A Study on the Cities Which Have Turkish Populations in North Macedonia

Abstract

Northern Macedonia, where Macedonians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Albanians, Turks, Ulahs and Jews livetogether, has a strategic, political and religious significance in the center of the Balkans. After the Balkan Wars,there were changes in the demographic structure of North Macedonia, which the Ottoman Empire had beenunder the rule of more than five centuries. Both the results of the war in both the Second World War hasresulted in a large number of Muslim Turkey Turkish migration. Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslaviaunder communist management applied to Muslims in Macedonia, Turkey oppressive and ill-treatment hasaccelerated the migration of the Turkish minority in Turkey. In the cities in Eastern Macedonia, where theTurks live, the Turkish population has decreased and over time, the Turks have declined as minorities inMacedonian cities. However, in the 14th century, after 600 years have passed since the Islamic religion becamethe dominant religion in the region, the ratio of the Muslim population in the total population has decreased to34% in the last census. In this study, the geographic distribution and demographic perspective of the Turkishminority in North Macedonia are mentioned. In this context, institutional reports and field research on thesubject were used. In the research, basic research methods of geography were taken into consideration, adatabase was created by providing relevant sources and publications. During the application of the tripobservation method, which is an important part of geographical thinking, observations were made in the citiesof Skopje, Valandovo, Ohrid, Tetevo in Northern Macedonia, and photographs of the research area were usedto strengthen the statements. As a result of this study, it was concluded that Northern Macedonian Turksmaintain their characteristics based on the culture of tolerance, but Turkish population has gradually decreasedover the years in Macedonian cities.