User:Selçuk Denizli/sandbox
Population
[edit]There are no reliable estimates on the total number of Syrian Turkmen residing in the country because official censuses have only asked citizens about their religion, therefore, citizens have not been allowed to declare their ethnic origin or mother tongue.[1] A report published by the UNHCR points out that the majority of Syrians are considered "Arab", however, this is a term based on spoken language (Arabic) not ethnic affiliation.[1] Consequently, this has created difficulties in estimating the total Syrian Turkmen population.
On the one hand, Minority Rights Group International has said that "little information is available on ethnic Turkomans in Syria" but describes them as one of the "smaller ethnic minorities".[2] On the other hand, Professor Taef El-Azhari has said that the Turkmen have "always been the forgotten minority in the area despite their large population".[3] The UNHCR report (compiled by various academics), as well as Professor Pierre Beckouche and Dr Peter Behnstedt, have placed Syrian Turkmen as the third largest ethnic group in the country (after Arabs and Kurds respectively).[1][4][5]
Estimated figures
[edit]In the late 20th century, Dr. Larry Clark stated there was "more than 200,000" Turkmen[6] and the German Orient-Institute stated that unconfirmed estimates ranged between 800,000 and 1 million.[7] C. Heather Bleaney stated that one estimate surmised that the Turkish-speaking population formed 1.2% of Syria's population, but that elsewhere they were estimated to form up to 3%.[8] Professor Daniel Pipes estimated that 3% of the population were Turkish-speakers,[9] whilst several other scholars also claimed that Sunni Muslim Turkish-speakers formed around 3% of the population (including: Professor Itamar Rabinovich,[10] Professor Moshe Ma'oz,[11] Dr. Nikolaos van Dam,[12] Dr Henry Munson,[13] Professor Alasdair Drysdale and Professor Raymond Hinnebusch[14]).
By the 21st century, Assistant Professor Sebastian Maisel claimed that Syrian Turkmen numbered 250,000.[15] However, Professor Pierre Beckouche stated that Sunni Muslim Turkmen formed 4% of the country's population before 2011.[4] Professor Taef El-Azhari,[3] Dr. Sebastien Peyrouse,[16] and Dr. Paul Antonopoulos[17] have said that there is around 1 million Turkmen. In addition, Dr. Eldad J. Pardo and Maya Jacobi have cited an estimate of 750,000 to 1.5 million Turkmen.[18] Dr. Jonathan Spyer, as well as a report published in cooperation between the Norwegian Church Aid and the World Council of Churches (compiled by various academics), stated that Turkmen number anywhere from 500,000 to 3 million.[19][20]
References
[edit]- ^ a b c Hassan, G; Kirmayer, L.J.; Mekki-Berrada, A.; Quosh, C.; el Chammay, R; Deville-Stoetzel, J.B; Youssef, A; Jefee-Bahloul, H; Barkeel-Oteo, A; Coutts, A; Song, S; Ventevogel, P (2015), Culture, Context and the Mental Health and Psychosocial Wellbeing of Syrians (PDF), United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees, p. 10,
Given the lack of accurate census data, it is only possible to estimate the ethnic and religious composition of the current Syrian population. While the majority of Syrians are considered Arabs, this is a term based on spoken language (Arabic), not ethnicity. Around nine to ten percent of Syria's population is Kurdish (close to two million people), followed by Turkmen,...
- ^ Syria, Minority Rights Group International, retrieved 30 June 2018
- ^ a b Taef, El-Azhari (2005), "The Turkmen Identity Crisis in the fifteenth-century Middle East: The Turkmen-Turkish Struggle for Supremacy" (PDF), Chronica, 5, University of Szeged: 97,
In absence of official records, their numbers cannot be calculated, but it is widely accepted that they exceed three millions in Iraq, and one million in Syria...
- ^ a b Pierre, Beckouche (2017), "The Country Reports: Syria", Europe’s Mediterranean Neighbourhood, Edward Elgar Publishing, p. 178-180, ISBN 1786431491,
Before 2011, Syria's population was 74% Sunni Muslim, including...Turkmen (4%)...
- ^ Behnstedt, Peter (2008), "Syria", in Versteegh, Kees; Eid, Mushira; Elgibali, Alaa; Woidich, Manfred; Zaborski, Andrzej (eds.), Encyclopedia of Arabic Language and Linguistics, vol. 4, Brill Publishers, p. 402, ISBN 978-90-04-14476-7
- ^ Clark, Larry (1998), Turkmen Reference Grammar, Otto Harrassowitz Verlag, p. 11, ISBN 344704019X
- ^ Deutsches Orient–Institut (1996), Nahost-Informationsdienst : Presseausschnitte zu Politik, Wirtschaft und Gesellschaft in Nordafrika und dem Nahen und Mittleren Osten, Deutsches Orient Institut, p. 33, ISSN 0949-1856,
The number of Turkmens in Syria is not fully known, with unconfirmed estimates ranging between 800,000 and one million.
- ^ Bleaney, C.H. (1993), "The Turkic Peoples of Syria", in Bainbridge, Margaret (ed.), Turkic Peoples Of The World, Routledge, p. 209-210, ISBN 1136153543
- ^ Pipes, Daniel (1992), Greater Syria: The History of an Ambition, Oxford University Press, p. 151, ISBN 0195060229,
In the 1980s, Sunni Muslims constituted 68.9 percent of the population... Linguistically, Syria was more homogeneous,... 3 percent Turkoman... were virtually all Sunni Muslims. Their strong ethnic ties separated them, however, from the Arab Sunnis.
- ^ Rabinovich, Itamar (1972), Syria Under the Ba'th, 1963-66: The Army-Party Symbiosis., Transaction Publishers, p. 3, ISBN 0706512669
- ^ Ma'oz, Moshe (1973), "Syria", in Milson, Menahem (ed.), Society and Political Structure in the Arab World, Humanities Press, p. 89, ISBN 0391002589
- ^ Van Dam, Nikolaos (1979), The Struggle for Power in Syria, Taylor & Francis, p. 1, ISBN 9780856647031,
The principal ethnic minorities are... Turcomans (3.0 per cent)... the Kurds, Turcomans and Circassians are almost exclusively Sunni Muslims...
- ^ Munson, Henry (1988), Islam and Revolution in the Middle East, Yale University Press, p. 85, ISBN 0300046049
- ^ Drysdale, Alasdair; Hinnebusch, Raymond A. (1991), Syria and the Middle East Peace Process, Council on Foreign Relations, p. 222, ISBN 0876091052
- ^ Maisel, Sebastian (2018), Yezidis in Syria: Identity Building among a Double Minority, Lexington Books, p. 15, ISBN 0739177753
- ^ Peyrouse, Sebastien (2015), Turkmenistan: Strategies of Power, Dilemmas of Development, Routledge, p. 62, ISBN 0230115527,
There are nearly one million [Turkmen] in Syria... Many Turkic peoples who have lived for centuries in the Middle East have been called Turkmen, Turkman, and Turkoman without being seen a part of the Turkmen nation in the Turkmenistani meaning of the term... The majority of "Turkmen" in Iraq, Syria, and Turkey have been established there for several centuries and have no relationship with contemporary Turkmenistan. "Turkmen" is often used to designate Turkic-speakers in Arab areas, or Sunnis in Shitte areas. In this case, "Oghuz" more accurately identifies the common genealogical and linguistic ties.
- ^ Antonopoulos, Paul (2018), "Turkey's interests in the Syrian war: from neo-Ottomanism to counterinsurgency", Global Affairs, Taylor & Francis: 8
- ^ Pardo, Eldad J.; Jacobi, Maya (2018), Syrian National Identity: Reformulating School Textbooks During the Civil War, Institute for Monitoring Peace and Cultural Tolerance in School Education, p. 42,
We did not identify any Syrian Kurdish (Kurmanji), Turkish or Aramaic teaching, either as a first or second language, although the ethno-linguistic Kurdish minority is large—forming about 10 percent of the population. The numbers of Turkmen and Assyrians is also significant.
- ^ Spyer, Jonathan (2015). "Strings pulled from Ankara, Moscow tangled in a Sukhoi". The Australian.
The Turkmens of Syria are ethnic Turks, numbering anywhere from 500,000 to three million.
- ^ The Protection Needs of Minorities from Syria and Iraq (PDF), Norwegian Church Aid and the World Council of Churches, 2016, p. 18