Turks of Croatia, also referred to as Turkish Croatians or Croatian Turks, (; ) are one among 22 recognised national minorities in

Croatia Croatia, officially the Republic of Croatia, is a country in Central Europe, Central and Southeast Europe, on the coast of the Adriatic Sea. It borders Slovenia to the northwest, Hungary to the northeast, Serbia to the east, Bosnia and Herze ...

. According to the 2021 census, there were 404

Turks Turk or Turks may refer to: Communities and ethnic groups * Turkish people, or the Turks, a Turkic ethnic group and nation * Turkish citizen, a citizen of the Republic of Turkey * Turkic peoples, a collection of ethnic groups who speak Turkic lang ...

living in

, most of which most lived in

Primorje-Gorski Kotar County Primorje – Gorski Kotar County (, ) is a Counties of Croatia, county in western Croatia, most of it based in the historical and cultural region called Croatia proper and some of it in Istria, including the Bay of Kvarner, the surrounding Northe ...

and later in the

City of Zagreb A city is a human settlement of a substantial size. The term "city" has different meanings around the world and in some places the settlement can be very small. Even where the term is limited to larger settlements, there is no universally agree ...

. Only 368 native Turkish-language speakers live in that country. Turks compose approximately 0.01% of the total population. The majority of Croatian Turks are

Sunni Muslims Sunni Islam is the largest branch of Islam and the largest religious denomination in the world. It holds that Muhammad did not appoint any successor and that his closest companion Abu Bakr () rightfully succeeded him as the caliph of the Musli ...

, and make up 0.6% of Croatia's Muslim population (50,981 Muslims in total).

History

During the Croatian-Ottoman Wars of the 15th and 16th centuries, parts of Croatia were incorporated into 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 ...

and settled by Turks. However, the majority of these retreated to other parts of Rumelia or Anatolia after the end of Ottoman rule. Many ethnic Turks in Croatia today are from more recent immigrations from the mid-20th century onwards.

Culture

In the

Independent State of Croatia The Independent State of Croatia (, NDH) was a World War II–era puppet state of Nazi Germany and Fascist Italy (1922–1943), Fascist Italy. It was established in parts of Axis occupation of Yugoslavia, occupied Yugoslavia on 10 April 1941, ...

, the Croatian Muslim Printing House issued a magazine in

Turkish language Turkish ( , , also known as 'Turkish of Turkey') is the most widely spoken of the Turkic languages, a member of Oghuz languages, Oghuz branch with around 90 million speakers. It is the national language of Turkey and one of two official languag ...

intended for the Turkish public, the European turkologists and those in the Independent State of Croatia who spoke Turkish language. The magazine was called ''The East and the West: the Cultural, Economic, Social and Political Magazine'' (). It was issued between 6 April 1943 and 15 August 1944. It was the first magazine in Turkish language on the territory of the present-day

and

Bosnia and Herzegovina Bosnia and Herzegovina, sometimes known as Bosnia-Herzegovina and informally as Bosnia, is a country in Southeast Europe. Situated on the Balkans, Balkan Peninsula, it borders Serbia to the east, Montenegro to the southeast, and Croatia to th ...

, and second on the territory of the former

Yugoslavia , common_name = Yugoslavia , life_span = 1918–19921941–1945: World War II in Yugoslavia#Axis invasion and dismemberment of Yugoslavia, Axis occupation , p1 = Kingdom of SerbiaSerbia , flag_p ...

Population

Notable people

* Banu Alkan, Turkish actress

References

Notes

Journals

* {{Portal bar, Croatia, Turkey Ethnic groups in Croatia Muslim communities in Europe

Middle Eastern diaspora in Croatia