page_title: Minorities in Turkey
section_title: Georgians
hierarchical_section_title: Minorities in Turkey / Ethnic minorities / Caucasus peoples / Georgians
caption_attribution_description: English: Laz and Georgian People in Turkey ქართული: ლაზები და ქართველები თურქეთში Русский: Лазы и Грузины в Турции
context_page_description: Minorities in Turkey form a substantial part of the country's population, with at least an estimated 30% of the populace belonging to an ethnic minority. While the Republic of Turkey, following the 1923 Treaty of Lausanne, recognizes Armenians, Greeks and Jews as ethnic minorities, this legal status is not granted to Muslim minorities, such as the Kurds, which constitute the largest minority by a wide margin, nor any of the other minorities in the country. The amount of ethnic minorities is suspected to be underestimated by the Turkish government. Ethnic Albanians, Pontic Greeks, Kurds, Arabs, Bosniaks, Circassians and Chechen people are usually considered Turkish under ethnic Turkish law.
  Many of the minorities are descendants of Muslims who were expelled from the lands lost by the shrinking Ottoman Empire, but they have assimilated into and intermarried with the majority Turkish population and have adopted the Turkish language and way of life, though this does not make them ethnic Turks.
  Although many minorities have no official recognition, state-run TRT television and radio broadcasts minority language programs and elementary schools offer minority language classes.
context_section_description: There are approximately 1 million people of Georgian ancestry in Turkey according to the newspaper Milliyet. Georgians in Turkey are mostly Sunni Muslims of Hanafi madh'hab. Immigrant Georgians are called "Chveneburi", but autochthonous Muslim Georgians use this term as well. Muslim Georgians form the majority in parts of Artvin Province east of the Çoruh River. Immigrant Muslim groups of Georgian origin, found scattered in Turkey, are known as Chveneburi. The smallest Georgian group are Catholics living in Istanbul.
caption: Location of Laz and Georgian people today
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