Turks in Australia
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Turkish people in Australia are either Turkish people who live in Australia even though having been born outside Australia, or are Australian-born, but have Turkish roots (Turkish-Australian). By Turkish roots, this could mean roots linking back to Turkey, the island of Cyprus or the communities of the Turkish diaspora.. There were 29,821 Turkish-born people living in Australia according to the 2001 census. This does not represent the Turkish population because many Turkish Australians are born in Australia. Victoria has the largest population of Turkish Australians (more than half) followed by New South Wales, Queensland and South Australia.
Although Australia and Turkey fought at Gallipoli, the two sides were said to have held great respect for each other. Turkish flags are shown in ANZAC parades, the only flag of a former enemy that is shown. Kemal Atatürk gained much respect from his former enemies for his chivalry in victory. He has a memorial that has honoured place on ANZAC Parade in Canberra. Some Turkish Cypriots who held British passports (Cyprus was part of the British Empire at the time) arrived in Australia after World War 2. Large scale immigration of Turkish people to Australia began in 1968 when Australia and Turkey signed a special agreement to establish an assisted migration program. During the life of the agreement, most of the Turkish-speaking migrants who arrived in Australia were from Anatolia. With rapid and sustained migration under the program, came the establishment of community organisations. By 1984 there were almost fifty groups representing the Turkish community. They are the largest muslim minority in Melbourne, unlike Sydney where Lebanese are the highest minority.
The largest community is in the city of Melbourne and its outlying suburbs. There are other Turkish communities in Auburn, New South Wales as well as Shepparton and Mildura in the state of Victoria.
[edit] Notable Turkish Australians
- John Ilhan, founder of Crazy John's mobile phone retail chain.
- Tahir Bilgiç, actor (Pizza).
- John Eren, politician
- Adem Somyürek, politician
- Levent Osman, football (soccer) player
- Sedat Sir Australian rules footballer
- Tolgay Özbey, football (soccer) player
- Ufuk Talay, football (soccer) player
- Ramazan Tavşancıoğlu, football (soccer) player
