodoxy
Related ethnic groups
Greek Muslims, Pontic Greeks, Antiochian Greeks
Phanar Greek Orthodox College is a Greek minority school that was founded in the Ottoman Empire in 1454.
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The Greeks in Turkey (Turkish: Rumlar) constitute a small population of Greek and Greek-speaking Eastern Orthodox Christians who mostly live in Istanbul, as well as on the two islands of the western entrance to the Dardanelles: Imbros and Tenedos (Turkish: Gökçeada and Bozcaada). Greeks are one of the four ethnic minorities officially recognized in Turkey by the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, together with Jews, Armenians,[7][8][9] and Bulgarians.[10][11][12]

They are the remnants of the estimated 200,000 Greeks who were permitted under the provisions of the Convention Concerning the Exchange of Greek and Turkish Populations to remain in Turkey following the 1923 population exchange,[13] which involved the forcible resettlement of approximately 1.2 million Greeks from Anatolia and East Thrace and of half a million Turks from all of Greece except for Western Thrace. After years of persecution (e.g. the Varlık Vergisi, the Istanbul Pogrom and the 1964 expulsion of Istanbul Greeks), emigration of ethnic Greeks from the Istanbul region greatly accelerated, reducing the Greek minority population from 119,822 before the pogrom[14] to about 7,000 by 1978.[15] The 2008 figures released by the Turkish Foreign Ministry places the current number of Turkish citizens of Greek descent at the 3,000–4,000 mark.[16] However, according to the Human Rights Watch the Greek population in Turkey is estimated at 2,500 in 2006. The Greek population in Turkey is collapsing as the community is now far too small to sustain itself demographically, due to emigration, much higher death rates than birth rates and continuing discrimination.[17]

Since 1924, the status of the Greek minority in Turkey has been ambiguous. Beginning in the 1940s, the government instituted repressive policies forcing many Greeks to emigrate. Examples are the labour battalions drafted among non-Muslims during World War II, as well as the Fortune Tax (Varlık Vergisi) levied mostly on non-Muslims during the same period. These resulted in financial ruination and death for many Greeks. The exodus was given greater impetus with the Istanbul Pogrom of September 1955 and the 1964 expulsion of Istanbul Greeks which led to thousands of Greeks fleeing the city, eventually reducing the Greek population to about 7,000 by 1978 and to about 2,500 by 2006. According to the United Nations, this figure was much smaller in 2012 and reached 2,000. As of 2023, according to The Economist, "Turkey's Greeks are on the verge of extinction".[18]

A minority of Muslim Pontic Greek speakers, using a dialect called "Romeyka" or "Ophitic", still live in the area around Of in north-eastern Anatolia.[19][20][21]

  1. ^ "The Greek minority of Turkey". HRI.org. Retrieved 22 January 2017.
  2. ^ https://t24.com.tr/yazarlar/cansu-camlibel/laki-vingas-ses-getirecegi-bilindigi-icin-turkiye-deki-hiristiyan-cemaati-hedef-secildi-santa-maria-saldirisinin-arkasinda-sanki-daha-derin-bir-planlama-var,43412
  3. ^ https://www.mfa.gr/en/issues-of-greek-turkish-relations/relevant-documents/the-greek-minority-and-its-foundations-in-istanbul-gokceada-imvros-and-bozcaada-tenedos.html
  4. ^ https://www.megarevma.net/semt_girisimi.htm
  5. ^ Türkyılmaz, Zeynep (2016-12-01). "Pontus'un kripto-hristiyan Rumları, İslam ve Hıristiyanlık arasında". REPAIR - Türkiye, Ermenistan ve Ermeni diasporası sivil toplumları arasında kültürlerarası diyalog projesi (in Turkish). Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  6. ^ "saygi-ozturk/13-ilimiz-daha-gitti". www.sozcu.com.tr. 2018. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  7. ^ Kaya, Nurcan (2015-11-24). "Teaching in and Studying Minority Languages in Turkey: A Brief Overview of Current Issues and Minority Schools". European Yearbook of Minority Issues Online. 12 (1): 315–338. doi:10.1163/9789004306134_013. ISSN 2211-6117. Turkey is a nation–state built on remnants of the Ottoman Empire where non-Muslim minorities were guaranteed the right to set up educational institutions; however, since its establishment, it has officially recognised only Armenians, Greeks and Jews as minorities and guaranteed them the right to manage educational institutions as enshrined in the Treaty of Lausanne. [...] Private language teaching courses teach 'traditionally used languages', elective language courses have been introduced in public schools and universities are allowed to teach minority languages.
  8. ^ Toktas, Sule (2006). "EU enlargement conditions and minority protection : a reflection on Turkey's non-Muslim minorities". East European Quarterly. 40: 489–519. ISSN 0012-8449. Turkey signed the Covenant on 15 August 2000 and ratified it on 23 September 2003. However, Turkey put a reservation on Article 27 of the Covenant which limited the scope of the right of ethnic, religious or linguistic minorities to enjoy their own culture, to profess and practice their own religion or to use their own language. This reservation provides that this right will be implemented and applied in accordance with the relevant provisions of the Turkish Constitution and the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne. This implies that Turkey grants educational right in minority languages only to the recognized minorities covered by the Lausanne who are the Armenians, Greeks and the Jews.
  9. ^ Phillips, Thomas James (2020-12-16). "The (In-)Validity of Turkey's Reservation to Article 27 of the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights". International Journal on Minority and Group Rights. 27 (1): 66–93. doi:10.1163/15718115-02701001. ISSN 1385-4879. The fact that Turkish constitutional law takes an even more restrictive approach to minority rights than required under the Treaty of Lausanne was recognised by the UN Committee on the Elimination of All Forms of Racial Discrimination (CERD) in its concluding observations on the combined fourth to sixth periodic reports of Turkey. The CERD noted that "the treaty of Lausanne does not explicitly prohibit the recognition of other groups as minorities" and that Turkey should consider recognising the minority status of other groups, such as Kurds. 50 In practice, this means that Turkey grants minority rights to "Greek, Armenian and Jewish minority communities while denying their possible impact for unrecognized minority groups (e.g. Kurds, Alevis, Arabs, Syriacs, Protestants, Roma etc.)".
  10. ^ Bayır, Derya (2013). Minorities and nationalism in Turkish law. Cultural Diversity and Law. Farnham: Ashgate Publishing. pp. 88–89, 203–204. ISBN 978-1-4094-7254-4.
  11. ^ Toktas, Sule; Aras, Bulent (2009). "The EU and Minority Rights in Turkey". Political Science Quarterly. 124 (4): 697–720. doi:10.1002/j.1538-165X.2009.tb00664.x. ISSN 0032-3195. JSTOR 25655744.
  12. ^ Köksal, Yonca (2006). "Minority Policies in Bulgaria and Turkey: The Struggle to Define a Nation". Southeast European and Black Sea Studies. 6 (4): 501–521. doi:10.1080/14683850601016390. ISSN 1468-3857.
  13. ^ European Commission for Democracy through Law (2002). The Protection of National Minorities by Their Kin-State. Council of Europe. p. 142. ISBN 978-92-871-5082-0. Retrieved 2 February 2013. In Turkey the Orthodox minority who remained in Istanbul, Imvros and Tenedos governed by the same provisions of the treaty of Lausanne was gradually shrunk from more than 200,000 in 1930 to less than 3,000 today.
  14. ^ "Λέξεις – κλειδιά". www.demography-lab.prd.uth.gr. Archived from the original on 2021-05-09. Retrieved 2021-03-23.
  15. ^ Kilic, Ecevit (2008-09-07). "Sermaye nasıl el değiştirdi?". Sabah (in Turkish). Retrieved 2008-12-25. 6-7 Eylül olaylarından önce İstanbul'da 135 bin Rum yaşıyordu. Sonrasında bu sayı 70 bine düştü. 1978'e gelindiğinde bu rakam 7 bindi.
  16. ^ "Foreign Ministry: 89,000 minorities live in Turkey". Today's Zaman. 2008-12-15. Archived from the original on 2010-05-01. Retrieved 2008-12-15.
  17. ^ According to the Human Rights Watch the Greek population in Turkey is estimated at 2,500 in 2006. "From "Denying Human Rights and Ethnic Identity" series of Human Rights Watch" Archived 2006-07-07 at the Wayback Machine
  18. ^ "The uncertain future of Greeks in Turkey". The Economist. ISSN 0013-0613. Retrieved 2023-11-13.
  19. ^ "Against all odds: archaic Greek in a modern world | University of Cambridge". July 2010. Retrieved 2013-03-31.
  20. ^ Jason and the argot: land where Greek's ancient language survives, The Independent, Monday, 3 January 2011
  21. ^ Özkan, Hakan (2013). "The Pontic Greek spoken by Muslims in the villages of Beşköy in the province of present-day Trabzon". Byzantine and Modern Greek Studies. 37 (1): 130–150. doi:10.1179/0307013112z.00000000023.