Bulgarian Turks
| Regions with significant populations | |
|---|---|
 Bulgaria
|
588,318 (2011 census) |
 Turkey
|
326,000 (2005)- 372,000 (2014, Bulgaria-born people) |
 Netherlands
|
10,000 - 30,000 |
 Belgium
|
2,620 just in Ghent |
 Northern Cyprus
|
2,000 - 10,000 |
 Austria
|
1,000 |
 Sweden
|
30,000 |
| Languages | |
| Turkish · Bulgarian | |
| Religion | |
| Sunni Islam (majority) and Alevism (>75%, 2011 census) · | |
Bulgarian Turks (Bulgarian: български турци, Bǎlgarski Turci, Turkish: Bulgaristan Türkleri) are a Turkish ethnic group from Bulgaria. As of 2011 there are 588,318 Bulgarians of Turkish descent, roughly 8.8% of the population, making them the country's largest ethnic minority. They primarily live in the southern province of Kardzhali and the northeastern provinces of Shumen, Silistra, Razgrad and Targovishte. There is also a diaspora outside Bulgaria in countries such as Turkey, Austria, Netherlands, and Sweden, the most significant of which are the Bulgarian Turks in Turkey.
Bulgarian Turks are the descendants of Turkish settlers who entered the region after the Ottoman conquest of the Balkans in the late 14th and early 15th centuries, as well as Bulgarian converts to Islam who became Turkified during the centuries of Ottoman rule. However, it has also been suggested that some Turks living today in Bulgaria may be direct ethnic descendants of earlier medieval Pecheneg, Oğuz, and Cuman Turkic tribes. According to local tradition, following a resettlement policy Karamanid Turks (mainly from the Konya Vilayet, Nevşehir Vilayet and Niğde Vilayet of the Karaman Province) were settled mainly in the Kardzhali area by the sultans Mehmed the Conqueror, Selim and Mahmud II.The Turkish community became an ethnic minority when the Principality of Bulgaria was established after the Russo-Turkish War of 1877-78. This community is of Turkish ethnic consciousness and differs from the majority Bulgarian ethnicity and the rest of the Bulgarian nation by its own language, religion, culture, customs, and traditions.
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