White Turks

thumb|White Turks at a rally with the Turkish flag. White Turks is a term used in Turkey for the urban population that embraced or directly benefited from Turkey’s modernization, and whose interests have in turn gradually detached from the plight of the greater rural and conservative population. They are often generalized as embracing values such as secularism, Western enlightenment, positivism and Republicanism. White Turks are in contrast to the so-called Black Turks (Turkish: Kara Türkler or Siyah Türkler), a name for the conservative, Islamic, and typically less privileged among the originally rural Anatolian population. A third related group known as the Grey Turks are claimed to have traits common to both White Turks and Black Turks. Quotes They live mainly in coastal regions, are sensitive when it comes to secularism, they drink alcohol, have a high purchasing power, a western lifestyle and the women do not wear hijabs. Ertuğrul Özkök of Hürriyet Further reading DEMIRALP, SEDA. “White Turks, Black Turks? Faultlines beyond Islamism versus Secularism.” Third World Quarterly, vol. 33, no. 3, 2012, pp. 511–24. JSTOR, http://www.jstor.org/stable/41507184. Accessed 2 Jan. 2025. White vs Black Turks: The Civilizing Process in Turkey in the 1990s, Bayza Sumer Category:Turkey