Albanians in Turkey
| Total population | |
|---|---|
| (403,445 "Albanian speakers" in 1965 census", 500,000 to 5,000,000 ) | |
| Regions with significant populations | |
| Marmara Region, Tokat and Samsun | |
| Languages | |
| Albanian, Turkish | |
| Religion | |
| Islam |
Albanians in Turkey (Albanian: Shqiptarët në Turqi, Turkish: Türkiye'deki Arnavutlar) are ethnic Albanian citizens and denizens of Turkey. They consist of Albanians who arrived during the Ottoman period, Kosovar/Macedonian and Tosk Cham Albanians fleeing from Serbian and Greek persecution after the beginning of the Balkan Wars, alongside some Albanians from Montenegro and Albania proper. A 2008 report from the Turkish National Security Council (MGK) estimated that approximately 1.3 million people of Albanian ancestry live in Turkey, and more than 500,000 recognizing their ancestry, language and culture. There are other estimates however that place the number of people in Turkey with Albanian ancestry and or background upward to 5 million.
In the census of 1965, 12,832 Turkish citizens spoke Albanian as first language, which is only 0.04% of the population. These people were mostly living in Bursa (0.3%), Sakarya (0.2%), Tokat (0.2%) and Istanbul (0.2%). Another 390,613 spoke Albanian as second language (1.28% of Turkey's population). Together, albanian speaking population in Turkey according to the census of 1965 was 403,445 or 1.3% of the total population of Turkey.
According to a 2008 report prepared for the National Security Council of Turkey by academics of three Turkish universities in eastern Anatolia, there were approximately 1,300,000 people of Albanian descent living in Turkey. According to that study, more than 500,000 Albanian descendants still recognize their ancestry and or their language, culture and traditions. In a 2011 survey, 0.2% within Turkey or roughly 150,000 people identify themselves as Albanian.
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