Turks in North America

The Ottoman Empire ruled the area of modern Turkey from 1299 to 1923. The Allies defeated the Ottoman Empire at the end of World War I. As a result, the Republic of Turkey was established in 1923. Ethnic Turks originate from modern-day Turkey and include ethnic Turkish-speaking Turks from the areas that the Ottoman Empire occupied.
Turkey’s geographic location provides an excellent opportunity to influence both Europe and the Middle East. Turkey, likewise, is influenced by its surrounding regions. The influence reveals their diversity of cultural norms, ideology, and religious practices. The western part of Turkey has more Western influence. In comparison, the central and eastern regions have maintained many traditional customs.
Conservatively, there are between 290,000 and 350,000 Turks in the North American diaspora. There were two waves of migration. The first took place before World War I, with many of the early immigrants being mostly uneducated men who worked as general laborers. The United States limited Turkish immigration to only 100 people per year from 1925-1965. The second significant wave of Turkish immigrants arrived as a steady stream between 1965 and the present day. The later immigrants are typically well-educated professionals. The primary motivation of many Turks for immigrating to North America was economic or educational opportunities. Today, Turks can be found in every state in the United States but can be located most profoundly in Metro New York, Washington DC, and San Francisco. The largest population of Turks in Canada are found in Toronto and Montreal.

Religious Life
Modern-day Turkey sits in the heritage of the Ottoman Empire, which was inspired and sustained by Islam. According to the Turkish government, 99.8% of Turks identify as Muslim. Officially, however, Turkey has a secular constitution with no official religion. Most Turkish Americans are Sunni Muslims and thus an unreached people group. They believe that the community as a whole is the guardian and guarantor of Islamic law. This law, Shari’a, is based on four sources, which in descending order of importance are: the Koran, the examples and teachings of the prophet Mohammed, communal consensus on Islamic principles and practices, and reasoning by analogy.
As a secular but religiously devout state, religious preferences often follow political allegiances. The Gülen movement is a US-based, Turkish-influenced, umbrella organization that promotes interfaith dialogue, humanitarian aid, and charter school education. Turkey, however, views the Gülen movement as a terrorist organization. President Erdoğan said Gülen attempted to overthrow the Turkish government through a coup in 2016. Because of this political background, Turks will choose to worship at mosques that affiliate with their political bias. If a Turkish mosque that aligns politically is not present in their city, they will often attend predominately Arab or Pakistani mosques.
These are the Turkish communities in North America most in need of gospel witness
People Group | Metropolitan Area | Population Size | Concentrated Area | Priority Score |
---|