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,
Turkish people remaining 0.2% is mostly Christian and Jewish. There are also some estimated 10 to 15 million Alevi Muslims in Turkey. Christians in Turkey include Assyrians/Syriacs, Armenians, and Greeks. Jewish people in Turkey include those that descend from Sephardic Jews who escaped Spain in 15th century and Greek-speaking Jews from Byzantine times. There is an ethnic Turkish Protestant Christian community most of them came from recent Muslim Turkish backgrounds, rather than from ethnic minorities. According to KONDA research, only 9.7% of the population described themselves as "fully devout," while 52.8% described themselves as "religious." 69.4% of the respondents reported that they