Turks in Europe
The modern Turkish state, it predecessor the Ottoman Empire and the Turkish people, language and culture have had their impact in shaping modern Europe. According to modern statistics more approximately 8.9 million Turkish people live in European countries. Those can be divided into two broad groups- people who migrated during the time of the Ottoman Empire and modern immigrants.
Ottoman Migration
Firstly, Turks started settling in European territories during the 13th century after considerable victories over the dying Byzantine Empire. During its existence form the 13th to the 20th century the many people belonging to the Turkish ethnicity migrated in the European part of the empire. Others were shifted by the rulers for political purposes. Some came as traders, governors, military garrisons. Most of the Turkish elite settled in the cities where they kept control over secular and commercial operations. Other big mostly nomadic groups were shifted from the Asian part of the empire to European provinces. The goal was to have reserves of easily militarized population in rebellious regions.
As a result nowadays there is considerable Turkish population in most Eastern European and some Central European countries. Sizable minorities exist in modern Russia, Ukraine, Serbia, Romania, Macedonia, Kosovo, Greece, Cyprus, Croatia, Bulgaria, and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Gastarbeiter
Gastarbeiter are guest workers that came to work to many Western and Central European countries in the years after the Second World War. In those bilateral agreements made between the states and Turkey it was decided that such migrant workers would stay for a period of time and work. However, many of these got married and created families in the new countries. There were a series of actions taken by some of the countries to deport big groups of them. Other measures were naturalizations and family reunifications. baby shower ideas
As a result today there are very big groups of Turks living in Germany, Austria, Belgium, the Netherlands, France, Sweden, Switzerland, and the UK. The biggest and most notorious one is in Germany where there are estimated between 4 and 8 million Turkish people. It is sometimes quoted that Berlin is Turkey’s second biggest city.