Black Turks

Not to be confused with Afro-Turks.

Religious/conservative Turks celebrate religious holiday "Kurban Bayramı" (Eid al-Adha) in Gölköy in 2005

Black Turks is a socio-economic term used to describe Turks who are a lower or middle income class. They are described as religious and traditional in contrast to the more Europeanized class of their country.^[1]

Their contrasting social economic groups has been the White Turks who have ran the politics of their society and attempted to restrict the religious lifestyle which has led to cultural conflicts in the country.^[2]

Another class of Turks that has been described has been one that has characteristics of both classes known as the Grey Turks.^[3]

The term was also used by 2018 presidential candidate Muharrem İnce to describe himself, claiming that Erdoğan was no longer a black Turk.^[4]

See also

• Religion in Turkey
• Islam in Turkey
• Erdoğanism
• Freedom of religion in Turkey
• Conservatism in Turkey

Further reading

• Yücel, Halime. "Cultural identity in Turkish advertisements." Social Semiotics 31.2 (2021): 305-323.
• DEMIRALP, SEDA. “White Turks, Black Turks? Faultlines beyond Islamism versus Secularism.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 3, 2012, pp. 511–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41507184. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025.

References

1. Sumer, Beyza. White vs. black Turks: the civilising process in Turkey in the 1990s. MS thesis. Middle East Technical University, 2003.
2. Demiralp, Seda. "White Turks, Black Turks? Faultlines beyond Islamism versus Secularism." Third World Quarterly 33.3 (2012): 511-524.
3. Diaz, Marta Dominguez. "“Are New Sufis “Grey Turks”? Urbanite National Identities and Religious Reconfigurations." Strategic Depth through Soft Power: The Domestic Production and International Projection of Turkish Culture: 23.
4. "İnce: Erdoğan Beyaz Türk, ben Türkiye'nin zencisiyim". Cumhuriyet. 2018-06-10. Archived from the original on 2018-06-12. Retrieved 2018-06-12.