The ethnonym Turks (/''Tourkoi'', /, ) has been commonly used by the non-Muslim Balkan peoples to denote all

Muslim Muslims () are people who adhere to Islam, a Monotheism, monotheistic religion belonging to the Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic tradition. They consider the Quran, the foundational religious text of Islam, to be the verbatim word of the God ...

settlers in the region, regardless of their ethno-linguistic background. Most of them, however, were indeed ethnic Turks. In the

Ottoman Empire The Ottoman Empire (), also called the Turkish Empire, was an empire, imperial realm that controlled much of Southeast Europe, West Asia, and North Africa from the 14th to early 20th centuries; it also controlled parts of southeastern Centr ...

, the Islamic faith was the official religion, with Muslims holding different rights from non-Muslims. Non-Muslim ('' dhimmi'') ethno-religious legal groups were identified by different '' millets'' ("nations"). ''Turk'' was also notably used to denote all groups in the region who had been Islamized during the Ottoman rule, especially Muslim

Albanians The Albanians are an ethnic group native to the Balkan Peninsula who share a common Albanian ancestry, Albanian culture, culture, Albanian history, history and Albanian language, language. They are the main ethnic group of Albania and Kosovo, ...

and Slavic Muslims (mostly

Bosniaks The Bosniaks (, Cyrillic script, Cyrillic: Бошњаци, ; , ) are a South Slavs, South Slavic ethnic group native to the Southeast European historical region of Bosnia (region), Bosnia, today part of Bosnia and Herzegovina, and who sha ...

). For the Balkan Christians, converting to

Islam Islam is an Abrahamic religions, Abrahamic monotheistic religion based on the Quran, and the teachings of Muhammad. Adherents of Islam are called Muslims, who are estimated to number Islam by country, 2 billion worldwide and are the world ...

was synonymous with

Turkification Turkification, Turkization, or Turkicization () describes a shift whereby populations or places receive or adopt Turkic attributes such as culture, language, history, or ethnicity. However, often this term is more narrowly applied to mean specif ...

, succumbing to "Ottoman rule and embracing the Ottoman way of life," hence "to become a Turk". In

South Slavic languages The South Slavic languages are one of three branches of the Slavic languages. There are approximately 30 million speakers, mainly in the Balkans. These are separated geographically from speakers of the other two Slavic branches (West Slavic la ...

, there are also derivative terms, which are seen as more offensive towards Bosniaks, such as ''poturiti'', ''poturčiti'' and ''poturica'' (all essentially meaning "Turk" or "to turkify"). Slavic Muslims follow the Hanafi school of

Sunni Islam Sunni Islam is the largest Islamic schools and branches, branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any Succession to Muhammad, successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr ...

, the most dominant school in the Ottoman Empire. Also Orthodox Christian Roma from the

Balkans The Balkans ( , ), corresponding partially with the Balkan Peninsula, is a geographical area in southeastern Europe with various geographical and historical definitions. The region takes its name from the Balkan Mountains that stretch throug ...

call the Muslim Roma as Xoraxane, the meaning of this word in Balkan Romani language is simple ''Muslim/Turk''. According to the religious ideology of Christoslavism, coined by Michael Sells, religion played a key role in maintaining alliances and ethnic identification during tumultuous ethnic conflicts in

Southeastern Europe Southeast Europe or Southeastern Europe is a geographical sub-region of Europe, consisting primarily of the region of the Balkans, as well as adjacent regions and Archipelago, archipelagos. There are overlapping and conflicting definitions of t ...

for centuries, from the

High Middle Ages The High Middle Ages, or High Medieval Period, was the periodization, period of European history between and ; it was preceded by the Early Middle Ages and followed by the Late Middle Ages, which ended according to historiographical convention ...

onward. Sells postulates that there existed a "belief that

Slavs The Slavs or Slavic people are groups of people who speak Slavic languages. Slavs are geographically distributed throughout the northern parts of Eurasia; they predominantly inhabit Central Europe, Eastern Europe, Southeastern Europe, and ...

are

Christian A Christian () is a person who follows or adheres to Christianity, a Monotheism, monotheistic Abrahamic religion based on the life and teachings of Jesus in Christianity, Jesus Christ. Christians form the largest religious community in the wo ...

by nature and that any conversion from

Christianity Christianity is an Abrahamic monotheistic religion, which states that Jesus in Christianity, Jesus is the Son of God (Christianity), Son of God and Resurrection of Jesus, rose from the dead after his Crucifixion of Jesus, crucifixion, whose ...

is a betrayal of the Slavic race" as seen in Croatian

Roman Catholic The Catholic Church (), also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with 1.27 to 1.41 billion baptized Catholics worldwide as of 2025. It is among the world's oldest and largest international institut ...

and Serbian

Eastern Orthodox Eastern Orthodoxy, otherwise known as Eastern Orthodox Christianity or Byzantine Christianity, is one of the three main Branches of Christianity, branches of Chalcedonian Christianity, alongside Catholic Church, Catholicism and Protestantism ...

ethnic and nationalist movements. Slavic Muslims were, therefore, not regarded part of their ethnic kinship since by conversion to Islam, "they have become Turks". In

Greece Greece, officially the Hellenic Republic, is a country in Southeast Europe. Located on the southern tip of the Balkan peninsula, it shares land borders with Albania to the northwest, North Macedonia and Bulgaria to the north, and Turkey to th ...

and in the

Greek language Greek (, ; , ) is an Indo-European languages, Indo-European language, constituting an independent Hellenic languages, Hellenic branch within the Indo-European language family. It is native to Greece, Cyprus, Italy (in Calabria and Salento), south ...

, the same belief was held about Greek Muslims that they had essentially "become Turks", and ''tourkalvanoi'' (" Turco-Albanians") became a common term for Muslim

who had been a significant minority in the country. All of those terms are now considered pejorative ethnic slurs in their respective languages as well as by those groups that they refer to. After the end of the

First World War World War I or the First World War (28 July 1914 – 11 November 1918), also known as the Great War, was a World war, global conflict between two coalitions: the Allies of World War I, Allies (or Entente) and the Central Powers. Fighting to ...

and the dissolution of the Ottoman Empire, all Ottoman Muslims were made part of the modern citizenry or the ''Turkish nation''.

References

Sources

* *{{cite book, last=Cagaptay, first=Soner, title=The Rise of Turkey: The Twenty-First Century's First Muslim Power, url=https://books.google.com/books?id=CXi9AgAAQBAJ&pg=PA70, date=1 February 2014, publisher=Potomac Books, Inc., isbn=978-1-61234-650-2, pages=70– Islam-related slurs Ethno-cultural designations Islam in the Ottoman Empire Anti-Turkish sentiment Anti-Albanian sentiment Anti-Bosniak sentiment Pejorative demonyms

See also

References

Sources