The Turks in Kosovo, also known as Kosovo Turks, and Kosovan Turks, ( tr, ) are the ethnic
Turks who constitute a minority group in
Kosovo.
History
Turkish settlement into
Kosovo began in the late 14th century after the medieval
Serbian
Serbian may refer to:
* someone or something related to Serbia, a country in Southeastern Europe
* someone or something related to the Serbs, a South Slavic people
* Serbian language
* Serbian names
See also
*
*
* Old Serbian (disambiguat ...
state lost the
Battle of Kosovo
The Battle of Kosovo ( tr, Kosova Savaşı; sr, Косовска битка) took place on 15 June 1389 between an army led by the Serbian Prince Lazar Hrebeljanović and an invading army of the Ottoman Empire under the command of Sultan ...
and the territory came under
Ottoman rule. Although Turkish colonists began arriving in 1389-1455 when, during the Ottoman conquest, numbers of soldiers, officials, and merchants began to make their appearance in the major towns of Kosovo, the overwhelming majority of modern Turks in Kosovo are of
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
origin.
During Ottoman rule, the cities of
Prizren
)
, settlement_type = Municipality and city
, image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg
, imagesize = 290px
, image_caption = View of Prizren
, image_alt = View of Prizren
, image_flag ...
,
Mitrovica,
Vushtrri,
Gjilan
Gjilan, or Gnjilane ( sr-cyr, Гњилане) is the eighth largest city in Kosovo and seat of Gjilan Municipality and Gjilan District.
Name
Ottoman chronicler Evliya Çelebi mentions ''Morava'' as a settlement of the Sanjak of Vučitrn. ...
and
Pristina experienced a widespread phenomenon where villagers settling in the cities would, upon arrival, begin adopting Turkish customs and the Turkish language. Those who settled in these urban environments, where Turkish was the language of communication with the government and the language of social prestige, opted to refer to themselves as Turks, in order to distinguish themselves from those who had not migrated to the cities and as a marker of socioeconomic status. A large number of these Turkified inhabitants still retain names alluding to their ethnic
Albanian
Albanian may refer to:
*Pertaining to Albania in Southeast Europe; in particular:
**Albanians, an ethnic group native to the Balkans
**Albanian language
**Albanian culture
**Demographics of Albania, includes other ethnic groups within the country ...
origin, usually consisting of tribal names such as ''
Berisha,
Bytyçi,
Gashi,
Hoti,
Kastrati,
Krasniqi,
Kryeziu,
Luma'' and others.
In 1912 the Ottoman Turks lost control over Kosovo and the region became a part of the
Kingdoms of Serbia and
Montenegro. From this point, Kosovo as a political entity was discontinued as the region was divided among new administrative units. Following the Austrian and Bulgarian occupation during
World War I, Serbia and Montenegro became part of the newly created
Kingdom of Serbs, Croats and Slovenes in 1918. When the
Axis powers occupied
Yugoslavia in 1941, the former territory of Kosovo became part of
Albania, which was itself controlled by
Italy. With the defeat of the Axis powers, Yugoslavia, then ruled by Communists led by
Josip Broz Tito
Josip Broz ( sh-Cyrl, Јосип Броз, ; 7 May 1892 – 4 May 1980), commonly known as Tito (; sh-Cyrl, Тито, links=no, ), was a Yugoslav communist revolutionary and statesman, serving in various positions from 1943 until his deat ...
, regained control over the region. In 1946, Kosovo returned to maps when a region bearing the name ''Kosovo and Metohija'' was granted autonomous status within
FPR Yugoslavia.
As a result of the Turkification policies enacted by the Yugoslavian government between 1948-1956, the number of registered Turks in Kosovo jumped from a mere 1,313 (or 0.2% of the population) in 1948 to 34,343 (4.3% of Kosovo's population) in the 1953 census. This was partly the result of the historical connotations of the word ''Turk'', which had been synonymous with ''Muslim'' during the Ottoman era. These self declared Turks, almost exclusively consisting of ethnic
Albanians
The Albanians (; sq, Shqiptarët ) are an ethnic group and nation native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, culture, history and language. They primarily live in Albania, Kosovo, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Se ...
, then began to emigrate to
Turkey until 1958 on the basis of a bilateral agreement between Yugoslavia and Turkey.
Demographics
Population
In 1993, the
Human Rights Watch stated that there was approximately 20,000 Kosovan Turks, constituting about 1% of Kosovo's population.
[.] More recent estimates suggest that there are now about 29,000 to 30,000 Turks living in Kosovo, forming between 1-2% of Kosovo's total population.
[.] According to the 2011 census 18,738 citizens declared themselves as Turks, constituting 1.1% of Kosovo's total population. The European Centre for minority Issues Kosovo has stated that:
Areas of settlement
The Turkish minority of Kosovo have a majority population in
Mamusha. However, the largest Turkish population in Kosovo live in
Prizren
)
, settlement_type = Municipality and city
, image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg
, imagesize = 290px
, image_caption = View of Prizren
, image_alt = View of Prizren
, image_flag ...
. They constitute roughly 5% of Prizren's population, and the town remains the historical, cultural and political centre of the Kosovan Turkish community.
[.] In the
Gjilan
Gjilan, or Gnjilane ( sr-cyr, Гњилане) is the eighth largest city in Kosovo and seat of Gjilan Municipality and Gjilan District.
Name
Ottoman chronicler Evliya Çelebi mentions ''Morava'' as a settlement of the Sanjak of Vučitrn. ...
municipality, the Turkish community resides mostly in the town of Gjilane and in the villages of Livoç i Epërm/Gornji Livoč and Dobërçan/Dobrčane, constituting between 0.9-1.1% of the total population of the municipality.
Kosovan Turks living in
Mitrovica amount to roughly 1.5% of its total population; in the southern part of the town, Kosovan Turks live scattered in the city, while those who live in northern region reside in the "Bosniak Mahalla" neighbourhood.
In
Vushtrri Turks constitute about 0.9% of the total population, and live scattered throughout the urban areas. In the
Pristina region together with Turkish speaking Muslim Roma the Divanjoldjije Group, they are concentrated in the urban areas of the city, and constitute roughly 0.4% of the total municipal population, and in the rural settlements of
Janjevo
Janjevo () or Janjevë (in Albanian) is a village or small town in the Lipljan municipality in eastern Kosovo.
The settlement has a long history, having been mentioned for the first time in 1303 as a Catholic parish. The town was prior to the K ...
and Banullë/Bandulić in the
Lipjan municipality, where they amount to 0.5% of the population.
Turkish population in Kosovo according to the 2011 census (Turkish majority in bold):
Politics
There are three Turkish political parties in Kosovo:
*Turkish Public Front- under the leadership of Sezai Saipi
*Turkish Democratic Union- under the leadership of Erhan Köroğlu, centred in
Pristina
*
Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo (KTDP)- under the leadership of Mahir Yağcılar, centred in Prizren (the only registered Turkish party of Kosovo)
Notable Kosovo Turks
*, politician
*
Gülsha Adilji, Swiss TV presenter (Turkish-Kosovar mother)
*, businessman
*, politician
*, politician
*, cartoonist
*, writer
*, politician
*, writer, poet and short story writer
*, community leader
*
Aşık Çelebi, biographer, poet, and translator
*
Prizrenli Suzi Çelebi, poet and historiographer
*
Fahrettin Durak, football player
*, poet and writer
*
Cafer Tayyar Eğilmez, officer of the Ottoman Army and a general of the Turkish Army
*
Melih Gökçek, mayor of
Ankara (1994-2017)
*, literary scholar and Turcologist
*, military general
*
Adnan Januzaj
Adnan Januzaj (born 5 February 1995) is a Belgian professional footballer who plays as a winger for Spanish club Sevilla and the Belgium national team.
Born and raised in Brussels, he began his career with Anderlecht before joining Manchester ...
, Belgian football player
*, singer and actress
*
Hikmet Kıvılcımlı
Hikmet Ali Kıvılcımlı (1902, Pristina, Kosovo Vilayet, Ottoman Empire – 1971, Belgrade) was a Turkish communist leader, theoretician, writer, publicist, and translator. He was a founder of the Vatan Partisi (VP).
Life and career
Kıv ...
, communist leader, theoretician, writer, publicist, and translator
*
Abdülhadi Krasniç, mayor of
Mamuša
*
Edvin Kurtulus, Swedish football player
*, politician
*, poet and writer
*, writer, cartoonist, screenwriter, director and presenter
*
Ahmet Samim
Ahmet Samim (1884 – 1910) was an Ottoman journalist and politician, who was a founding member of the Liberty Party. Despite warnings from his former mentor Süleyman Nesib to stay away from politics, he did not listen and was assassinated in ...
, journalist and liberal politician; founding member of the
Ottoman Liberty Party
*
Ali Haydar Şen, businessman
*
Naci Şensoy, football manager and former player
*
Yahya Kemal Beyatlı, Turkish poet and author, as well as a politician and diplomat
*, politician
*, politician
*, former president of
Fenerbahçe S.K.
*
Güner Ureya Güner Ureya (born 6 January 1973 in Prizren, SFR Yugoslavia, today Kosovo) is a Kosovar diplomat. He is the first Kosovar Turkish diplomat to the Republic of Kosovo and first Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo to the People's Republic of Bangla ...
, first Ambassador of the Republic of Kosovo to the People's Republic of Bangladesh
*, writer, poet and short story writer
*, businessman
*
Mahir Yağcılar Mahir Yağcılar ( Serbo-Croat: ''Mahir Jagčular'') (born 6 May 1961 in Prizren, FPR Yugoslavia) is a Turkish Kosovar politician and the president of Turkish nationalist and conservative Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo (KDTP).
Yağcılar grad ...
, President of the
Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo
Ottoman architecture
File:Prizren 05.jpg, Ottoman mosque, Prizren
)
, settlement_type = Municipality and city
, image_skyline = Prizren Collage.jpg
, imagesize = 290px
, image_caption = View of Prizren
, image_alt = View of Prizren
, image_flag ...
.
File:Prizren kossovo.jpg, An Ottoman mosque in Prizren.
File:Prizen kosovo.jpg, Prizren.
File:League of Prizren building.jpg, League of Prizren building in Prizren.
See also the
Mosque of Muderis Ali Efendi
The Muderis Ali Efendi Mosque (; tr, Müderris Ali Efendi Camii), also named Mosque of Ali Hoxha (), is a mosque in Prizren, Kosovo.
Built between 1543 and 1581, it is one of the oldest mosques in Kosovo. It is situated on the street "Rr. Pap ...
See also
*
Turkish minorities in the former Ottoman Empire
**
Turks in Serbia
**
Turks in the Balkans
*
Mamuša
*
Turkish Democratic Party of Kosovo
*
Kosovo–Turkey relations
Kosovo–Turkey relations are the historic and current relations between the Republic of Kosovo and the Republic of Turkey. Kosovo has an embassy in Ankara and Turkey has an embassy in Prishtina. Both nations are predominantly Muslim and have sou ...
*
Turkification
References
Bibliography
*.
*.
*.
*.
*.
*.
*.
*.
{{DEFAULTSORT:Turks In Kosovo
Ethnic groups in Kosovo
Kosovo
Kosovo
Turkish diaspora in Europe