Indians in Turkey

Indians in Turkey are a small community numbering 300 and comprising roughly 100 families.[1][2] Most of them work as doctors and computer engineers or employees in multinational corporations.[2] India also has a small business presence in Turkey through representative offices of Reliance Industries, Tata Motors and Indorama.

Indians in Turkey
Total population
300
Regions with significant populations
Istanbul
Languages
English • Turkish • Hindi • Malayalam • Gujarati • Indian Languages
Religion
Hinduism

Most Indians are Hindu and the community forms the bulk of Hindus in Turkey. In recent times, there have been efforts to promote tourism and culture from India as a means of developing the community and establishing better relations with Turkish society.[2]

Ottoman Empire

Some Muslim Roma families in Istanbul who deny their Roma origins claim to be the descendants of Indian Muslim men who served at the medical team of the Red Crescent Society of India, led by Mukhtar Ahmed Ansari and Abdur Rahman Peshawari, to care wounded Ottoman soldiers during the Balkan War (1912-13).[3] After the war, few of the Muslim Indian men from the medical team, didnt returned to India, but stayed in Istanbul and married Turkish women who were widows, whose descendants then married later each other and therefore they had the brown skin color, they call themselves Hintli[4]

See also

References
  1. "Estimated Size of Overseas Indian Community: Country-wise" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 21 July 2011. Retrieved 29 October 2010.
  2. Rasheeda Bhagat (31 January 2007). "Turkey "stuck in the Awaraa days?"". Business Line.
  3. "The Indian Muslims who Helped the Ottomans During the Balkan Wars". 6 March 2019.
  4. "Heritage Times - the Indian Subcontinent Red Crescent Society's Aid to the Ottoman State during the Balkan war in 1912". 30 April 2020.


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