Babek CavanşirThe Population of Turks in Iran Is Approximately 64% And It Consists Of Four Main Clusters In terms of Oral Features.
Iranian Turks are a part of the Turkish nation which provides a common integrity from a historical and cultural perspective. However, in terms of oral (linguistic) characteristics, the Turkish population in Iran can be handled as four main clusters:
1-Turks (Central O enuz Turkish Speakers): This group is the largest community in Iran in terms of population percentage. Unlike other ethnic groups, including Persians, they live not only in a particular region but in every region of Iran.
This region, which we define as Turkish, is strategically located in a position that extends to Turkey in the northwest, Turkistan and Afghanistan in the northeast, and Basra Bay in the southwest, constitutes an important geopolitical area for the future of the Turkish world.
According to some opinions, this group constitutes a little more than one-third (1/3) of the Iranian population and according to some approaches, at least 60%.
Based on the current population of Iran, this ratio is about 55 million. Various Yoruba communities are also included in this group. Among them are Turkish Kaşkayi Eli, Shahseven Eli, Personally Shahseven Baghdadi Eli, Butcher Eli, etc. groups like these can be counted.
About 10 million of this large population live in the Azerbaijan region (West Azerbaijan, East Azerbaijan and Erdebil provinces). Just as it is not correct to call “Turkish Turks” only “Erzurum Turks”, it is also not appropriate to call “Iranian Turks” only as “Azerbaijani Turks”.
2-Turkmen-Turks (East O ’uz Turks): Turkmen-Turks live mainly in the north Horasan region with the southeast coast of the Caspian Sea. Their population is about 3 million and this number represents about 3.3% of the total population of Iran.
3-Turks of Halac-ili (Turks of Halachistan): Turks of Halach-ili live in the Halachistan region, which ends in the cities of Kum, Erak, Save and Tefreş in the south of Tahran province. It is considered that the population is about 200,000 people; this is about 0.3% of the population of Iran.
Halachistan Turkish has a special place in the world of Turkology. This language is the focus of attention of Turkologists worldwide in terms of its preservation of many archaic elements of Old Turkish (including Orhun Turkish).
4-Kazakh Turks: Kazakh Turks migrated to the Gürgan region south of the Caspian Sea after the October Revolution of 1917. It is estimated that their population is about 10,000 people today.
This number corresponds to about 0.01% of the total population of Iran.
A Statement on the Map
Turkish settlements, which constitute the majority of population based on districts in Iran, are shown in red on the map. However, Turks live in different proportions in every region and corner of Iran except these areas.
