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,
Azerbaijanis in Turkey Azerbaijanis in Turkey Azerbaijanis in Turkey or Turkish Azerbaijanis () are Azerbaijani people in Turkey, and are Turkish citizens and permanent residents of ethnic Azerbaijani background. It is hard to determine how many ethnic Azerbaijanis currently reside in Turkey because ethnicity is a rather fluid concept in this country. According to some sources, there are about 800,000 Twelver Shias in Turkey, however this figure may differ substantially from the real one. Looklex Encyclopaedia puts the number of Azerbaijanis in Turkey at 800,000. Up to 300,000 of Azerbaijanis who reside in Turkey are citizens of Azerbaijan. In the Eastern Anatolia Region,