Turkey
Ethnicity and language

Article 66 of the Turkish Constitution defines a Turk as anyone who is a citizen. It is estimated that there are at least 47 ethnic groups represented in Turkey. Reliable data on the ethnic mix of the population is not available because census figures do not include statistics on ethnicity after the 1965 Turkish census. According to the World Factbook, 70-75% of the country's citizens are ethnic Turks. Based on a survey, KONDA 's estimation was 76% in 2006, with 78% of adult citizens self-identifying their ethnic background as Turk. In 2021, 77% of adult citizens identified as such in a survey.

Kurds are the largest ethnic minority. Their exact numbers remain disputed, with estimates ranging from 12 to 20% of the population. According to a 1990 study, Kurds made up around 12% of the population. The Kurds make up a majority in the provinces of Ağrı, Batman, Bingöl, Bitlis, Diyarbakır, Hakkari, Iğdır, Mardin, Muş, Siirt, Şırnak, Tunceli and Van; a near majority in Şanlıurfa (47%); and a large minority in Kars (20%). In addition, internal migration has resulted in Kurdish diaspora communities in all of the major cities in central and western Turkey. In Istanbul, there are an estimated three million Kurds, making it the city with the largest Kurdish population in the world. 19% of adult citizens identified as ethnic Kurds in a survey in 2021. Some people have multiple ethnic identities, such as both Turk and Kurd. In 2006, an estimated 2.7 million ethnic Turks and Kurds were related from interethnic marriages.

According to the World Factbook, non-Kurdish ethnic minorities are 7–12% of the population. In 2006, KONDA estimated that non-Kurdish and non-Zaza ethnic minorities constituted 8.2% of the population; these were people that gave general descriptions such as Turkish citizen, people with other Turkic backgrounds, Arabs, and others. In 2021, 4% of adult citizens identified as non-ethnic Turk or non-ethnic Kurd in a survey. According to the Constitutional Court, there are only four officially recognized minorities in Turkey: the three non-Muslim minorities recognized in the Treaty of Lausanne (Armenians, Greeks, and Jews) and the Bulgarians. In 2013, the Ankara 13th Circuit Administrative Court ruled that the minority provisions of the Lausanne Treaty should also apply to Assyrians in Turkey and the Syriac language. Other unrecognized ethnic groups include Albanians, Bosniaks, Circassians, Georgians, Laz, Pomaks, and Roma.

The official language is Turkish, which is the most widely spoken Turkic language in the world. It is spoken by 85% to 90% of the population as a first language. Kurdish speakers are the largest linguistic minority. A survey estimated 13% of the population speak Kurdish or Zaza as a first language. Other minority languages include Arabic, Caucasian languages, and Gagauz. The linguistic rights of the officially recognized minorities are de jure recognized and protected for Armenian, Bulgarian, Greek, Hebrew, and Syriac. There are multiple endangered languages in Turkey.
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