A Study on the Cities Which Have Turkish Populations in North Macedonia

Northern Macedonia, where Macedonians, Serbs, Bosniaks, Albanians, Turks, Ulahs and Jews live together, has a strategic, political and religious significance in the center of the Balkans. After the Balkan Wars, there were changes in the demographic structure of North Macedonia, which the Ottoman Empire had been under the rule of more than five centuries. Both the results of the war in both the Second World War has resulted in a large number of Muslim Turkey Turkish migration. Socialist Federative Republic of Yugoslavia under communist management applied to Muslims in Macedonia, Turkey oppressive and ill-treatment has accelerated the migration of the Turkish minority in Turkey. In the cities in Eastern Macedonia, where the Turks live, the Turkish population has decreased and over time, the Turks have declined as minorities in Macedonian cities. However, in the 14th century, after 600 years have passed since the Islamic religion became the dominant religion in the region, the ratio of the Muslim population in the total population has decreased to 34% in the last census. In this study, the geographic distribution and demographic perspective of the Turkish minority in North Macedonia are mentioned. In this context, institutional reports and field research on the subject were used. In the research, basic research methods of geography were taken into consideration, a database was created by providing relevant sources and publications. During the application of the trip-observation method, which is an important part of geographical thinking, observations were made in the cities of Skopje, Valandovo, Ohrid, Tetevo in Northern Macedonia, and photographs of the research area were used to strengthen the statements. As a result of this study, it was concluded that Northern Macedonian Turks maintain their characteristics based on the culture of tolerance, but Turkish population has gradually decreased over the years in Macedonian cities.

Keywords

North Macedonian Cities, Geographical and Geopolitical Location, North Macedonian Turks, Ethnic Structure, Demographic Features.