Peoples of the Caucasus in Turkey


The terms People of the Caucasus and Caucasian people indicate two main groups of people in Turkey:
Immigrants from North Caucasus due to the Caucasian War of the 19th century:
Autochthonous people of Transcaucasia:
The Ottoman and Russian empires fought at least 17 wars between 1568 and 1917. The Ottomans lost vast and often solidly Turkish and Muslim territories, spanning from the Crimea to Circassia, to the Russians. The Russians killed many inhabitants of these Ottoman lands and expelled the rest to Turkey. So many Turks descend from refugees from Russia that the adage in Turkey is: "If you scratch a Turk, you find a Circassian persecuted by Russians underneath."