Turks in Europe

The Turks in Europe (sometimes called Euro-Turks; Turkish: Avrupa'daki Türkler or Avrupa'da yaşayan Türkler or Avrupa Türkleri) refers to Turkic peoples living in Europe, particularly those of Turkish origin.

Generally, "Euro-Turks" refers to the large Turkish diasporas living in Central and Western Europe as well as the Turkish communities in the former Ottoman Empire and those living in Russia and other European Post-Soviet states. When the term "Euro-Turks" is taken in its most literal sense, Turkish people living in the European portion of Turkey are also included in the term. Even more broadly, the Turkish Cypriot community for people living in Cyprus, which is located in Asia, has also been defined under the term "Euro-Turks" since the island joined the European Union.

It is less frequently applied to Turkic groups speaking a variety of Turkic languages that have lived in Europe before the Ottoman conquest, such as the Gagauz, Crimean Karaites and Urum Greeks, the Krymchaks, and the Dobrujan Tatars.

Turks have had a long history in Europe, dating back to when the Ottoman Empire began to conquer and migrate during the establishment of Ottoman territories in Europe ("Rumelia"), which created significant Turkish communities in Bulgaria (Bulgarian Turks), Bosnia and Herzegovina (Bosnian Turks), Cyprus (Meskhetian Turks), Greece (Cretan Turks, Dodecanese Turks, and Western Thrace Turks), Kosovo (Kosovan Turks), Serbia (Turks in Serbia), North Macedonia (Turks in North Macedonia), and Romania (Romanian Turks).

In the first half of the 20th century, immigration of Turks to Western Europe began with Turkish Cypriots migrating to the United Kingdom in the early 1910s, when the British Empire annexed Cyprus in 1914 and the residents of Cyprus became British subjects. However, Turkish Cypriot migration increased significantly in the 1940s and 1950s due to the Cyprus conflict. Similarly, Turkish Algerians and Turkish Tunisians mainly emigrated to France after Algeria and Tunisia came under French colonial rule. Conversely, in 1944, Turks who were forcefully deported from Meskheti in Georgia during the World War II settled in other parts of the Soviet Union, especially in Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Russia, and the Ukraine.

In the second half of the 20th century, Turkish migration from Turkey to Western and Northern Europe increased significantly when in 1961 Turkish "Gastarbeiter" began to arrive under a "Labour Export Agreement" with West Germany, followed in 1964 by similar agreements with the Netherlands, Belgium, and Austria; France in 1965; and Sweden in 1967.^[1][2][3] Furthermore, many Balkan Turks also arrived in these countries under similar labour agreements, thus, since the 1960s there has also been a substantial Turkish Macedonian community in Sweden; Turkish Bulgarian and Turkish Western Thracian communities in Germany, etc.

More recently, in the 21st century, Turkish Bulgarians, Turkish Cypriots, Turkish Western Thracians, and Turkish Romanians have used their right as EU nationals to migrate throughout Western Europe. Furthermore, Iraqi and Syrian Turkmen have come to Europe mostly as refugees since the Iraq and Syrian civil war – especially since the 2015 European migrant crisis.