Minorities in Turkey Minorities in Turkey Minorities in Turkey form a substantial part of the country's population, with at least an estimated 30% of the populace belonging to an ethnic minority. 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 to Muslim minorities, such as the Kurds, which constitute the largest minority by a wide margin (13–18%), nor any of the other minorities in the country. The amount of ethnic minorities is suspected to be underestimated by the Turkish government. Ethnic Albanians, Pontic Greeks, Kurds, Arabs, Bosniaks,
Demographics of Turkey neighbors are Sunni Muslims Towards the end of the Caucasian War (1817–1864), many Chechens fled their homelands in the North Caucasus and settled in the Ottoman Empire. Chechens number from tens or hundreds of thousands. Towards the end of the Russo-Circassian War (1763–1864), many Circassians fled their homelands in the North Caucasus and settled in the Ottoman Empire. Most ethnic Circassians have fully assimilated into Turkish culture, making it difficult to trace, count, or even estimate their ethnic presence. There are approximately 1 million people of Georgian ancestry in Turkey, according to the newspaper "Milliyet". The Greeks constitute a population