Turkey is often at the center of some kind of controversy, often to do with human rights violations, a lot of this has to do with the languages of Turkey and the different ethnic groups that speak them.
A country of 82 million, Turkey is home to literally hundreds of ethnic groups and languages, some spoken by millions of people across the country (not to mention the world!) whilst others are only spoken in a handful of villages in a remote part of the country.
Official Language of Turkey
According to Article 3 of the Turkish Constitution, there is only one official language of Turkey:
Turkish (66.5 Million)
Minority Languages of Turkey
Though Turkish is the official language of Turkey, it is by no means the only one. As of the time of writing, the Turkish recognize dozens of languages as so-called “minority languages”, the most spoken of which are:
Kurdish (8.13 Million)
Arabic (2.4 Million)
Zazaki (1.7 Million)
Kabardian (1 Million)
Azerbaijani (540,000)
Romani (500,000)
Bulgarian (351,000)
Georgian (151,000)
Armenian (70,000)
Foreign Languages of Turkey
Due to complex historical, social and cultural reasons, there are several foreign languages spoken in Turkey, mostly taught as a second language.
English (13.94 Million)
German (3.28 Million)
French (2.46 Million)
What do you think about the languages of Turkey? Do you speak any? Tell me in the comments!