| An African soldier in Ottoman service |
| Regions with significant populations |
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| Muğla Izmir Antalya |
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Afro-Turks, African Turks, or Turkish Africans are people of African descent in Turkey. "Afro-Turk" is a neologism; they have been colloquially named as Arap (Arab) or zenci in Turkish, and are now also referred to as Afrika kökenli Türkler (Turks with African roots).
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Beginning several centuries ago, a number of Africans, usually via Zanzibar and from places like Niger, Saudi Arabia, Libya, Kenya and Sudan.[1] came to the Ottoman Empire settled by the Dalaman, Menderes and Gediz valleys, Manavgat, and Çukurova. African quarters of 19th century İzmir like Sabırtaşı, Dolapkuyu, Tamaşalık, İkiçeşmelik, and Ballıkuyu have mention in contemporary records.[2] Some came from Crete following the population exchange between Greece and Turkey in 1923. They settled on the Aegean coast, mainly around İzmir.[3] Afro-Turks in Ayvalık declare that their ancestors from Crete spoke Greek when they came to Turkey and learned Turkish later.[4] Afro-Turks living in İzmir had celebrated the traditional spring festival Dana Bayramı ("Calf Festival") until the 1960s. Dana Bayramı is currently revived among the younger generation of Afro-Turks.[2]
Ulcinj in Montenegro had its own black community – descendent of the Ottoman slave trade that had flourished here.[5] As a consequence of the slave trade and privateer activity, a considerable number of Ulcinj inhabitants until 1878 were black.[6] The Ottoman Army counted thousands of Black African soldiers in its ranks. The army sent to Balkans during the Austro-Turkish War of 1716–18 included 24,000 men from Africa.[7]
Areas with significant populations are in the Aegean Region, especially İzmir, Aydın, and Muğla. At the time of Barack Obama's inauguration, a group of Afro-Turks from the districts Ortaca, Dalaman, and Köyceğiz gathered in Ortaca for celebration.[8] There are also people of African ancestry living in some villages and municipalities of Antalya and Adana provinces.[9] Some of the descendants of African settlers remain, mixed with the rest of the population in these areas, and many migrated to larger cities.[3] These factors make it difficult to guess the number of Turks of African ancestry.[10]
Mustafa Olpak, a writer and a prominent Afro-Turk who is the founder of the first officially recognised organisation of Afro-Turks,[3] claims that 2,000,000 people of African ancestry live on the littoral between Antalya and İstanbul.[11] Olpak gives a number of around 3,000,000 people for the whole of Turkey.[12] Turkish daily Sabah has an estimate of approximately 800,000 "Black citizens."[13]
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