105-696: Yetkin Dikinciler (born 15 August 1969) is a Turkish actor. Yetkin Dikinciler graduated in theatre from the State Conservatory of Mimar Sinan University . He was awarded "Best Actor" for his role as Nazım Hikmet in Mavi Gözlü Dev at the 19th Ankara Film Festival , 13th ÇASOD Awards and 13th Sadri Alışık Awards. This article about a Turkish actor is a stub . You can help Misplaced Pages by expanding it . Turkish people Turkish people or Turks ( Turkish : Türkler ) are
210-509: A citizen of Turkey is different from the term's ethnic definition, the majority of the Turkish population (an estimated 70 to 75 percent) are of Turkish ethnicity. The vast majority of Turks are Muslims and follow the Sunni faith. The ethnic Turks can therefore be distinguished by a number of cultural and regional variants, but do not function as separate ethnic groups. In particular,
315-400: A Turkish population in many of these countries because the Turkish government wanted to preserve these communities so that the Turkish character of these neighbouring territories could be maintained. One of the last stages of ethnic Turks immigrating to Turkey was between 1940 and 1990 when about 700,000 Turks arrived from Bulgaria. Today, between a third and a quarter of Turkey's population are
420-517: A few thousand meters high, and can close down airports for short periods of time. These winds can last for a full day at the beginning and end of the season, and for several days during the middle of the season. The shamal is a summer northwesterly wind blowing over Iraq and the Persian Gulf states (including Saudi Arabia and Kuwait), often strong during the day, but decreasing at night. This weather effect occurs anywhere from once to several times
525-857: A population of about 313 million. Of the 20 UN member countries fully or partly within the region, 13 are part of the Arab world . The most populous countries in West Asia are Iran , Turkey , Iraq , Saudi Arabia and Yemen . In the World Geographical Scheme for Recording Plant Distributions (WGSRPD), West Asia excludes the Arabian Peninsula and includes Afghanistan . The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) excludes Egypt and includes Afghanistan. The United Nations Environment Programme excludes Cyprus , Israel , Turkey , and Iran from West Asia. The term West Asia
630-665: A report by CIA suggests that 200,000 of the residents of Cyprus are Turkish. Ethnic Turks continue to inhabit certain regions of Greece , North Macedonia , Kosovo , Romania , and Bulgaria since they first settled there during the Ottoman period. As of 2019, the Turkish population in the Balkans is over 1 million. Majority of Balkan Turks were killed or deported in the Muslim Persecution during Ottoman Contraction and arrived to Turkey as Muhacirs . The majority of
735-559: A wide range of both East Asian and West-Eurasian physical appearances and genetic origins, in part through long-term contact with neighboring peoples such as Iranic , Mongolic , Tocharian , Uralic and Yeniseian peoples. In Central Asia, the earliest surviving Turkic language texts, found on the eighth-century Orkhon inscription monuments , were erected by the Göktürks in the sixth century CE, and include words not common to Turkic but found in unrelated Inner Asian languages. Although
840-624: A year. West Asia contains large areas of mountainous terrain. The Anatolian Plateau is sandwiched between the Pontus Mountains and Taurus Mountains in Turkey . Mount Ararat in Turkey rises to 5,137 m (16,854 ft). The Zagros Mountains are located in Iran, in areas along its border with Iraq. The Central Plateau of Iran is divided into two drainage basins . The northern basin
945-532: Is Dasht-e Kavir (Great Salt Desert), and Dasht-e-Lut is the southern basin. In Yemen , elevations exceed 3,700 m (12,100 ft) in many areas, and highland areas extend north along the Red Sea coast and north into Lebanon . A fault zone also exists along the Red Sea, with continental rifting creating trough -like topography with areas located well below sea level . The Dead Sea , located on
1050-517: Is a claim that it may be connected to Herodotus 's ( c. 484 – c. 425 BC ) reference to Targitaos , ( Ταργιτάος ), a king of the Scythians ; however, Manfred Mayrhofer (apud Lincoln) assigned Iranian etymology for Targitaos: from Old Iranian * darga-tavah , meaning "he whose strength is long-lasting". During the first century A.D., Pomponius Mela refers to the Turcae in
1155-453: Is possible, it is rather unlikely. As a word in Turkic languages, Turk may mean "strong, strength, ripe" or "flourishing, in full strength". It may also mean ripe as for a fruit or "in the prime of life, young, and vigorous" for a person. In the 19th century, the word Türk referred to Anatolian peasants. The Ottoman ruling class identified themselves as Ottomans , not as Turks. In
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#17327830911711260-815: Is the westernmost region of Asia . As defined by most academics, UN bodies and other institutions, the subregion consists of Anatolia , the Arabian Peninsula , Iran , Mesopotamia , the Armenian highlands , the Levant , the island of Cyprus , the Sinai Peninsula and the South Caucasus . The region is separated from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez in Egypt , and separated from Europe by
1365-410: Is used pragmatically and has no "correct" or generally accepted definition. Its typical definitions overlap substantially, but not entirely, with definitions of the terms Middle East , Eastern Mediterranean , and Near East (which is historically familiar but widely deprecated today). The National Geographic Style Manual as well as Maddison 's The World Economy: Historical Statistics (2003) by
1470-468: The Aegean coast, from north to south, stretched the beyliks of Karasi , Saruhan , Aydin , Menteşe , and Teke . Inland from Teke was Hamid and east of Karasi was the beylik of Germiyan . To the northwest of Anatolia, around Söğüt , was the small and, at this stage, insignificant, Ottoman beylik. It was hemmed into the east by other more substantial powers like Karaman on Iconium , which ruled from
1575-754: The Akkar region in Lebanon , as well as minority groups in other post-Ottoman Balkan and Middle Eastern countries. The mass immigration of Turks also led to them forming the largest ethnic minority group in Austria , Denmark , Germany , and the Netherlands . There are also Turkish communities in other parts of Europe as well as in North America , Australia and the Post-Soviet states . Turks are
1680-880: The Alevis and Bektashis emerged. Furthermore, intermarriage between the Turks and local inhabitants, as well as the conversion of many to Islam, also increased the Turkish-speaking Muslim population in Anatolia. By 1243, at the Battle of Köse Dağ , the Mongols defeated the Seljuk Turks and became the new rulers of Anatolia, and in 1256, the second Mongol invasion of Anatolia caused widespread destruction. Particularly after 1277, political stability within
1785-456: The Arabian Peninsula numbering more than 3 million. Christian communities have played a vital role in West Asia. Judaism is the predominant religion in Israel , and there are small ancient Jewish communities in West Asia such as in Turkey (14,300), Azerbaijan (9,100), and Iran (8,756). The Druze Faith or Druzism originated in West Asia. It is a monotheistic religion based on
1890-855: The Armenians during the Armenian genocide and the Greeks during various campaigns of ethnic cleansing and expulsion . In 1918, the Ottoman Government agreed to the Mudros Armistice with the Allies . The Treaty of Sèvres —signed in 1920 by the government of Mehmet VI — dismantled the Ottoman Empire. The Turks, under Mustafa Kemal Pasha, rejected the treaty and fought the Turkish War of Independence , resulting in
1995-453: The Baháʼí Faith , Yarsanism , Yazidism , Zoroastrianism , Mandaeism , and Shabakism . The economy of West Asia is diverse and the region experiences high economic growth. Turkey has the largest economy in the region, followed by Saudi Arabia and Iran. Petroleum is the major industry in the regional economy, as more than half of the world's oil reserves and around 40 percent of
2100-548: The Balkans , Caucasus , Crimea , and Mediterranean islands, shifting the center of the Ottoman Empire to Anatolia. In addition to a small number of Jews, the refugees were overwhelmingly Muslim; they were both Turkish and non-Turkish people, such as Circassians and Crimean Tatars . Paul Mojzes has called the Balkan Wars an "unrecognized genocide", where multiple sides were both victims and perpetrators. By 1913,
2205-655: The Fourth Crusade , established a Latin Empire (1204–1261), divided the former Byzantine territories in the Balkans and the Aegean among themselves, and forced the Byzantine Emperors into exile at Nicaea (present-day Iznik ). From 1261 onwards, the Byzantines were largely preoccupied with regaining their control in the Balkans. Toward the end of the 13th century, as Mongol power began to decline,
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#17327830911712310-529: The Great Seljuq Empire after Sultan Tuğrul Bey 's invasion in 1055. For the next 150 years, the Seljuk Turks placed large Turkmen communities along the most valuable routes of northern Iraq. Yet, the largest wave of Turkish migrations occurred under the four centuries of Ottoman rule (1535–1919). In 1534, Suleiman the Magnificent secured Mosul within the Ottoman Empire and it became
2415-552: The Gulf of Oman . The population of West Asia was estimated at 272 million as of 2008, projected to reach 370 million by 2030 by Maddison (2007; the estimate excludes the Caucasus and Cyprus). This corresponds to an annual growth rate of 1.4% (or a doubling time of 50 years), well above the world average of 0.9% (doubling time 75 years). The population of West Asia is estimated at 4% of world population , up from about 39 million at
2520-534: The Göktürks . The earliest mention of Turk ( 𐱅𐰇𐰺𐰜 , türü̲k̲ ; or 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰚 , türk/tẄrk ) in Turkic languages comes from the Second Turkic Khaganate . In Orkhon inscriptions , kök türü̲k̲ ( 𐰚𐰇𐰚 𐱅𐰇𐰼𐰜 ) is also mentioned, potentially referring to " Ashina -led Turks" or "Ashinas and Turks". There are several theories regarding the origin of the ethnonym Turk . There
2625-502: The Kosovo War of 1998–99. Today, approximately 15–20 million Turks living in Turkey are the descendants of refugees from the Balkans; there are also 1.5 million descendants from Meskheti and over 600,000 descendants from Cyprus . The Republic of Turkey continues to be a land of migration for ethnic Turkish people fleeing persecution and wars. For example, there are approximately 1 million Syrian Turkmen living in Turkey due to
2730-653: The Kızılırmak River to the Mediterranean . Although the Ottomans was only a small principality among the numerous Turkish beyliks, and thus posed the smallest threat to the Byzantine authority, their location in north-western Anatolia, in the former Byzantine province of Bithynia , became a fortunate position for their future conquests. The Latins , who had conquered the city of Constantinople in 1204 during
2835-686: The Levant (e.g. Iraqi Turkmen , Syrian Turkmen , Lebanese Turkmen , etc.). Consequently, the Turks form the largest minority group in Bulgaria , the second largest minority group in Iraq , Libya , North Macedonia , and Syria , and the third largest minority group in Kosovo . They also form substantial communities in the Western Thrace region of Greece , the Dobruja region of Romania ,
2940-533: The Mediterranean Sea . West Asia contains the majority of the similarly defined Middle East . The Middle East is a political term that has changed many times depending on political and historical context while West Asia is a geographical term with more consistency. It excludes most of Egypt and the northwestern part of Turkey , and includes the southern part of the Caucasus . West Asia covers an area of 5,994,935 km (2,314,657 sq mi), with
3045-778: The Middle East (including Trans-Jordan and Yemen ) North African (such as Algeria and Libya ) and the Soviet Union (especially from Meskheti ). The Turks who remained in the former Ottoman territories continued to face discrimination and persecution thereafter leading many to seek refuge in Turkey, especially Turkish Meskhetians deported by Joseph Stalin in 1944; Turkish minorities in Yugoslavia (i.e., Turkish Bosnians , Turkish Croatians , Turkish Kosovars , Turkish Macedonians , Turkish Montenegrins and Turkish Serbians ) fleeing Josip Broz Tito 's regime in
3150-505: The Muslim conquests , the Turks entered the Muslim world proper as slaves , the booty of Arab raids and conquests. The Turks began converting to Islam after the Muslim conquest of Transoxiana through the efforts of missionaries , Sufis , and merchants. Although initiated by the Arabs , the conversion of the Turks to Islam was filtered through Persian and Central Asian culture. Under
3255-781: The Northern Dobruja region. The only settlement which still has a Turkish majority population is in Dobromir located in the Constanța County . Historically, Turkish Romanians also formed a majority in other regions, such as the island of Ada Kaleh which was destroyed and flooded by the Romanian government for the construction of the Iron Gate I Hydroelectric Power Station . The Turkish Serbians have lived in Serbia since
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3360-639: The Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development (OECD) include only Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Israel, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Oman, Qatar, Palestine (called West Bank and Gaza in the latter), Saudi Arabia, Syria, Turkey, UAE, and Yemen as West Asian countries. By contrast, the United Nations Industrial Development Organization (UNIDO) in its 2015 yearbook includes Armenia and Azerbaijan, and excludes Israel (as Other) and Turkey (as Europe). Unlike
3465-624: The Ottoman conquests in the region . They have traditionally lived in the urban areas of Serbia. In 1830, when the Principality of Serbia was granted autonomy, most Turks emigrated as " muhacirs " (refugees) to Ottoman Turkey , and by 1862 almost all of the remaining Turks left Central Serbia , including 3,000 from Belgrade . Today, the remaining community mostly live in Belgrade and Sandžak . The Turkish Azerbaijanis began to settle in
3570-722: The Russo-Turkish War (1877–1878) followed by the Bolshevik Revolution (1917), and then after Georgia was incorporated into the Soviet Union . During this period, some members of the community also relocated to other Soviet borders, and those who remained in Georgia were targeted by the Sovietisation campaigns. Thereafter, during World War II , the Soviet administration initiated a mass deportation of
3675-606: The Targovishte Province (35.80%), and the Shumen Province (30.29%). They were ethnically cleansed during the Muslim Persecution during Ottoman Contraction and subsequently targeted during the Revival Process that aimed to assimilate them into a Bulgarian identity. The Turkish Croatians began to settle in the region during the various Croatian–Ottoman wars . Despite being a small minority,
3780-496: The Tigris and Euphrates rivers contribute very well. West Asia is primarily arid and semi-arid , and can be subject to drought , but it also contains vast expanses of forest and fertile valleys. The region consists of grasslands , rangelands , deserts , and mountains . Water shortages are a problem in many parts of West Asia, with rapidly growing populations increasing demands for water, while salinization and pollution threaten water supplies. Major rivers, including
3885-522: The Tigris and Euphrates , provide sources for irrigation water to support agriculture . There are two wind phenomena in West Asia: the sharqi and the shamal . The sharqi (or sharki ) is a wind that comes from the south and southeast. It is seasonal, lasting from April to early June, and comes again between late September and November. The winds are dry and dusty, with occasional gusts up to 80 kilometres per hour (50 miles per hour) and often kick up violent sand and dust storms that can carry sand
3990-402: The Turkish Constitution defines a Turk as anyone who is "bound to the Turkish state through the bond of citizenship ." Anatolia was first inhabited by hunter-gatherers during the Paleolithic era, and was inhabited by various civilizations such as Hattians and ancient Anatolian peoples . After Alexander the Great 's conquest in 334 BC, the area was culturally Hellenized , and by
4095-421: The Umayyads , most were domestic servants, whilst under the Abbasid Caliphate , increasing numbers were trained as soldiers. By the ninth century, Turkish commanders were leading the caliphs ’ Turkish troops into battle. As the Abbasid Caliphate declined, Turkish officers assumed more military and political power by taking over or establishing provincial dynasties with their own corps of Turkish troops. During
4200-434: The 11th century, the Seljuk Turks , who were influenced by Persian civilization in many ways, grew in strength and succeeded in taking the eastern province of the Abbasid Empire . By 1055, the Seljuks captured Baghdad and began to make their first incursions into Anatolia . When they won the Battle of Manzikert against the Byzantine Empire in 1071, it opened the gates of Anatolia to them. Although ethnically Turkish,
4305-417: The 13th largest ethnic group in the world. Turks from Central Asia settled in Anatolia in the 11th century, through the conquests of the Seljuk Turks . This began the transformation of the region, which had been a largely Greek-speaking region after previously being Hellenized , into a Turkish Muslim one. The Ottoman Empire expanded into parts of West Asia , Southeast Europe , and North Africa over
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4410-487: The 1920s and the 1930s, Turks, as well as other Muslims , from the Balkans , the Black Sea , the Aegean islands , the island of Cyprus , the Sanjak of Alexandretta ( Hatay ), the Middle East , and the Soviet Union continued to arrive in Turkey , most of whom settled in urban north-western Anatolia. The bulk of these immigrants, known as " Muhacirs ", were the Balkan Turks who faced harassment and discrimination in their homelands. However, there were still remnants of
4515-414: The 1950s; Turkish Cypriots fleeing the Cypriot intercommunal violence of 1955–74; Turkish Iraqis fleeing discrimination during the rise of Arab nationalism in the 1950s and 1970s followed by the Iran–Iraq War of 1980–88; Turkish Bulgarians fleeing the Bulgarisation policies of the so-called " Revival Process " under the communist ruler Todor Zivkov in the 1980s; and Turkish Kosovars fleeing
4620-431: The 19th century, the empire began to decline when ethno-nationalist uprisings occurred across the empire. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction and in the Russian Empire resulted in estimated 5 million deaths, with more than 3 million in Balkans; the casualties included Turks. Five to seven or seven to nine million refugees migrated into modern-day Turkey from
4725-402: The Balkans. Once Albania came under Ottoman rule , Turkish colonization was scarce there; however, some Anatolian Turkish settlers did arrive in 1415–30 and were given timar estates. According to the 2011 census, the Turkish language was the sixth most spoken language in the country (after Albanian , Greek , Macedonian , Romani , and Aromanian ). The Turkish Bosnians have lived in
4830-526: The First World War, when it was defeated by the Allies and partitioned . Following the Turkish War of Independence that ended with the Turkish National Movement retaking much of the territory lost to the Allies, the Movement ended the Ottoman Empire on 1 November 1922 and proclaimed the Republic of Turkey on 29 October 1923. As an ethnonym , the etymology of Turk is still unknown. In Chinese sources, Turk appears as Tujue ( Chinese : 突 厥 ; Wade–Giles : T’u-chüe ), which referred to
4935-401: The Magnificent , further expanded the conquests after capturing Belgrade in 1521 and using its territorial base to conquer Hungary , and other Central European territories, after his victory in the Battle of Mohács as well as also pushing the frontiers of the empire to the east. Following Suleiman's death, Ottoman victories continued, albeit less frequently than before. The island of Cyprus
5040-444: The Mongols occupied more lands in Asia Minor, the Turks moved further into western Anatolia and settled in the Seljuk-Byzantine frontier. By the last decades of the 13th century, the Ilkhans and their Seljuk vassals lost control over much of Anatolia to these Turkoman peoples . A number of Turkish lords managed to establish themselves as rulers of various principalities , known as " Beyliks " or emirates . Amongst these beyliks, along
5145-413: The Ottoman capital, that the Ottoman Empire developed considerably. In 1354, the Ottomans crossed into Europe and established a foothold on the Gallipoli Peninsula while at the same time pushing east and taking Ankara . Many Turks from Anatolia began to settle in the region which had been abandoned by the inhabitants who had fled Thrace before the Ottoman invasion. However, the Byzantines were not
5250-420: The Ottoman conquest of Meskheti in Georgia, hundreds of thousands of Turkic invaders had settled in the region from the thirteenth century. At this time, the main town, Akhaltsikhe , was mentioned in sources by the Turkish name "Ak-sika", or "White Fortress". Thus, this accounts for the present day Turkish designation of the region as "Ahıska". Local leaders were given the Turkish title "Atabek" from which came
5355-410: The Rumelian/Balkan Turks are the descendants of Ottoman settlers. However, the first significant wave of Anatolian Turkish settlement to the Balkans dates back to the mass migration of sedentary and nomadic subjects of the Seljuk sultan Kaykaus II (b. 1237 – d. 1279/80) who had fled to the court of Michael VIII Palaiologos in 1262. The Turkish Albanians are one of the smallest Turkish communities in
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#17327830911715460-408: The Seljuk Turks appreciated and became carriers of Persian culture rather than Turkish culture . Nonetheless, the Turkish language and Islam were introduced and gradually spread over the region and the slow transition from a predominantly Christian and Greek -speaking Anatolia to a predominantly Muslim and Turkish-speaking one was underway. In dire straits, the Byzantine Empire turned to
5565-417: The Seljuk territories rapidly disintegrated, leading to the strengthening of Turkoman principalities in the western and southern parts of Anatolia called the " beyliks ". When the Mongols defeated the Seljuk Turks and conquered Anatolia , the Turks became the vassals of the Ilkhans who established their own empire in the vast area which stretched from present-day Afghanistan to present-day Turkey . As
5670-450: The Turkish and Greek Cypriots , known as the " Cyprus conflict ", the Greek Cypriot government conducted a census in 1973, albeit without the Turkish Cypriot populace. A year later, in 1974, the Cypriot government's Department of Statistics and Research estimated the Turkish Cypriot population was 118,000 (or 18.4%). A coup d'état in Cyprus on 15 July 1974 by Greeks and Greek Cypriots favoring union with Greece (also known as " Enosis ")
5775-417: The Turkish homeland. The Turkish identity became the unifying force when, in 1923, the Treaty of Lausanne was signed and the newly founded Republic of Turkey was formally established. Atatürk's presidency was marked by a series of radical political and social reforms that transformed Turkey into a secular , modern republic with civil and political equality for sectarian minorities and women. Throughout
5880-431: The Turkish minority's cultural, religious, educational, social, economic, and political freedoms. The Turks of Bulgaria form the largest Turkish community in the Balkans as well as the largest ethnic minority group in Bulgaria . According to the 2011 census, they form a majority in the Kardzhali Province (66.2%) and the Razgrad Province (50.02%), as well as substantial communities in the Silistra Province (36.09%),
5985-426: The Turkoman chiefs assumed greater independence. Under its founder, Osman I , the nomadic Ottoman beylik expanded along the Sakarya River and westward towards the Sea of Marmara . Thus, the population of western Asia Minor had largely become Turkish -speaking and Muslim in religion. It was under his son, Orhan I , who had attacked and conquered the important urban center of Bursa in 1326, proclaiming it as
6090-471: The Turks are among the 22 officially recognized national minorities in Croatia. The Turkish Kosovars are the third largest ethnic minority in Kosovo (after the Serbs and Bosniaks ). They form a majority in the town and municipality of Mamuša . The Turkish Montenegrins form the smallest Turkish minority group in the Balkans. They began to settle in the region following the Ottoman rule of Montenegro . A historical event took place in 1707 which involved
6195-795: The UNIDO, the United Nations Statistics Division (UNSD) excludes Iran from West Asia and includes Turkey, Georgia, and Cyprus in the region. In the United Nations geopolitical Eastern European Group , Armenia and Georgia are included in Eastern Europe, whereas Cyprus and East Thracian Turkey are in Southern Europe. These three nations are listed in the European category of the United Nations Educational, Scientific, and Cultural Organisation (UNESCO). National members of West Asian sports governing bodies are limited to Bahrain, Iran, Iraq, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon, Syria, Oman, Palestine, Qatar, Saudi Arabia, United Arab Emirates, and Yemen. The Olympic Council of Asia 's multi-sport event West Asian Games are contested by athletes representing these 13 countries. Among
6300-485: The West for help, setting in motion the pleas that led to the First Crusade . Once the Crusaders took Iznik , the Seljuk Turks established the Sultanate of Rum from their new capital, Konya , in 1097. By the 12th century, Europeans had begun to call the Anatolian region Turchia or Turkey , the land of the Turks. The Turkish society in Anatolia was divided into urban, rural and nomadic populations; other Turkoman (Turkmen) tribes who had arrived into Anatolia at
6405-431: The abortion of that text, never ratified, and the abolition of the Sultanate . Thus, the 623-year-old Ottoman Empire ended. Once Mustafa Kemal led the Turkish War of Independence against the Allied forces that occupied the former Ottoman Empire , he united the Turkish Muslim majority and successfully led them from 1919 to 1922 in overthrowing the occupying forces out of what the Turkish National Movement considered
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#17327830911716510-429: The ancient Turks were nomadic , they traded wool, leather, carpets, and horses for grain, silk, wood, and vegetables, and also had large ironworking stations in the south of the Altai Mountains during the 600s CE. Most of the Turkic peoples were followers of Tengrism , sharing the cult of the sky god Tengri , although there were also adherents of Manichaeism , Nestorian Christianity , and Buddhism . However, during
6615-471: The beginning of the 20th century, or about 2% of world population at the time. The most populous countries in the region are Turkey and Iran , each with around 79 million people, followed by Iraq and Saudi Arabia with around 33 million people each, and Yemen with around 29 million people. Numerically, West Asia is predominantly Arab , Persian , Turkish , and the dominating languages are correspondingly Arabic , Persian and Turkish , each with of
6720-447: The border between the West Bank , Israel , and Jordan , is situated at 418 m (1,371 ft) below sea level, making it the lowest point on the surface of the Earth . Rub' al Khali , one of the world's largest sand deserts, spans the southern third of the Arabian Peninsula in Saudi Arabia, parts of Oman, the United Arab Emirates and Yemen. Jebel al Akhdar is a small range of mountains located in northeastern Oman, bordering
6825-737: The boundary between the Aegean and Anatolian plate in eastern Turkey is also seismically active. Several major aquifers provide water to large portions of West Asia. In Saudi Arabia, two large aquifers of Palaeozoic and Triassic origins are located beneath the Jabal Tuwayq mountains and areas west to the Red Sea. Cretaceous and Eocene -origin aquifers are located beneath large portions of central and eastern Saudi Arabia, including Wasia and Biyadh which contain amounts of both fresh water and saline water . Flood or furrow irrigation, as well as sprinkler methods, are extensively used for irrigation , covering nearly 90,000 km (35,000 sq mi) across West Asia for agriculture. Also,
6930-680: The capital of the Ottoman Empire in 1365, they opened their way into Bulgaria and Macedonia in 1371 at the Battle of Maritsa . With the conquests of Thrace , Macedonia, and Bulgaria, significant numbers of Turkish emigrants settled in these regions. This form of Ottoman-Turkish colonization became a very effective method to consolidate their position and power in the Balkans . The settlers consisted of soldiers, nomads, farmers, artisans and merchants , dervishes , preachers and other religious functionaries, and administrative personnel. In 1453, Ottoman armies, under Sultan Mehmed II , conquered Constantinople . Mehmed reconstructed and repopulated
7035-510: The chief province ( eyalet ) responsible for administrative districts in the region. The Ottomans encouraged migration from Anatolia and the settlement of Turks along northern Iraq. After 89 years of peace, the Ottoman–Safavid War (1623–1639) saw Murad IV recapturing Baghdad and taking permanent control over Iraq which resulted in the influx of continuous Turkish settlers until Ottoman rule came to an end in 1919. West Asia West Asia , also called Western Asia or Southwest Asia ,
7140-460: The city, and made it the new Ottoman capital. After the Fall of Constantinople , the Ottoman Empire entered a long period of conquest and expansion with its borders eventually going deep into Europe , the Middle East , and North Africa . Selim I dramatically expanded the empire's eastern and southern frontiers in the Battle of Chaldiran and gained recognition as the guardian of the holy cities of Mecca and Medina . His successor, Suleiman
7245-399: The course of several centuries. In the 19th and early 20th centuries, persecution of Muslims during the Ottoman contraction and in the Russian Empire resulted in large-scale loss of life and mass migration into modern-day Turkey from the Balkans, Caucasus , and Crimea ; the immigrants were both Turkish and non-Turkish people, and overwhelmingly Muslim. The empire lasted until the end of
7350-452: The culture of the Anatolian Turks in Asia Minor has underlain and influenced the Turkish nationalist ideology. Other Turkish groups include the Rumelian Turks (also referred to as Balkan Turks) historically located in the Balkans ; Turkish Cypriots on the island of Cyprus, Meskhetian Turks originally based in Meskheti , Georgia ; and ethnic Turkish people across the Middle East , where they are also called Turkmen or Turkoman in
7455-502: The current Syrian civil war . The Turkish Cypriots are the ethnic Turks whose Ottoman Turkish forebears colonized the island of Cyprus in 1571. About 30,000 Turkish soldiers were given land once they settled in Cyprus, which bequeathed a significant Turkish community. In 1960, a census by the new Republic's government revealed that the Turkish Cypriots formed 18.2% of the island's population. However, once inter-communal fighting and ethnic tensions between 1963 and 1974 occurred between
7560-513: The descendants of these immigrants. The ethnic Turks are the largest ethnic group in Turkey and number approximately 60 million to 65 million. Due to differing historical Turkish migrations to the region, dating from the Seljuk conquests in the 11th century to the continuous Turkish migrations which have persisted to the present day (especially Turkish refugees from neighboring countries), there are various accents and customs which can distinguish
7665-650: The dominant Shia sect in the country). Since the Second World War , the Turkish Azerbaijani community has increased significantly due to the mass wave of Turkish Meskhetian refugees who arrived during the Soviet rule . The Turkish Abkhazians began to live in Abkhazia during the sixteenth century under Ottoman rule. Today, there are still Turks who continue to live in the region. Prior to
7770-488: The dominant language in Israel in the second half of the 20th century, and Neo-Aramaic (spoken by modern Arameans , Assyrians , and Chaldeans ) and Greek both remain present in their respective territories as minority languages. Significant native minorities include, in alphabetical order: Arameans , Assyrians , Chaldeans , Druze , Jews , Lurs , Mandeans , Maronites , Shabaks and Yezidis . Religion in West Asia (2020) Four major religious groups (i.e.
7875-580: The ethnic Turks by geographic sub-groups. For example, the most significant are the Anatolian Turks in the central core of Asiatic Turkey whose culture was influential in underlining the roots of the Turkish nationalist ideology. There are also nomadic Turkic tribes who descend directly from Central Asia , such as the Yörüks ; the Black Sea Turks in the north whose "speech largely lacks
7980-754: The fifteenth century name of one of the four kingdoms of what had been Georgia, Samtskhe-Saatabago , "the land of the Atabek called Samtskhe [Meskhetia]". In 1555 the Ottomans gained the western part of Meskheti after the Peace of Amasya treaty, whilst the Safavids took the eastern part. Then in 1578 the Ottomans attacked the Safavid controlled area which initiated the Ottoman–Safavid War (1578–1590) . Meskheti
8085-777: The first century BC it is generally thought that the native Anatolian languages , themselves earlier newcomers to the area, following the Indo-European migrations , became extinct. According to historians and linguists, the Proto-Turkic language originated in Central-East Asia, potentially in Altai-Sayan region , Mongolia or Tuva . Initially, Proto-Turkic speakers were potentially both hunter-gatherers and farmers; they later became nomadic pastoralists . Early and medieval Turkic groups exhibited
8190-842: The forests north of the Sea of Azov , and Pliny the Elder lists the Tyrcae among the people of the same area; yet English archaeologist Ellis Minns contended that Tyrcae is "a false correction" for Iurcae / Iurkai ( Ἱύρκαι ), a people who dwelt beyond the Thyssagetae , according to Herodotus ( Histories , IV. 22) There are references to certain groups in antiquity whose names might have been foreign transcriptions of Tür(ü)k such as Togarmah , Turukha / Turuška , Turukku and so on; but according to American historian Peter B. Golden , while any connection of some of these ancient peoples to Turks
8295-722: The government of the Committee of Union and Progress started a program of forcible Turkification of non-Turkish minorities. By 1914, the World War I broke out, and the Turks scored some success in Gallipoli during the Battle of the Dardanelles in 1915. During World War I, the government of the Committee of Union and Progress continued to implement its Turkification policies, which affected non-Turkish minorities, such as
8400-513: The killing of the Turks in Montenegro as well as the murder of all Muslims. This early example of ethnic cleaning features in the epic poem The Mountain Wreath (1846). After the Ottoman withdrawal, the majority of the remaining Turks emigrated to Istanbul and İzmir . Today, the remaining Turkish Montenegrins predominantly live in the coastal town of Bar . The Turkish Macedonians form
8505-597: The largest Turkic people who speak various dialects of the Turkish language and form a majority in Turkey and Northern Cyprus . In addition, centuries-old ethnic Turkish communities still live across other former territories of the Ottoman Empire . Article 66 of the Constitution of Turkey defines a Turk as anyone who is a citizen of Turkey. While the legal use of the term Turkish as it pertains to
8610-520: The largest waves of ethnic Turkish migration came from the Balkans during the late 19th and early 20th centuries, when the Balkan Wars led to most of the region becoming independent from Ottoman control. The largest waves of muhacirs came from the Balkans (especially Bulgaria , Greece , Romania and Yugoslavia ); however, substantial numbers also came from Cyprus, the Sanjak of Alexandretta ,
8715-464: The late 19th century, as the Ottoman upper classes adopted European ideas of nationalism , the term Türk took on a more positive connotation. During Ottoman times, the millet system defined communities on a religious basis. In the early 20th century, the Young Turks abandoned Ottoman nationalism in favor of Turkish nationalism , while adopting the name Turks , which was finally used in
8820-472: The name of the new Turkish Republic. Mustafa Kemal Atatürk defined the Turkish nation as the "people ( halk ) who established the Turkish republic". Further, "the natural and historical facts which effected the establishment ( teessüs ) of the Turkish nation" were "(a) unity in political existence, (b) unity in language, (c) unity in homeland, (d) unity in race and origin ( menşe ), (e) to be historically related and (f) to be morally related". Article 66 of
8925-586: The northwest and north, the region is delimited from Europe by the Turkish Straits and drainage divide of the Greater Caucasus , to the southwest, it is delimited from Africa by the Isthmus of Suez , while to the northeast and east, the region adjoins Central Asia and South Asia . The region is located east of Southern Europe and south of Eastern Europe . The Dasht-e Kavir and Dasht-e Lut deserts in eastern Iran naturally delimit
9030-557: The northwest to the east at the middle of Iraq with Kirkuk placed as their cultural capital. Historically, Turkic migrations to Iraq date back to the 7th century when Turks were recruited in the Umayyad armies of Ubayd-Allah ibn Ziyad followed by thousands more Turkmen warriors arriving under the Abbasid rule. However, most of these Turks became assimilated into the local Arab population. The next large scale migration occurred under
9135-551: The only ones to suffer from the Ottoman advance for, in the mid-1330s, Orhan annexed the Turkish beylik of Karasi . This advancement was maintained by Murad I who more than tripled the territories under his direct rule, reaching some 100,000 square miles (260,000 km ), evenly distributed in Europe and Asia Minor . Gains in Anatolia were matched by those in Europe; once the Ottoman forces took Edirne ( Adrianople ), which became
9240-469: The order of 70 million speakers, followed by smaller communities of Kurdish , Azerbaijani , Hebrew , Armenian and Neo-Aramaic . The dominance of Arabic and Turkish is the result of the medieval Arab and Turkic invasions beginning with the Islamic conquests of the 7th century AD, which displaced the formerly dominant Aramaic in the region of Syria , and Greek in Anatolia, although Hebrew became
9345-519: The part of Asia known in classical antiquity, as opposed to the reaches of "interior Asia", i.e. Scythia , and "Eastern Asia" the easternmost reaches of geographical knowledge in classical authors, i.e. Transoxania and India . In the 20th century, "Western Asia" was used to denote a rough geographical era in the fields of archaeology and ancient history , especially as a shorthand for "the Fertile Crescent excluding Ancient Egypt " for
9450-705: The purposes of comparing the early civilizations of Egypt and the former. Use of the term in the context of contemporary geopolitics or world economy appears to date from at least the mid-1960s. The region is surrounded by eight major seas; the Aegean Sea , the Black Sea , the Caspian Sea , the Persian Gulf , the Arabian Sea , the Gulf of Aden , the Red Sea , and the Mediterranean Sea . To
9555-489: The region during the Ottoman rule, which lasted between 1578 and 1603. By 1615, the Safavid ruler, Shah Abbas I , solidified control of the region and then deported thousands of people from Azerbaijan. In 1998, there was still approximately 19,000 Turks living in Azerbaijan who descended from the original Ottoman settlers; they are distinguishable from the rest of Azeri society because they practice Sunni Islam (rather than
9660-670: The region from Balochistan and South Asia. Three major tectonic plates converge on West Asia, including the African , Eurasian , and Arabian plates. The boundaries between the tectonic plates make up the Azores-Gibraltar Ridge , extending across North Africa , the Red Sea , and into Iran. The Arabian Plate is moving northward into the Anatolian plate (Turkey) at the East Anatolian Fault , and
9765-586: The region since the Ottoman rule of Bosnia and Herzegovina . Thus, the Turks form the oldest ethnic minority in the country. The Turkish Bosnian community decreased dramatically due to mass emigration to Turkey when Bosnia and Herzegovina came under Austro-Hungarian rule. In 2003 the Parliamentary Assembly of Bosnia and Herzegovina adopted the "Law on the Protection of Rights of Members of National Minorities" which officially protected
9870-591: The region's sports organisations are the West Asia Basketball Association , West Asian Billiards and Snooker Federation , West Asian Football Federation , and the West Asian Tennis Federation . "Western Asia" was in use as a geographical term in the early 19th century, before " Near East " became current as a geopolitical concept. In the context of the history of classical antiquity , "Western Asia" could mean
9975-776: The remaining 115,000 Turkish Meskhetians in 1944, forcing them to resettle in the Caucasus and the Central Asian Soviet republics. Thus, today hundreds of thousands of Turkish Meskhetians are scattered throughout the Post Soviet states (especially in Kazakhstan , Azerbaijan , Russia , Kyrgyzstan , Uzbekistan and Ukraine ). Moreover, many have settled in Turkey and the United States . Attempts to repatriate them back to Georgia saw Georgian authorities receive applications covering 9,350 individuals within
10080-455: The same time as the Seljuks kept their nomadic ways. These tribes were more numerous than the Seljuks, and rejecting the sedentary lifestyle, adhered to an Islam impregnated with animism and shamanism from their Central Asian steppeland origins, which then mixed with new Christian influences. From this popular and syncretist Islam, with its mystical and revolutionary aspects, sects such as
10185-977: The second largest Turkish community in the Balkans as well as the second largest minority ethnic group in North Macedonia . They form a majority in the Centar Župa Municipality and the Plasnica Municipality as well as substantial communities in the Mavrovo and Rostuša Municipality , the Studeničani Municipality , the Dolneni Municipality , the Karbinci Municipality , and the Vasilevo Municipality . The Turkish Romanians are centered in
10290-468: The teachings of figures like Hamza ibn-'Ali ibn-Ahmad and Al-Hakim bi-Amr Allah and Greek philosophers such as Plato and Aristotle . The number of Druze people worldwide is around one million, with about 45% to 50% living in Syria , 35% to 40% living in Lebanon , and less than 10% living in Israel ; recently there has been a growing Druze diaspora. There are also important minority religions like
10395-934: The two largest religions in the world: Christianity and Islam , plus Judaism and Druze faith ) originated in West Asia. Islam is the largest religion in West Asia, but other faiths that originated there, such as Judaism and Christianity , are also well represented. In Armenia and Georgia , Oriental Orthodoxy and Eastern Orthodoxy respectively are the predominant religions, and there are still different ancient communities of Eastern Christians in Azerbaijan . There are still large ancient communities of Eastern Christians (such as Assyrians , Middle Eastern Christians and Arab Christians ) in Lebanon , Iraq , Iran , Turkey , Syria , Jordan , Israel and Palestine numbering more than 3 million in West Asia. There are also large populations of expatriate workers which include sizeable Christian communities living in
10500-550: The two-year application period (up until 1 January 2010). Commonly referred to as the Iraqi Turkmens , the Turks are the second largest ethnic minority group in Iraq (i.e. after the Kurds ). The majority are the descendants of Ottoman settlers (e.g. soldiers, traders and civil servants) who were brought into Iraq from Anatolia . Today, most Iraqi Turkmen live in a region they refer to as " Turkmeneli " which stretches from
10605-699: The vowel harmony valued elsewhere"; the descendants of muhacirs (Turkish refugees) who fled persecution from former Ottoman territories in the nineteenth and early twentieth centuries; and more recent refugees who have continued to flee discrimination and persecution since the mid-1900s. Initially, muhacirs who arrived in Eastern Thrace and Anatolia came fleeing from former Ottoman territories which had been annexed by European colonial powers (such as France in Algeria or Russia in Crimea ); however,
10710-418: The waterways of the Turkish Straits and the watershed of the Greater Caucasus . Central Asia lies to its northeast, while South Asia lies to its east. Twelve seas surround the region (clockwise): the Aegean Sea , the Sea of Marmara , the Black Sea , the Caspian Sea , the Persian Gulf , the Gulf of Oman , the Arabian Sea , the Gulf of Aden , the Red Sea , the Gulf of Aqaba , the Gulf of Suez , and
10815-420: Was conquered, in 1571, bolstering Ottoman dominance over the sea routes of the eastern Mediterranean . However, after its defeat at the Battle of Vienna , in 1683, the Ottoman army was met by ambushes and further defeats; the 1699 Treaty of Karlowitz , which granted Austria the provinces of Hungary and Transylvania , marked the first time in history that the Ottoman Empire actually relinquished territory. By
10920-589: Was followed by military intervention by Turkey whose troops established Turkish Cypriot control over the northern part of the island. Hence, census's conducted by the Republic of Cyprus have excluded the Turkish Cypriot population that had settled in the unrecognized Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus . Between 1975 and 1981, Turkey encouraged its own citizens to settle in Northern Cyprus;
11025-470: Was fully secured into the Ottoman Empire in 1639 after a treaty signed with Iran brought an end to Iranian attempts to take the region. With the arrival of more Turkish colonizers, the Turkish Meskhetian community increased significantly. However, once the Ottomans lost control of the region in 1883, many Turkish Meskhetians migrated from Georgia to Turkey. Migrations to Turkey continued after
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