:this article is specifically about latin christians in the levant. other ethnic groups in the levant are covered under their individual names. levantines or franco-levantines (french: levantins; italian: levantini; greek: Î¦ÏÎ±Î³ÎºÎ¿Î»ÎµÎ²Î±Î½ÏÎ¯Î½Î¿Î¹ frankolevantini; turkish: levantenler or tatlÄ±su frenkleri) are latin christians who lived under the ottoman empire. the term is also applied to their descendants living in modern turkey and the middle east. ==characteristics== levantines were mostly of italian (especially venetian and genoese), french, or other euro-mediterranean origin and have been living in constantinople/istanbul, smyrna/izmir and other parts of anatolia (in present-day turkey) and the eastern mediterranean coast since the middle byzantine or the ottoman era. the majority of them are either descendants of traders from the maritime republics of the mediterranean (such as venice, genoa and ragusa) or of european inhabitants of the crusader states (especially the french levantines in lebanon, israel and turkey). ==in turkey== levantines continue to live in istanbul (mostly in the districts of galata, beyoÄlu and niÅantaÅÄ±), Ä°zmir (mostly in the districts of karÅÄ±yaka, bornova and buca), and the lesser port city mersin where they had been influential for creating and reviving a tradition of opera.mersin'in bahanesi yok, radikal, 26 may 2007 famous people of the present-day levantine community in turkey include maria rita epik, franco-levantine caroline giraud koÃ§ and italo-levantine giovanni scognamillo. most of turkey's small roman catholic community are levantines. ==in the levant== when the united kingdom took over the southern portion of ottoman syria in the aftermath of the first world war, some of the new rulers adapted the term "levantine" pejoratively to refer to inhabitants of mixed arab and european descent and to europeans (usually french, italian or greek) who had assimilated and adopted local dress and customs. today, many of lebanon's roman catholics are of at least partial french descent.{{cite web| url=http://www.levantine-journal.org/aboutjls.aspx
Christian_groups_in_the_Middle_East Ethnic_groups_in_Lebanon Ethnic_groups_in_Turkey French_diaspora Italian_diaspora