People of Turkey

Population Size:

The population of the country of Turkey is about eighty four million people which makes it the one hundred and third most populous country. The population of the USA is three hundred-thirty million, therefore Turkey is smaller than the USA by population and Turkey is still bigger in population than Massachusetts, which has a population of six million eight hundred thousand.

Most people that live in Turkey are likely to live in an urban environment, 16 million people alone live in Istanbul! Which means about 20 percent of the country lives in Istanbul!

Language(s):

Believe it or not! English isn’t even near one of the MOST used languages. It's barely used at all! They mainly just speak Turkish but other languages there are: Kurmanji, Zazaki, and Arabic.

Religions:

99.8 percent of religious people in Turkey are Muslim (most commonly Sunni Muslims) the other 0.2 percent of religious people in Turkey are mostly Christian or Jewish. Muslim is the second largest religion in the world and the fastest growing. The founder of the Islam religion was Muhammad. The name of the Islam holy book is the Koran, a mosque is a Muslim place of worship all Muslims have to pray towards the holy city of Mecca, Muslims have to make a pilgrimage to the holy city at least once in their lives. There are two major religious holidays for Muslims.The first is Eid al-Fitr. It marks the end of Ramadan. Families eat together after the fasting month of Ramadan and the kids wear new clothes. The second major religious holiday is Eid al-Addah, which marks the end of your pilgrimage to the holy city.

Famous People of Turkey:

Ferit Orhan Pamuk is the recipient of the 2006 Nobel Prize in literature. He has written many books but the most famous ones are, The Black Book, My Name Is Red, and Snow. He is also a screenwriter. He was born in 1952 in Istanbul, he now lives in the United States. He is a professor at Columbia University. He often writes with his Turkish Angora cat. Pamuk, explaining his writing process said: "I am just listening to an inner music, the mystery of which I don't completely know. And I don't want to know."

Tarkan Tevetoğlu is a Turkish pop musician. He is known as a "Megastar" and "Prince of the Bosporus." He has won numerous awards. One of which is the Best Selling Middle Eastern Artist award. In 1999 the Washington Post called him the Elvis of Turkey.

Why people go to or from Turkey

One of the reasons that people might move to or from the country of Turkey is because they are looking for work or schooling. Another reason which is somewhat linked to schooling is when people move to Istanbul, which has pretty good schools. Refugees might come to Turkey if their homelands are at war or are unsafe. For example, Syria and Iraq who are at war might have lots of refugees from there going to Turkey. Lots of people might move to Istanbul for its schooling, but people also move away from Istanbul because of how polluted and condensed and crowded the city is.

Typical Foods