72 million people are living in Turkey. They just had a census on the 22nd of October 2000. Half of these people live in cities and half of them live in rural areas.

The Turks

The Turks came originally from the east, after centuries driven away by the Mongols, they ended up in Anatolia. They adopted various religions, Buddhism, Christianity, and Judaism, just to name a few, passed through their history. During their migration into Anatolia, they learned about Islam and this is still the common religion among the Turks. Their Military prowess brought them the Anatolian highland. Turks are still known for their military values. They themselves are still very proud in cases like military, courage and discipline.

The Kurds

About 10 million Kurdish people are living in Turkey. 6 million people live still in the east and about 4 million are spread out over the rest of the country. Kurdish is an Indo-European language, unlike Turkish, a Uralaltic language. The Kurds do not only have a different language, but have a different culture too. Their family values, traditions and food differ from the Turks. But they do have lots of things in common too, for example, their Muslim belief. And in spite of the just sketched out differences, their cultures are entwined and have much common ground with accents of differences.Unfortunately a long and dirty battle between Kurdish extremist and the Turkish government troubled their relationship. Nowadays the situation is softening up again. Their language and songs are now legal and parliament still debates about Kurdish radio and television. The whole Kurdish question is very precarious. The Kurds and Turks have lived on the soil of the Anatolian highland for centuries. Hopefully they will find their common grounds, respect each other's differences and find a human peaceful way towards this goal.

Jews

About a total of 4400 Jews are living in Turkey. Most of them are in Istanbul and some other communities settled in a couple of other bigger cities. These Jews came to Turkey when the Spanish Inquisition forced them to leave the Spanish peninsula. In the Ottoman Empire they received a warm welcome. The Jews brought a great deal of knowledge with them enriching the Ottomans with new scientific and economic progress. In 1992 the Jews celebrated 500 years of peaceful life among the Turks.

Armenians

Armenians have lived in Eastern Anatolia for more then a thousand years, mostly under rule of greater empires, like the Romans, Byzantine, Seljuks and Ottomans. They lived generally in harmony with their Turkish, Jewish and Kurdish neighbours. Unfortunately in the 19th century, during the ethnic nationalism, the idea of an independent Armenia came up. Clashes between the Ottoman Empire and the Armenians became very disastrous for the Armenians and they suffered great losses among their people. Nowadays in Turkey you see people from different origins living neighbourly next to each other again. In Antakya, you will for example walk from a Jewish village to an Arabic area, to pass another village being a Kurdish one and that other part of town there are living Turkish people. All living side by side, peacefully and respecting each other. The way it should be.