Review article
THE NUMBER OF BOSNIAKS FROM BOSNIA AND HERZEGOVINA IN TURKEY
Saša Mrduljaš
orcid.org/0000-0002-1946-2243
; Institute Ivo Pilar
Abstract
The period of Austro-Hungarian rule over Bosnia and Herzegovina (1878-1918) is also identified
by mass emigration of Bosniaks to the remnants of the Ottoman Empire, mostly to the areas of
present-day Turkey. Migrations were primarily motivated according to their wish to continue their
lives consistent to the traditional experiences within islamic theocratic state, what was then the
Ottoman Empire. The censuses from the year 1879 and 1921 give the best evidence of the dimensions
of the above mentioned emigrations. Namely, according to the census in 1879 almost 39%
Muslims lived in Bosnia and Herzegovina but according to the census in 1921 that number fell to
31%. In the contemporary Turkey there is a numerous Bosniak community in which descendants
of the Bosniaks who emigrated from Bosnia and Herzegovina during the Austro-Hungarian rule
constitute a vast majority. However, in spite of the visibility of Bosniak community in Turkey and
in spite of great knowledge about it, we still do not have an answer to the most frequently asked
question: How many Bosniaks live in Turkey? Generally speaking, there is a prevailing belief that
there are several millions of them. In this paper, in the first place using the data from the censuses
from Bosnia and Herzegovina and Turkey as well as making appropriate calculations, we will try
to contribute to finding the solution of this problem / issue. By means of this, we shall concentrate
on Bosniak emigrants from the period of Austro-Hungarian rule and on the numerosity of their
descendants in the present-day Turkey.
Keywords
Bosniaks; Bosnia and Herzegovina; Austria-Hungary; Turkey; emigrations
Hrčak ID:
233748
URI
Publication date:
31.12.2018.
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