Minorities in Turkey seekers. By the end 2011, their numbers are expected to surge up to 10,000, making them the largest population and surpass other groups. Ethnic Kurds are the largest minority in Turkey, composing around 20% of the population according to Milliyet, 18% of the total populace or c. 14 million people according to the CIA World Factbook, and as much as 23% according to Kurdologist David McDowall. Unlike the Turks, the Kurds speak an Iranian language. There are Kurds living all over Turkey, but most live to the east and southeast of the country, from where they originate. In the 1930s,
Romani people in Turkey Romani people in Turkey The Romani people in Turkey () are an ethnic minority. There are officially about 500,000 Romani in Turkey. By different Turkish and Non-Turkish estimates the number of Romani is up to 4 or 5 million while according to a Turkish source, they are only 0.05% of Turkey's population. The Romani people in Turkey originate from Northern India, presumably from the northwestern Indian states Rajasthan and Punjab. The linguistic evidence has indisputably shown that roots of Romani language lie in India: The language has grammatical characteristics of Indian languages and shares with them a big part of