APeopleIndependent states
Turks
The largest people of the Turkic world. Descendants of the Oghuz tribes, they built the Seljuk and Ottoman states in Anatolia and, from 1923, the Republic of Türkiye.
The Turks are a Turkic people of the Oghuz branch. After the Battle of Manzikert in 1071, Oghuz-Turkmen tribes settled Anatolia in large numbers. There they founded first the Anatolian Seljuk state and then the Ottoman state, which lasted six centuries. The Republic of Türkiye was proclaimed in 1923.
Turkish is the most widely spoken Turkic language. Besides Türkiye, Turks live in Bulgaria, North Macedonia, the Western Thrace region of Greece and Cyprus. Large diaspora communities live in Germany, France, the Netherlands and Austria.
Updated: September 28, 2026