Afro-Turks
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Afro Turks are people of African descent in Turkey.
Some of their descendants can be met, mixed with the rest of the population, in these areas, though many migrated to larger cities. These factors make it difficult to guess the number of Turks of African ancestry. Mustafa Olpak, writer and a prominent Afro Turk, gives an estimate of 2 million for the people of (full or partial) African ancestry (of any skin color), who live on the littoral between Antalya and Istanbul.[1]
In 2006, Mustafa Olpak founded the first officially recognised organisation of Afro Turks, the "Africans' Culture and Solidarity Society" (Afrikalılar Kültür ve Dayanışma Derneği) in Ayvalık. The opening ceremony was attended by Ali Moussa Iye, the Chief of UNESCO Slave Routes Project.[2] A principal aim of the association is to promote studies of oral history on African Turks, a community history of whom was usually ignored by official historiography in Turkey.
[edit] Notable Afro Turks
- Esmeray, singer
- Hadi Türkmen, former head of Turkish Football Federation
- Tuğçe Güder, top model and actress
- Cetin Uludag, Head Tribesmen
- Sait Sökmen, ballet dancer
- Dursune Şirin, actress
[edit] Notes
- ^ (Turkish) Afrika kökenli Türk vatandaşları İzmir’de dernek kurdu, Radikal
- ^ Hayallerinin ötesine geçti, Yeni Asır
[edit] External links
- Afro-Turk Website of the Afro-Turks' association in Ayvalık (in Turkish)
|
||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
