Ethem the Circassian, his Circassian hands and Mustafa Kemal Atatürk in front of the main building of the station, who were on their way to the Yozgat rebellion (June 1920)
The Circassians in Turkey (East Circassian and West Circassian: Адыгэхэр Тырку, Adyghexer Tyrku; Turkish: Türkiye'deki Çerkesler) are one of the largest ethnic minorities in Turkey, with a population between 130,000 and 2 million. The closely related ethnic groups Abazins (10,000[6]) and Abkhazians (39,000[7]) are also often counted among them. Circassians are a Caucasian immigrant people, but the vast majority of them have assimilated to the Turkish language, and only a small minority still speak their native Circassian languages. The Circassians in Turkey are almost exclusively SunniMuslims of Hanafimadh'hab.
In the census of 1965, 58,339 Turkish citizens spoke Circassian as first language, which was roughly 0.2% of the population. Proportionally, these were most numerous in Kayseri (3.2%), Tokat (1.2%) and Kahramanmaraş (1.0). Another 48,621 citizens spoke Circassian as second language.
^Heinz Kloss & Grant McConnel, Linguistic composition of the nations of the world, vol,5, Europe and USSR, Québec, Presses de l'Université Laval, 1984, ISBN 2-7637-7044-4
^Circassia, Unrepresented Nations and Peoples Organization.
^Ülkü Bilgin: Azınlık hakları ve Türkiye. Kitap Yayınevi, Istanbul 2007; S. 85. ISBN 975-6051-80-9 (Turkish Language)