page_title: Turks in Libya
section_title: Demographics
hierarchical_section_title: Turks in Libya / Demographics
caption_attribution_description: English: The Old Town quarter in Misurata, Libya
context_page_description: The Turks in Libya, also commonly referred to as Libyan Turks, Turco-Libyans, and Turkish-Libyans are the ethnic Turks who live in Libya. According to the last census which allowed citizens to declare their ethnicity, the Turkish minority formed the third largest ethnic group in the country, after the Arabs and Berbers, and they mainly live in Misrata, Tripoli, Zawiya, Benghazi and Derna.
  During Ottoman rule in Libya, Turkish settlers began to migrate to the region from across the empire. A significant number of Turks intermarried with the native population, and the male offspring of these marriages were referred to as Kouloughlis due to their mixed heritage. However, in general, intermarriage was discouraged, in order to preserve the "Turkishness" of the community. Consequently, the terms "Turks" and "Kouloughlis" have traditionally been used to distinguish between those of full and partial Turkish ancestry. The Turkish community has traditionally dominated the political life of Libya.
context_section_description: There is a significant Turkish community living in the north-west of Libya. For example, many Turks settled in Misrata during the reign of Abdul Hamid II in the nineteenth century.
  In 1971 the population of Turks with roots from the island of Crete alone numbered 100,000. In 2014, Ali Hammuda, who served as the Minister of Foundations and Religious Affairs of Libya, claimed that the Turkish minority forms 15% of Libya's total population. More recent estimates in 2019 suggest that the total Turkish population in Libya is around 1.4 million, or that more than one in four Libyans (i.e. 25% of the country's population) have Turkish ancestry.
  The city of Misrata is considered to be the "main center of the Turkish-origin community in Libya"; in total, the Turks form approximately two-thirds (est.270,000) of Misrata's 400,000 inhabitants. There is also a thriving Turkish population in Tripoli. Turkish communities have also been formed in more remote areas of the country, such as the Turkish neighborhood of Hay al-Atrak, in the town of Awbari.
caption: An Ottoman-Turkish mosque in the old city of Misrata.
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