Romanians in Turkey

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Romanians in Turkey includes Turkish citizens of Romanian origin (including Turkish-Romanian origin), as well as Romanian citizens resident in Turkey.

Romanians are generally concentrated in the major cities in Turkey, especially Istanbul, where 14,000^[1] Romanians reside and where there is also a Romanian Orthodox Church.^[2][3]

Romanians have migrated to the modern-day territory of Turkey since the Ottoman times, whene they were taken as Devshirme from the Danubian Principalities to become janissaries. Also during the Ottoman period, an important Romanian colony was established in Constantinople (then capital of the Ottoman Empire, modern-day Istanbul). A Romanian Orthodox Church was built there by the Wallachian ruler Constantin Brâncoveanu, which even today is an important center of the local Romanian community.^[4]

After Romanian won its independence from the Ottoman Empire, some Dobrujan Turks started to emigrate to modern-day Turkey.

During the communist rule of Romania, another wave of Romanian Turks, as well as Romanian Tatars and ethnic Romanians emigrated to Turkey. After the Romanian revolution, a significant number of Romanian entrepreneurs started investing and establishing business ventures in Turkey, and a certain proportion chose to take up residence there (especially in Istanbul). There are also Romanian migrant workers, as well as students and artists living in Turkey.^[5][6] During this period, many Romanians intermarried and assimilated with locals, bringing a rapid increase in mixed marriages.

• Kazak Abdal [tr], poet
• Veliyullah Akbaşlı [tr], politician
• Nejla Ateş, belly dancer
• Mehmet Rüştü Bekit [tr], politician
• İbrahim Hilmi Çığıraçan [tr], one of the first Turkish publishers in Turkey
• Basri Dirimlili, football player
• Rıza Saltuğ [tr], Turkish politician
• Numan Ustalar [tr], politician
• Kemal Karpat, historian and academic
• Mirela Dulgheru, long jumper
• Ianis Hagi, footballer
• Meral Yıldız Ali, table tennis player
• Emin Bektöre, folklorist
• Eren Eyüboğlu, painter
• Racoviță family
• Alexandros Kallimachis, statesman
• Pertevniyal Sultan, thirteenth consort of Sultan Mahmud II
• Barbu Iscovescu [ro], revolutionary
• Bujor Hoinic, conductor^[7]

• Romania–Turkey relations