ABSTRACT
The Turkish nation, as a heritage of the Ottoman millet system, is built on a criterion of religious belonging, as are many other nations of the post-Ottoman area. Thus, the perception of a ‘minority’ is closely related to religion. In other words, the concept of ‘religious minorities’ is a pleonasm. Nevertheless, besides this general perception, rights related to religious minorities have been de facto limited to three Istanbul concentrated minorities, Orthodox Greeks, Gregorian Armenians, and Sephardic Jews. Of course, there are other religious minorities in Turkey in a sociological perspective such as Alevis (the largest religious minority of the country in a Sunni context) but also some other Christian minorities like Assyro-Chaldeans, Catholic Levantines, or Protestants. This chapter analyses the minority regime of Turkey in a historical, political, and legal perspective.
