page_title: Turkey
section_title: Judaism
hierarchical_section_title: Turkey / Demographics / Religion / Judaism
caption_attribution_description: English: Grand Synagogue of Edirne
context_page_description: Turkey, officially the Republic of Turkey, is a transcontinental country located mainly on the Anatolian peninsula in Western Asia, with a smaller portion on the Balkan peninsula in Southeastern Europe. East Thrace, the part of Turkey in Europe, is separated from Anatolia by the Sea of Marmara, the Bosporus and the Dardanelles. Istanbul, which straddles Europe and Asia, is the largest city in the country, while Ankara is the capital. Turkey is bordered on its northwest by Greece and Bulgaria; north by the Black Sea; northeast by Georgia; east by Armenia, the Azerbaijani exclave of Nakhchivan and Iran; southeast by Iraq; south by Syria and the Mediterranean Sea; and west by the Aegean Sea. Approximately 70 to 80 percent of the country's citizens identify as Turkish, while Kurds are the largest minority, at between 15 to 20 percent of the population.
  At various points in its history, the region has been inhabited by diverse civilisations including the Anatolian peoples, Assyrians, Greeks, Thracians, Phrygians, Urartians, and Armenians. Hellenization started during the era of Alexander the Great and continued into the Byzantine era.
context_section_description: The history of Judaism in Turkey dates back to the Romaniote Jews of Anatolia, who have been present since at least the 5th century BC. They built ancient places of worship such as the Sardis Synagogue in Lydia and the Priene Synagogue in Ionia. The Sephardi Jews, who were expelled from the Iberian peninsula and southern Italy under the control of the Spanish Empire, were welcomed into the Ottoman Empire between the late-15th and mid-16th centuries. Despite emigration during the 20th century, modern-day Turkey continues to have a small Jewish population. At present, there are around 26,000 Jews in Turkey, the vast majority of whom are Sephardi.
caption: The Grand Synagogue in Edirne
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