British Turks
British Turks or Turks in the United Kingdom are Turkish people who have immigrated to the United Kingdom. However, the term may also refer to British-born persons who have Turkish parents or who have a Turkish ancestral background.
Turks first began to emigrate in large numbers from Northern Cyprus for work and then again when Turkish Cypriots were forced to leave their homes during the Cyprus conflict. Turks then began to come from Turkey for economic reasons. Recently, smaller groups of Turks have begun to immigrate to the United Kingdom from other European countries.
As of 2011, there was a total of about 500,000 people of Turkish origin in the UK, made up of approximately 150,000 Turkish nationals and about 300,000 Turkish Cypriots. Furthermore, in recent years, there has been a growing number of ethnic Turks immigrating to the United Kingdom from Algeria and Germany. Many other Turks have immigrated to Britain from parts of the southern Balkans where they form an ethnic and religious minority dating to the early Ottoman period, particularly Bulgaria, Romania, the Republic of North Macedonia, and the province of East Macedonia and Thrace in Northern Greece.
History
Ottoman migration
The first Turks settled in the United Kingdom during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Between the years 1509-1547 Turks were counted among Henry VIII's mercenary troops as the Tudor monarch was known to make heavy use of foreign troops. By the late sixteenth century hundreds of Turks were to be found in England who were freed from galley slavery on Spanish ships by English pirates. It is believed that the release of Turkish slaves from Spanish ships were for political reasons. At the time, England was vulnerable to attacks from the Spanish Empire, and Queen Elizabeth I wanted to cultivate good relations with the Ottoman Empire as a means of resisting the Spanish military. The Turkish slaves who had not yet returned to the Ottoman Empire requested assistance from London merchants trading in North Africa during the times of war between England and Spain, or England and France. Those who decided not to return to their country converted to Christianity and settled in England.The first ever documented Muslim who arrived in England was in the mid-1580s, is believed to be a Turk born in Negropont. He was captured by William Hawkins aboard a Spanish ship and brought to England. The Turk was known as Chinano, assumed to come from the name Sinan, and converted to Anglicanism in October 1586. Once baptised, he was given the Christian name of William. Two decades later, an allowance of 6 pence per diem was paid to a Turkish captive who embraced Christianity in England and assumed the name John Baptista. Between the years 1624-1628 Salleman Alexander, ‘Richard a poore Turk’ and another unnamed Turk were also baptized in London. Thus, by 1627, there were close to 40 Muslims living in London alone, most of which were Turks. One of the most famous Muslim converts to Christianity was Iusuf, ‘the Turkish Chaous’, who was born in Constantinople. Baptised on 30 January 1658, his conversion is deemed significant because Iusuf served as an ambassador for the Ottoman Sultan.
File:Alikemalbey.jpg|thumb|right|150px|Ali Kemal Bey was an Ottoman Turkish journalist and politician who fled to the UK. His great-grandson Boris Johnson was the British Prime Minister.
By the early 1650s, an English merchant who had been trading in the Ottoman Empire returned to London with a Turkish servant who introduced the making of Turkish coffee, and by 1652 the first coffee house had opened in London; within a decade, more than 80 establishments flourished in the city. In 1659, Yusuf, an Ottoman administrator from Negropont, was baptized in England and took the name Richard Christophilus. With the influx of Muslim merchants and diplomats into England due to improved Anglo-Ottoman relations, a race for Muslim converts began between the Cromwellian party and the Anglicans. By 1679, Britain saw its first ever Turkish bath opened in London. Once George I became King of England in 1714, he took with him from Hanover his two Turkish protégés, Mustafa and Mehmet. Mehmet's mother and Mustafa's son would also reside in England. Due to their prominence in the court, Mustafa and Mehmet were depicted in the murals of Kensington Palace. In 1716 King George I ennobled Mehmet, who adopted the surname von Königstreu.
Ottoman Turkish migration continued after the Anglo-Ottoman Treaty of 1799. In the years 1820–22, the Ottoman Empire exported goods worth £650,000 to the United Kingdom. By 1836–38, that figure had reached £1,729,000 with many Ottoman merchants entering the country. In 1839, the Ottoman Tanzimat reform movement began. This period saw rapid changes in Ottoman administration including numerous high-ranking officials receiving their higher education and postings in the Western nations. Rashid Pasha served as the Ottoman ambassador to Paris and London in the 1830s. One of his disciples and future grand vizier of the Ottoman Empire, Ali Pasha, also served as ambassador to London in the 1840s. Fuad Pasha, also received appointment at the Ottoman London embassy before rising in public office in his own nation.
In 1865 Ottoman intellectuals had established the Young Ottomans organisation in order to resist the absolutism of Abdulaziz. Many of these intellectuals escaped to London in June 1867 where they were able to freely express their views by criticising the Ottoman regime in newspapers. Their successors, the Young Turks, also took refuge in London in order to escape the absolutism of Abdul Hamid II. Even more political refugees were to arrive after the Young Turk Revolution of July 1908 and after the First World War.
Turkish Cypriot migration
Migration from Cyprus to the United Kingdom began in the early 1920s when the British annexed Cyprus in 1914 and the residents of Cyprus became subjects of the Crown. Many Turkish Cypriots went to the United Kingdom as students and tourists whilst others left the island due to the harsh economic and political life on the island leading to lack of job opportunities. Turkish Cypriot emigration to the United Kingdom continued to increase when the Great Depression of 1929 brought economic depression to Cyprus, with unemployment and low wages being a significant issue. During the Second World War, the number of Turkish run cafes increased from 20 in 1939 to 200 in 1945 which created a demand for more Turkish Cypriot workers. Thus, throughout the 1950s, Turkish Cypriots began to emigrate to the United Kingdom for economic reasons and by 1958 the number of Turkish Cypriots was estimated to be 8,500. Their numbers increased each year as rumours about immigration restrictions appeared in much of the Cypriot media.As the island of Cyprus' independence was approaching, Turkish Cypriots felt vulnerable as they had cause for concern about the political future of the island. This was first evident when Greek Cypriots held a referendum in 1950 in which 95.7% of eligible Greek Cypriot voters cast their ballots in supporting a fight aimed at uniting Cyprus with Greece. Thus, the 1950s saw the arrival of many Turkish Cypriots to the United Kingdom who were fleeing the EOKA terrorists and its aim of Enosis. Once Cyprus became an independent state in 1960, inter-ethnic fighting broke out in 1963, and by 1964 some 25,000 Turkish Cypriots became internally displaced, accounting to about a fifth of their population. Thus, the oppression which the Turkish Cypriots suffered during the mid-1960s led to many of them emigrating to the United Kingdom. Furthermore, Turkish Cypriots continued to emigrate to the United Kingdom during this time due to the economic gap which was widening in Cyprus. The Greek Cypriots were increasingly taking control of the country's major institutions causing the Turkish Cypriots to become economically disadvantaged. Thus, the political and economic unrest in Cyprus after 1964 sharply increased the number of Turkish Cypriot immigrants to the United Kingdom.
Many of these early migrants worked in the clothing industry in London, where both men and women could work together- sewing was a skill which the community had already acquired in Cyprus. Turkish Cypriots were concentrated mainly in the north-east of London and specialised in the heavy-wear sector, such as coats and tailored garments. This sector offered work opportunities where poor knowledge of the English language was not a problem and where self-employment was a possibility.
By the late 1960s, approximately 60,000 Turkish Cypriots were forcefully moved into enclaves in Cyprus. Evidently, this period in Cypriot history resulted in an exodus of more Turkish Cypriots. The overwhelming majority migrated to the United Kingdom, whilst others went to Turkey, North America and Australia. Once the Greek military junta rose to power in 1967, they staged a coup d'état in 1974 against the Cypriot President, with the help of EOKA B, to unite the island with Greece. This led to a military offensive by Turkey who divided the island. By 1983, the Turkish Cypriots declared their own state, the Turkish Republic of Northern Cyprus, which has since remained internationally unrecognised except by Turkey. The division of the island led to an economic embargo against the Turkish Cypriots by the Greek Cypriot controlled Government of Cyprus. This had the effect of depriving the Turkish Cypriots of foreign investment, aid and export markets; thus, it caused the Turkish Cypriot economy to remain stagnant and undeveloped. Due to these economic and political issues, an estimated 130,000 Turkish Cypriots have emigrated from Northern Cyprus since its establishment to the United Kingdom.
Many Turkish Cypriots emigrated to the United Kingdom with their extended families and/or brought their parents over shortly after their arrival to prevent the breakup of the family unit. These parents played a valuable role in giving support at home by looking after their grandchildren, whilst their children were working. The majority of these people are now of pensionable age, with little English language skills, given their lack of formal education and their insulation within the Turkish Cypriot community.
Finally, there is a small third group of settlers who came to the UK for educational purposes, and who then settled, in some cases being ‘overstayers’ and took up professional posts. Many of these people, as well as the second and third generation educated descendants of earlier settlers, are the initiators of the voluntary groups and organisations, which give support and advice to Turkish speaking people living in England – mainly in London and the surrounding areas.