What is the status of Christianity in Turkey?
Christianity in Turkey has had a long history dating back to the 1st-century AD. In modern times the percentage of Christians in Turkey has declined from 20-25 percent in 1914 to 3-5.5 percent in 1927, to 0.3-0.4\% today roughly translating to 200,000-320,000 devotees.
What is the difference between Greeks and Turks?
The majority of the Turks today aren’t descendants of the original Turks that migrated into Anatolia from Central Asia, there weren’t enough to replace the local population, but rather, they are descendants of the Turkified Greeks that lived there. So genetically you could consider the Greeks as Christian Turks and the Turks as Muslim Greeks.
What was the religion of the Turkic peoples?
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 the Muslim conquests, the Turks entered the Muslim world proper as slaves, the booty of Arab raids and conquests.
What are the Greeks of Turkey called in Turkish?
The Greeks of Turkey are referred to in Turkish as Rumlar, meaning “Romans”. This derives from the self-designation Ῥωμαῖος (Rhomaîos, pronounced ro-ME-os) or Ρωμιός (Rhomiós, pronounced ro-mee-OS or rom-YOS) used by Byzantine Greeks, who were the continuation of the Roman Empire in the east.
How many Christians were there in the Ottoman Empire?
A traveler in Ottoman Turkey in the mid-nineteenth century would have discovered a robust and diverse Christian presence of different denominations and ethnicities, including Armenians, Greeks, and Assyrians. There were between 3 and 4 million Christians in what is now Turkey—around 20 percent of the total population.
What happened to the Greeks who converted to Islam?
The final blow in the long and tragic process of Islamization and Turkification of the Ottoman Greek population was delivered during the 1913-1923 Greek Genocide, in which many Greeks — especially women and children — were forced to convert to Islam. Those who refused were killed or exiled.
Which religion has the most regional influence in Turkey?
The Christian population of the West Syriac Rite probably has the most regional influence in Turkey, as its population wasn’t confined to or was centered in Istanbul like the rest of the Christian communities of Turkey were. Active churches are located in Istanbul, Diyarbakir, Adiyaman, and Elazig.