Minorities in Turkey form a substantial part of the country's population, with an estimated 25-30% of the populace belonging to an ethnic minority according to the CIA World Factbook. While the Republic of Turkey, following the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, recognizes Armenians, Greeks and Jews as ethnic minorities, this legal status is not granted the Kurds, which constitute the largest minority by a wide margin (18%), nor any of the other minorities in the country.
| Ethnic groups in Turkey (World Factbook) | ||||
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Ethnic groups | Percent | |||
| Turks | 70-75% | |||
| Kurds | 18% | |||
| Others | 7-12% | |||
Famous quotes containing the words ethnic, groups and/or turkey:
“Caprice, independence and rebellion, which are opposed to the social order, are essential to the good health of an ethnic group. We shall measure the good health of this group by the number of its delinquents. Nothing is more immobilizing than the spirit of deference.”
—Jean Dubuffet (1901–1985)
“Under weak government, in a wide, thinly populated country, in the struggle against the raw natural environment and with the free play of economic forces, unified social groups become the transmitters of culture.”
—Johan Huizinga (1872–1945)
“It has been an unchallengeable American doctrine that cranberry sauce, a pink goo with overtones of sugared tomatoes, is a delectable necessity of the Thanksgiving board and that turkey is uneatable without it.... There are some things in every country that you must be born to endure; and another hundred years of general satisfaction with Americans and America could not reconcile this expatriate to cranberry sauce, peanut butter, and drum majorettes.”
—Alistair Cooke (b. 1908)